CB350F Restoration by royhall (NOW FINISHED)

[royhall]

Finally got over the disaster that was the headlamp ears. The originals that came with the bike turned out to be from a 350 twin, although I didn't discover this until they were painted. I had also bought a NOS headlamp shell from Germany that was also wrong, think it may be CB450 so no headlamp shell either.

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Had a bit of trouble sourcing NOS headlamp ears but managed to find one in the USA and another was found by Chris. Strangely, both are red ones and neither of them had been lacquered. They could possibly be a batch of seconds that never made the production line, and that's why they are available today? Anyway, got them off to the painters along with a used plastic headlamp shell.

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Now any eagle eyed viewer will spot the latest mistake. Due to a mix up at the painters the headlamp shell should be black and was painted green. As he didn't charge me for redoing them I am going to repaint it black myself.

Whilst that gets done I am going to tackle fitting the exhaust. Hopefully that will go without a hitch (touch wood). More soon.

[Bryanj]

Why not leave it green it looks great

[royhall]

I could leave it green Bryan, but that would stir the wrath of the rivet counters. So shiny black it's going to be.

Whilst I sort out the headlamp shell, I thought I would have a go at the exhausts. If you remember from earlier in this sorry tale, due to the very poor standard of the original Sankei exhausts the system I ended up with is a 4 into 4 made by MIVV in Italy (discontinued 5 years ago). The kit included 4 header pipes, 4 silencers, 4 tube clamps, and a rubber stopper for the centre stand. All as in the picture.

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According to the instructions the silencers are mounted first on the rear footrest mounts, then the header pipes slide into the silencer and are bolted up. Sounds really simple, unfortunately as is the case with pattern parts its never that easy. Firstly the header pipes are not identified so its anyones guess which pipe goes to which cylinder. That took a lot of experimenting to sort out. When I offered up the first header pipe this is what I found.

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Yes, your seeing that right. A system made for the CB350F and costing £700 you have to finish off yourself. All four pipes are way too long and needed cutting down to suit.

Two of the pipes have a short bend on the silencer end that had to be cut off (no idea why that bend was there) almost like they were made for another bike and just thrown into the the kit as they are near enough? All fairly poor really, pattern parts yet again. This is what had to be cut off across the 4 pipes (note the bends that were cut off). Another thing I noticed is whilst cutting the pipes (hacksaw) the chrome was flaking. They have been chromed directly onto the steel. Guess they will be coming off again at some point to be re-chromed.

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With lots of time and patience, and a whole lot of measuring and taking on and off, I finally got all four pipes on and looking okay.

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I then managed to find a fault on one of the silencers that I previously had missed. The black end cap on the lower left silencer is missing (never been fitted at the factory, so much for quality control).

Not sure how to get over this problem as its a pressed steel part that will be hard to replicate. Tried emailing MIVV who did reply quickly, but to say it had been discontinued for five years and they had disposed of all the remaining parts.

I'm thinking these were still available after 5 years as they were seconds? If that's the case they should really say so.

I have contacted the German supplier (named earlier in this thread) and they think I may have been supplied with CB500/550 headers by mistake. That would make sense. They are also searching the stores to try to find an end cap for the silencer as they used to keep them. So there's still hope for an easy fix. Looks like the header pipes are not made by MIVV (just the silencers), this could be correct as the quality of the silencers is way better than the headers (except for the end cap obviously).

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I will sort it out somehow, it needs a bit of thought so I will leave that for now. When I think back, I only decided to do a CB350F as exhausts were readily available. That came back and bit me I think .

Next job is to finish the headlamp shell and get it fitted. Then on with the handlebars and on to the bit I dread, the bowl of spaghetti that is the wiring in the headlight.

I am up to date now. More to follow.

PS. Just discovered that the centre stand completely misses the rubber stop and slams into the silencer. No damage done, but another unnecessary job to find a way around.

[hairygit]

I can hear Bitsa laughing agaim about pattern parts! Sorry it's causing you so much aggro, you haven't had much luck with exhausts. The issue with the poor chrome plating is one of the many reasons I would not go near anything italian made, it's all so shoddy and badly made/finished (remember 70's fiats and lancias for rust!) The bend on the silencer ends were probably part of the bending mandrel operation at the factory, and should have been cut off before chroming. Terrible shame as you have done a great job on the rest of the bike, but don't get despondent, you'll find a way to sort it!

Sent from my D2303 using Tapatalk

[royhall]

Thanks Hairy for the kind words.

Will sort it out somehow, just another challenge. By the time it hits the road nobody will be able to spot it.

Am thinking I may mask it off carefully and paint the inner of the silencer with the same High Temperature Matt black and put some same size pop rivets in. Don't think anybody will notice it even if prompted.

But will look first for a metal dish the correct diameter that I can drill out to look correct.

Pain in the arse really but the Sankai's were way worse.

Cheers.

[MCTID]

Sterling work Roy........the photos don't do this machine justice but as I saw it in the flesh a few weeks ago, I have to say that it is real credit to your skills and talent, and I would be proud to own it. I can't say fairer than that. I was also impressed with both your CB750F's, but the CB350F is just stunning.

Lets hope your main obstacles are now over and the remainder of the build goes smoothly.

Could you advise which Simoniz paint you used on the crankcases as that's how I want my CB750K4's to look.

Looking forward to the next batch of photees.

[Orcade-Ian]

Hi Roy,
If you know of a good jobbing turner, it would not be too much hassle to make one by spinning.  I made a similarly shaped but smaller cover for the top steering bearing on my Model 50 Norton.  It's described on my web site under that model, part 8 I think.  Mine was stainless so took a bit more 'persuading' over the corner than mild steel would.  Let me know how you get on.
Ian

Btw, your restoration of your 350 is stunning - I thought mine was good but looks like an oily rag job compared with yours.  They really are lovely little bikes and although I have a couple of 400/4's, the 350/4 is still my favourite.

[royhall]

I have finally managed to get over the problems with the exhaust fitting. That ones now all buttoned up.

Had a problem with the centre stand stop being so far off that the lever on the centre stand hit hard against the bottom silencer. A home made bespoke part has sorted that one out.

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Then the German supplier came through with a used end cap for the silencer that I bead blasted and painted with black engine enamel.  That was then riveted in place with some large pop rivets. Looks pretty good really.

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The next job is to get on with the front end and get the wiring in the headlamp done.

Cheers.

[royhall]

Today's job is the front end and handlebars. Don't know if it will come back and bite me again, but I am using pattern switchgear to replace the seriously damaged stuff that came with the bike. 

It took a while to get the cables threaded through the handlebars, bit fiddly but got there in the end. For pattern parts they appear to fit well.

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I carefully cleaned the paint out of the handlebar mounts so they grip better on the bars.

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Strange to get the handlebars on finally, it suddenly starts to look like a bike again. There's not really much you can write about that so I shall just keep the thread up to date in pictures. I'm sure you wont miss having to read all the waffle anyway.

As usual with the indicators, I took the time to make up hard wired earth links for each one. It usually pays off with fewer electrical gremlins later on.

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Got the clocks fitted whilst there was still some good access, saves fiddling to get the mounting nuts on. The headlight is now black as Honda intended thus avoiding the comments from the purists. Doesn't look bad for one of my paint jobs (I don't have enough patience to be a painter, I want it done now so always put too much paint on and it runs).

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Just a quick photo from the side of how things are looking so far. I'm generally quite pleased with it, although I'm actually a little further along the road than the pictures show (still trying to catch up with the thread in a chronological order). As a few of you will already know, the storm clouds are gathering above the garage and it all comes to a sudden stop.

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Nice to leave on a cliffhanger, just like Dr Who. More soon!

[royhall]

The bikes getting close to finished now, but the Gremlins have crept in and caused some problems. I ended up with a list of issues to be resolved that was growing faster than I was fixing them. The list is here:

1. Ran the engine on the starter and found a large oil leak from the crankshaft seal on the timing end.
2. Centre stand hitting the exhaust rather than the stop (pattern parts again).
3. Missing end plate on one of the silencers.
4. Rear axle fouling the bottom silencer when on the centre stand (pattern parts again).
5. Huge drag on the clutch.
6. Throttle cable 'A' wont stay in the quadrant.
7. Throttle cable 'A' too long and wont adjust up enough (pattern parts again).
8. Headlamp shell cracked when the rim was tightened up.
9. Clutch cable fouling the threads on pattern control on handlebars (pattern parts again).

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The headlamp crack was due to an area of damage that I repaired before painting. There was a chunk out of the front that I repaired with Araldite and sanded back. I thought I had got away with it but the crack appeared straight away. I have managed to source a NOS item from Italy that strangely is a pressed steel item instead of moulded plastic. Its in a sealed Honda bag with the correct number, guess they had a problem with the cracking and changed it.

The clutch issues turned out to be an historical error made by the previous owner. I covered that on another thread so wont bore you with the details again. It was in this thread:  http://www.sohc.co.uk/index.php/topic,9205.0.html

The problem with the oil leak (now sorted) was a home grown thing due to stupidity on my part. I tried but I couldn't think of anything or anybody else to blame for that one.    I also covered that on another thread:   http://www.sohc.co.uk/index.php/topic,9150.0.html

All the exhaust issues are now resolved, thanks should go to the suppliers in Germany who were very helpful.

The problems with the throttle cables are this afternoons project. If I can get that sorted, the next big hurdle is engine start. I am planning on making a video of this momentous event so everyone can see me go up in a cloud of smoke and shrapnel. Will be selling tickets for the big event later on, and DVD's can be pre ordered.

Bye for now.

[royhall]

Got the front end completely finished this morning.

Thought I had better get some brakes before I start the engine just in case it takes off.

Got some really nice braided hoses in a bespoke length from Honda4NL in the Netherlands. A wee bit pricey but well worth the cost as they improve the braking no end. Another one that will probably upset the purists, but when that car pulls out I would rather stop than know (when I'm sailing over the bonnet) that my brakes are authentic.

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The rest of the braking system has been overhauled. The caliper was rebuilt with all new seals and a new piston. The swing arm mount was freed off and polished and put back together with a nice dollop of CV joint grease. There's a replacement master cylinder at the handlebars (pattern I know), but they are very good quality so should be okay. The pads are the organic flavour as I am told they have better feel and they are grippier. All in all it works extremely well:

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Sorry if I'm boring anybody, just want to get the thread up to date and complete.

Engine start day is fast approaching. Getting a bit nervous now.

[mike the bike]

We're not bored,  keep it coming.

[JamesH]

Nothing boring here Roy. It's been a real pleasure reading about your progress with this bike. Thanks for sharing - it's what makes this forum such a good place to be / participate. I personally prefer stock parts but I think your brake hose upgrade is a subtle and clever upgrade that I'd be happy to use on one of my bikes. Keep it coming...J

[Bullit]

Front end is looking nice there Roy. Shame about your headlight bowl 

[AshimotoK0]

+1 ..love to see resto details .. would never get bored with them .