1975 Honda xl350 brat? tracker? project so far

interesting look with the red seat.....hmmm
i did get the other fork polished and the front and rear brake hubs painted so ill have to put up some pix and see what yall think
i dont know if i can keep the exhaust unwrapped or unpainted cuz its just bare metal and wont it get all rusty pretty quick? plus my welds arent the prettiest lol
here is a seat style i was thinkin about....a little diamond stitch with yellow stitching?.....
 

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yes, it will definitely rust up. i'm building my own exhaust as well, and it's got a good bit of rust on it just from sitting in a dry garage. definitely gonna paint/wrap it at some point. out of curiosity, how did you weld your exhaust up? and that seat is pure style, i love it. some of those cloth wrapped spark plug wires like in that pic would look killer too! keep up the good work, i'm lovin' this thing!
 
i bought this xl350 exhaust from xlintperformance.com and made 3 cuts to it....one cut to twist it and keep the exhaust on the right side, and two cuts to take out the kick up at the end of the pipe and make it straight....so three cuts and only 2 welds, nice and easy...it came with pretty tig welds and my mig welds are just ok.....depending on how is sounds ill just use the slide in baffles to melow the noise out. here is a pic of the exhaust as it showed up to my house and how it would go on a xl350 if it wasnt modified to stay on the right as i have done.....and i definitely agree on the cloth wires! that was definitely on my list! gives it the old school look....i kinda wanted this bike to keep an old look and have people wondering what vintage honda model street bike this is.
 

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haha, yeah man, i'd definitely be wonderin what it was if it weren't for seeing your thread! but old school is the way to go, can't wait to see it! i only asked about your welds because i used mig on mine, but flux core mig. i've learned a bit more about welding techniques since then and am afraid that my flux core mig welds are way to brittle to hold :/ just wanted to know what route you had gone!
 
I have gas with my mig welder. I think my welds will hold. Lol. I hope. I was wondering if I need to put a hanger or mount near the end of the exhaust pipe or is it short enough to survive just bolted to the engine?
 
it looks as though it would be ok just hangin' there, especially if you're not throwing a muffler of any sort of extra weight on the end. however, another mount point towards the back would certainly not hurt. looks like it could be pretty discreet as well.
 
Thx! Innovativems. Been a little busy and haven't gotten to work on it much lately. Hopefully I can get some time this weekend. Yeah the firestone gives it a vintage feel since I couldn't really find a white wall or good white stripe tire I liked. Bit I didn't want to run it on the front also to keep it a little different from your typical cafe brat thing and get a little burly look since it was an enduro at one time. Did you start your build already?
 
Well its been a while. Got busy. But I got the seat upholstered finally. It should be here any day now...pix shortly. Then ill start tearing rhe bike down to paint it. Then reassemble and find someone to help me wire it up.
 
bout time, i've been dying to see some progress on this thing :) i came so close to picking up a pair of xl350's on craigslist last week, but they got sold out from under me. i was dreaming of building them up something like yours.
 
thing is lookin rad!! i've been wanting an XL350 for this same sort of project.. just seems to be a legit bike, with cool frame and tank to work with.

Please mind the mis-informed or unknowledable, but what tread is that front tire? thing looks bad ass. and what size is that wheel? thinkin of something for my CB350 brat.. Thanks and keep up the good work!

-Matt
 
Thx for the compliments Matt. The front tire is a trials tire. The wheel is a 21". It's the stock wheels from the xl350. Finally got the seat. Looks good and is way comfortable. Will look better once the frame is painted. I think it came out good tho. The gold stitching looks great either the gold wings on the tank and the gold chain.
 

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Yes! Love her work. I think a good looking seat is just as important as a cool tank. I figured me stretching some vinyl over some padding would've looked lame and totally screwed up the look of the bike.
 
so finally got the last couple brackets welded on for the exaust and for the battery box and ground off a few that were not needed on the swing arm and got them off to powdercoat....a simple black satin...they said 7-10 days...and its been at least that so im expecting a call any day
 
ya can't go givin' us updates just once every 3 months now! this is the first build i started following on here, and i'm tired of being patient! ;) ;D
 
Yeah sorry about that. You know how life gets in the way. Just wanted to let ya know I didn't abandon the project. I'm back on it now. Probably gonna be able to reassemble it this weekend and get some smaller details together. I picked the frame up from the powder coater yesterday.
 

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