72 CB350 For the Daughter

All the parts I needed finally came in so I was able to finish assembling the engine today. As expected getting the rocker boxes on gave me fits, but I managed to get them on. It took a few tries though. The first two times I couldn't rotate the engine through two complete revolutions. It kept locking up for some reason. The third time was the charm though. To make sure I must have rotated the engine half a dozen times to make sure it wasn't a fluke. All that is left is to set the cam chain tensioner and adjust the valves.







 
Set the CCT and adjusted the valves today. The engine is now complete except for installing the electronic ignition, but that has to be done after the engine is installed in the frame. The engine is now in a lawn bag and put away in the corner.

So I am not much for sitting around. Ordered the gauge overlays then proceeded to tear open the gauges. The tach gauge was in fantastic condition. The speedo...not so much. This is going to take a lot of work to get usable.













 
I got the speedo gauge all cleaned up last night. After I removed the corrosion with the brass wheel I applied a light coating of phosphoric acid to the metal surfaces and let it do its thing for a little bit to help seal the metal. Lubed all the gears with some white lithium grease. Not sure if the damper needs the RC car silicone grease yet or not. Tonight I will hook up the drill (in reverse) and see how she functions as well as get some pics. Still gotta see what I can do about brightening up the tenth mile wheels since they are a bit yellow.
 
Tested the gauges tonight and they work flawlessly. The damping rate is excellent so no need to go any further with the dissection to put some silicone grease in the pots. I ran them for about a mile varying the input speed. That takes a surprisingly long time with a cordless drill.









 
The gauge overlays were delivered today and I was excited to get home and put them on. They aren't the correct ones. They are for a CB350F not a CB350K.
 
New overlays have been ordered.

Since I had time to spare I decided to try and polish up the jewels a bit. They amber jewel looked really bad...like someone had take sandpaper to it. I tried toothpaste, but it didn't do much of anything. So I tried some Meguire's PlastX. That stuff worked very well. It removed all of the faded crusty look and shined them up pretty well.
 
I ordered the overlays (that fit correctly) from lmc0606 on ebay. They were extremely responsive to questions and knowledgeable about which product I needed. They even asked if I could send some pics of my gauges so that they could confirm what I was asking for is what I needed.
 
ahh Ideal. I'm looking to get some new ones in future so I'll keep them in mind. Keep up the awesome work!
 
Managed to get the overlays on and cups & needles painted. The wind and cold weather were giving me fits. I ended up using my toaster oven to help dry the paint. For the white I used Rust-Oleom's gloss protective enamel. I used the engine paint for the black. The tips of the needles I used Model Master enamel in red-orange. The place where I am getting the LED's for the back lighting don't have any in stock. They were supposed to come in yesterday, but that has been pushed back to the end of next week. If I had those I would be able to assemble the gauges.



 
Looking awesome, scary all the motor parts painted in rainy conditions, I have a canopy with velcro sides, works great for such things, until the wind started blowing 20knts. Seeing those gauges, maybe I will rebuild my KZ550s.
 
The weather caused some delays in receiving a few parts, but I finally got them. Back lighting for the gauges is wired up, siliconed in place, and working. I had to hold the housing to eliminate the light leaks, but I think the light is even with no hot spots.







 
Just found your thread and very much enjoyed reading through it. Lucky daughter! :D Hope she's chosen to help you out with the wrenching at least a little bit... not sure she recognises yet that innate pride that goes hand-in-hand with the pieces you can call your own handiwork, but I'm really hoping so. Nothing more special than time spent putting a bike together with your Dad, especially one you then get to ride and call your own. But I'm not sure I truly appreciated that myself till I was much older ::)
 
I wish she would choose to be around some, but other than the first couple of days she hasn't done much of anything.

Stripped the paint off the tank and have the inside soaking in some phosphoric acid to get rid of the rust. Trying to decide what I want to do with the lip that normally holds the chrome strip at the bottom. I am not going to put a new strip on and I don't want the lip just sticking out.

Received a rusty kick start lever that I didn't mid cutting up. Took some flat stock, cut a circle to act as a cap, and welded it onto the kick start lever. I only welded half way around the cap so that the pinch bolt will still work. Still need to do a little fine tuning to the grinding so that it is even all around, but this should give a pretty good idea of the end product.

 
Thinking about cutting/grinding off the lip and tabs on the tank that is typically covered by the chrome strip. I will not be putting a chrome strip on this bike and I feel the tank just looks unfinished with the lip there. I can have my painter fill in the seam, but there is still the spot at the front and rear of the tank where there isn't a lip which just stands out to me.



 
If you are never going to put the chrome strip back, cut off the tabs and smooth out the seam and it will look fine.
 
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