Honda-SOHC
SOHC.co.uk Forums => CB350/400 => Topic started by: AshimotoK0 on October 25, 2019, 11:55:35 PM
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I have a really good buddy Graham Curtis who is a bit of a CB72 C72 guru. He used to write articles for Classic Motorcycle Mechanics back in the day when it was still half-decent and it was his series of articles that were the basis of the yellow 400/4 that they featured as a magazine restoration project. We regularly swap parts and not a penny has changed hands between us ... just great good old fashioned helping mates out.
Him and his mate Les set themselves a challenge last year to fully restore a rather sad looking imported 400/4 which they bought off eBay ... the aim was to do as cheaply as they could but with the aim of producing a 1st class restoration and keeping it totally standard.
He challenged himself to restore a rotted out collector box for it by pressing a repair panel and the photos below speak volumes about his skill and attention to detail. Prestige in Mexborough Yorkshire did the chroming.
[attachimg=1][attachimg=2][attachimg=3][attachimg=4][attachimg=5]
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This is the one that he restored for Motorcycle Mechanics back in 1994.... The lady on the photo sitting on the restored bike is Dinah May who was the model for the 400/4 etc. back in the day, when she did work for Honda UK before she became Michael Winners long suffering PA.
[attachimg=1][attachimg=2]
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Absolutely brilliant, love this bit of craftsmanship. Good job!
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Not only a good mechanic/engineer But looks to be a decent joiner/carpenter looking at that press???The finished article looks superb Pat on the back for that one !!
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'collector box refurb' .... I was expecting a bit of brazing and a polish.
I wasn't expecting someone to home make a pattern and press his own sheet steel sufficiently well to need very little other fettling, and end up with a repair panel as good as ones I have paid hard cash for in the past. Nice chrome finish too at the end.
The guy could make a few ££££ selling those!
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That is quality, truly amazing work ,
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
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'collector box refurb' .... I was expecting a bit of brazing and a polish.
I wasn't expecting someone to home make a pattern and press his own sheet steel sufficiently well to need very little other fettling, and end up with a repair panel as good as ones I have paid hard cash for in the past. Nice chrome finish too at the end.
The guy could make a few ££££ selling those!
I don't really think he is up to start making them ..he just can't stand to scrap or pay silly money for hard to find stuff. If anyone knows the Achilles Heel of the CB72/77 ...the flimsy kickstart cover which cracks and breaks, I have seen him take 3 totally trashed ones and make a perfect one from pieces from the three scrap ones. On the same bike he chops off the kickstart splined shaft from a CB250K shaft and uses it to repair the rocking horse poo extremely troublesome CB72 kickstart gear shaft. Awesome !
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Hi Ash
Do you think he would be willing to press a set up for me to do a restoration job on my collector box?
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Hi Ash
Do you think he would be willing to press a set up for me to do a restoration job on my collector box?
Expect more requests like this one, I'd guess!
I wonder what that those dies are made of? Pretty sturdy stuff, I suppose!
I'd love to see more photos of the process... did he cut the old bottom completely away and replace it with his part, or did he lay his part over the old?
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I suspect the tool will only be good for a low number of pressings and he seems to 'collect' collector boxes so will need for his own resto's ... hence pretty much doubt he will be up for selling any but who knows... meeting up with him tomorrow morning at Newark autojumble (for our usual car boot swapping of parts for each other) so I will get more info and report back.
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Saw Graham today at Newark and he says he's happy to make and sell or trade repair panel. Says they will need trimming and a tricky job to weld /braze in but if anyone is interested PM me and I will put you in touch.
Henry Cole & Same Lovegrove had a stand at Newark today !
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More info here:-
https://www.facebook.com/graham.curtis.391/media_set?set=a.10218653705311749&type=3
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Excellent work, I always admire folks who have such skill.
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Great work and finish on the chrome.
Been using prestige for some years now not quick but always quality work.
P.S. dont argue with the lady (loosely called) on the counter as you will not win. :D :D ;)
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That link didnt work for me Ash.. he may not share his BF pics publicly...
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That link didnt work for me Ash.. he may not share his BF pics publicly...
It works for me but hes a friend on Facebook ... can someone else try link please.
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The link works for me.
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It's a no for me - I get the usual screen when someone has private stuff and I'm not allowed in...
[attachimg=1]
I can go to his photos and see a bunch that are public, but his collector images aren't there...
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I'm not an FB type person so could not view.
Dennis
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Link works okay for me Ash. How did he get so talented, he worked at British Leyland. ;D
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Link works okay for me Ash. How did he get so talented, he worked at British Leyland. ;D
Most of his time was spent at British Rail Research... just after the tilting train project was shelved.
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I had a pal in the TA in the 80's who had worked on the Tilting Train Project....IIRC he reckoned that they were trying to apply 'Aircraft Technology' which was never going to work on Trains, and stubbornly, they wouldn't accept defeat - until the financial plug was eventually pulled ! He also said that the rubber components used in the Tilting Hydraulics just shredded in use and when that happened 'All ist Kaput' and the whole Train had to be taken out of service with all the aggravation that entailed.
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My dad was one of the test drivers for the tilting train, worked on BR for almost 50 years. He said it kept tilting and sometimes stayed tilted which meant closing the line it was on as it was leaning into the other tracks.
His claim to fame is to be the last driver to drive Evening Star in service, if you ever see pictures of Evening Star on it's last journey it's my dad driving it. It was hauling coal IIRC. He said every train station was packed, every bridge had loads of people all taking photos of it so there must be thousands of pics of him somewhere. He sadly died in 2010 but some of his workmates turned up at his funeral and gave me pictures of him with them working old steam locos, I was really touched that they'd done that.
That's really cool, a dad that drove that era. My son like the diesels :) especially the last of HST stock. We used to sit on a little bridge over mainline through Wimbledon ( No HST but sometimes a aggregate train diesel pulled) when he was a baby and wave to the trains, who would often toot the klaxon in response. He just loved that and we couldn't leave if he thought he was going to miss one.
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The way treads meander off the original post, but always remain interesting, is one of the great things about this forum. Oddjob, Awesome to have your dad have such a place in history like that. I wish my father had been a train driver rather than a teacher!
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You've lead a bit of an adventurous life Oddjob! A great couple of stories. An old school friend's dad used to drive out of Willesden on the old LNER line and he told us the same story about the jumpers, he didn't know he hit them either!
As regards the APT's, there were three of them, one was a gas turbine unit. All three were tested by BREL on a stretch of the old midland main line that was closed to traffic in 1968 but the line was retained for testing of the APT's between Melton Mowbray junc and Toddington near Nottingham. BREL left in the 90's but it was taken over and upgraded by Alsthom to test the Pendalino, the successful tilting train the APT should have been. TfL took over the now disused track in 2008, spent a fortune installing new four rail track and tested all 153 S-Stock trains there until production ended in 2018 and I retired having been the manager of the site from 2011. A lot of guys who worked there were ex NR staff who tested the APT's and had plenty of stories to tell!
NR now own the site although it's no longer called the Old Dalby Test Track any longer.
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Brilliant nickname Oddjob.........nearly as good as a few that I gathered along the way.......Muscles (cos I was a beanpole when I was young)........Wizzer (after the sticker on my Toolbox for a Toronto Radio Station WIZR when I came back from living in Canada in the 70's) and probably the piece de la resistance when I was an Apprentice - Crazy Horse ! No explanation needed for that one I suppose. I think everybody working in Greater Manchester had a nickname when I started work in the 60's......if you didn't have a nickname you were a boring fart and the dafter you were, the dafter your nickname.
The all time favourite nickname I recall was a chap at Chatham Docks who had a Club Foot and was known as 'Six Inch' - cos he only had half a foot !
Priceless stuff.....what a great heritage we have, and no wonder 99% of the rest of the world thinks all Brits are crackers !
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I am feeling like I have been held up by Dick Turpin on this post :)
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I am feeling like I have been held up by Dick Turpin on this post :)
Sure... but what a hijack! Great stuff...
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🙈🤪
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No worries it was a banter ..tongue in cheek comment...loving the loco talk .. Thinking of asking Pete Waterman to join ..... ;D
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Its not always easy to keep threads on track. They can tend to go off the rails. :D
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Its not always easy to keep threads on track. They can tend to go off the rails. :D
Groan!