CB350F Restoration by royhall (NOW FINISHED)

[JamesH]

Looks v. vice roy. Do you do your own plating or outsource?

[royhall]

Wish I could do my own plating James. It can be a bit of a mare sending stuff out (more getting it back really).

Maybe something I can have a go at on the next project as most of the plating on the 350 is done now.

Had a problem getting the carb bits done as nobody appears to want to be bothered with all the little pieces. Got it done in the end at an aircraft parts company in Preston, had to push them a bit to get them to take it on. When I collected it they said they would not do any more as its just not worth the time.

I really wish I'd had the carb bodies vapour blasted now as the dull alloy is letting them down. Would probably go back to the same over time anyway I guess.

Back looking for suppliers again I guess.

[royhall]

Hi again.

Decided to do the pictures full size after Steve's recommend on another thread. Saves all the clicking I guess.

Not fitted the rebuilt carbs yet, thought I had better have a go at routing the wiring loom and making a few connections. Can be a bit fiddly to do with the carbs and airbox fitted. Also got the back brake finished.

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Had the back brake all assembled then couldn't get the brake arm back onto the splines. So had to strip the whole lot again. That resulted in two days of "toys out the pram" and garage door staying closed (sometimes it just pisses me off).

Anyway the wiring routing went fairly well, just need a few clips and a new rubber for the indicator relay. I'm never that certain when it comes to bike wiring so making the connections took a bit of time. Better to be careful now I reckon than having to search for fuse blowers later.

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The back mudguard was a completely different problem. As my original was so rusty it was close to holes, I decided to get one of the pattern replacements that are for sale everywhere. Got it from M&P eventually (not there fault they are probably the same everywhere), wish I had found a good used one and got it re-chromed.

The front top bolts lined up okay, but when I tried the side bolts the left one was miles out. After some deliberation I extended the slots with the Dremmel. The bolts went in but the mudguard was off centre to the wheel. More Dremmel with the left side extended forwards and the right side backwards. That got it lined up and all tight. Will do the inside of the mudguard and ground out holes with a good coat of cold galvanise before it's finally fitted.

Then for the back light. O dear!!

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The bolt holes on this thing are a joke. After careful measuring the lines indicate where the problem is. Check out how badly out of line the light is to the mudguard.

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Not sure what to do with this now. Do I try for a refund from M&P and look for a good secondhand one, or plough on with a fix. Really the holes need welding up and re-drilling in the correct place but that will destroy the chrome. Not sure what to do with this at the moment so am putting it on the back burner whilst I have a think. Ralph will be up there wetting himself now, "Bloody Pattern Parts" etc.   Wouldn't mind but this is the third attempt from three different suppliers, all have been crap.

On a more positive note, I have managed to find a local painter that comes highly recommended. He's got my parts at the moment and has given me a price of £380 for Candy Bacchus Olive but I have to supply the decals. Not a bad price, just hope his work is top notch. Will report back when its finished, probably about a month or so.

[royhall]

Well, I have managed to sort out the back mudguard problem. Easy really, just throw another load of money at it.  

Got a genuine used mudguard off eBay. It's a lot less rusty than the one off my bike so should re-chrome okay.

Gave it a test fit before sending it off, but as it's genuine there wasn't really going to be a problem.

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O look. Fits nice and straight at the first attempt.

Who the hell makes those rubbish pattern parts anyway. And who owns those feet.

[Tiny Tim]

Bike looks good Roy.
I sent my rear mud guard off with the rest of the chrome bits.

[royhall]

Cheers Tim.

Only bought the reproduction back mudguard as the one on mine was completely rotten. To be fair it was only £75 from M&P and they have given me £30 back for the inconvenience. So its only stood me at £45 and may be of use to somebody at that price.

Got a good (surface rust only) genuine replacement off eBay for £25 and that's now at the chromers. Should have done that in the first place.

Jobs stopped now for a couple of weeks as its IOM Classic TT time again. Hopefully the painting and chroming will be ready when I get back.

[royhall]

Been a while since the last update.

Just collected my paintwork from Thornton Paints. Am really pleased with it. Not sure if it's actual Candy or a mimic with metallic paint ( forgot to ask him), but either way its a spot on match with the scrap part I gave him.

He has done the tank, 2 side panels, 2 fork shrouds, 2 headlamp ears for £380 plus the cost of the decals. The whole lot was stripped back to bare metal to ensure the correct quality.

Here's a few pictures. Not the best as its twilight and they don't really do justice to the depth and finish of the paint.


This is the mess I sent to him
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This is what he sent me back
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Will post some better pictures when I get a chance. Not the best close up.

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[Tiny Tim]

Looking good Roy, your be finished soon.
Should get my chrome back early next week.

[MCTID]

Lovely.....can you post the phone number/ E Mail address/ Website of Thornton paints please?........and where do you get your chroming done......and do they Zinc/ Galvanise parts.
Ta mucho.......

[Bullit]

They look brilliant Roy. That's the colour mine is supposed to be. May have to get there number off you when it comes to paint time. Where did you get graphics?

[royhall]

No problem will post Thornton Paints details tomorrow. He's that close to me I didn't need his number so will get it when I pass tomorrow.

Had my chroming done at R&S Electroplaters in Manchester, Mark Bray-Cotton is a forum member. The chroming was good, but the second batch was chroming and BZP (clearly labelled) but it all came back chromed. Not really bothered as it looks better anyway.

The decals came from AFE Graphics in the states, they came as a full kit with all the warning labels etc. £58 including postage and I got lucky with the import duty, they must have missed it.

[royhall]

Lovely.....can you post the phone number/ E Mail address/ Website of Thornton paints please?........and where do you get your chroming done......and do they Zinc/ Galvanise parts.
Ta mucho.......

The details your asked for are:
Thornton Paints. Guys name is Alex,   01253-851040,    www.thorntonpaints.co.uk,    thorntonpaints@hotmail.com
R&S Electroplaters. Guys name is Mark,   01616834908,   www.rschrome.co.uk,   sales@rschrome.co.uk

[royhall]

Made a start getting the front end together so I can get it back on its wheels as I need to move it around (very limited space in the garage, or is that too many bikes).

I was hoping I was over the pattern parts disaster that was the back mudguard (should be back from the chromers any day now). Well I was wrong, the front mudguard was nearly as bad. The mudguard itself is fairly good but the stays are a good 10mm too long, this means force to get the bolts in. Had to use a piece of aluminium bar levered against the tyre to get them in. Although now its on it looks pretty good, it's not acceptable at the price they charge for these parts. Big lesson learned, from now on I will look for better OEM parts and get them re-chromed (should have listened to Bitsa).

Anyway, enough moaning here's the pictures.

Really pleased with the way the forks came out. The alloy polished up well, and Mark did a good job with the re-chroming. Didn't bother sending the tubes out to Phillpots as the working area was spot on, so I just cleaned up the rust behind the yoke area.
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It was a fairly straight forward job getting the painted parts fitted and the forks into the yokes. I already filled the forks with 125ml of 10 grade suspension fluid whilst the forks were on the bench. That iconic horn cleaned up really well. Unfortunately the bracket was supposed to be redone in BZP but a mix up at the chromers saw the whole batch I sent being chromed. I'm leaving it though as it looks good (it will probably upset the rivet counters though).
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Finally got the bike stands back on and lifted it of it's assembly box (it's got a bit heavier since I put the frame on the box).
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Got the wheel mounted and temporarily fitted the handlebars. Started tightening everything up from the bottom so I can get the correct alignment of the front wheel and handlebars. The top yoke and headlamp ears are coming off again soon due to a monumentally stupid error on my part, more on that later.
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Now here's a big tip. Don't say to yourself "I've put the front wheel on and it's not coming off again"   That's what I did and what a struggle it was to get the mudguard and brake on. Don't know why I do these things. Put the mudguard on first then the brakes then the wheel, that way you wont get stressed out and say a lot of things the neighbours shouldn't really be hearing.   But I did prove that it is possible to fit the mudguard with the wheel in place.
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Any comments on the front mudguard, looks a little bit too far off the wheel. Not sure, but it's staying on now whatever (see I'm doing it again).

[royhall]

I'm back into waiting for parts yet again, so had a go at assembling some other bits and pieces.

Got the new seat out of it's box to have a go at the Honda logo. I was dreading getting this out as it's a pattern part, and we all know how that story goes. Gave it a dry fit before starting the logo in case it was heading back to silvers, but thankfully it fitted really well.

Got a logo template from Piki (what a really nice chap, he had a couple of goes at it to get it spot on). The logo went on well and I carefully masked off everything else. Following a recommend on here I decided to use silver Rustoleum upholstery paint. This paint I would not recommend as its as thin as water. Due to the seat being a grained PVC it gets behind the template and leaves a load of "star crazing" that needs to be cleaned off with a scalpel afterwards.
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I ending up spending over an hour carefully scraping back the overpaint to try to get a good edge. It's not too bad but am going to have another go when my patience reservoir has re-filled. Next time I'm going to find a much thicker paint (so it doesn't run into the grain as badly) and probably carefully brush paint it though the stencil.
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Will report back later when some more parts have arrived, and I've got round the disaster with the headlamp ears.

[Chris400F]

Was that a brushed or sprayed paint you used for the logo Roy?
I used the Rustoleum spray (from Homebase) and it was fine for me. Slight bleeding but nothing like yours appears.
Trick seems to be to make sure the stencil is well stuck down to the seat, using a fingernail or similar, and
apply the spray paint in thin coats so it dries quickly and doesn't bleed into the grain.
My template wasn't from Piki but suspect they are all much the same type, seat fabric is grained much like yours.
Hope you manage to clean up the excess OK