New CB400/4 project

[mike the bike]

Welome Craig from another 400four owner and restorer.  That lot will keep you busy for a while.  Advice is always free on here but we like our piccies so you started off on the right foot.
Personally, I would start with the frame, getting it powder coated (other coatings are available),  then you've got somewhere to bolt all your new/refurbished shiny stuff to.

[Craig CB400]

Cheers Mike

Your approach makes perfect sense which is probably why I went a different way 

My logic was to strip everything (which I have nearly done now) so I could assess what needed replacing and what could be refurbished, but naturally couldn't resist doing a bit of renovation along the way. Did manage to find a few horrors as the strip went, like the swinging arm as below where the weld had split open on one side, so one for the skip. Corrosion has been one long effort so far on almost everything, but getting there slowly....

[Nurse Julie]

Yes, I agree with Mike, get the frame done and then put the wheels on (not using that swinging arm though  ) and then at least with a rolling chassis you can move it around. Everything else bolts in or on after that.

[paul G]

Yep, I just looking at the photo and about to say the same Paul. Mine is an F2 and has footrests on the frame and not on the swinging arm, thank goodness!!. Whoever thought that was a good idea at Honda needs shoooooting 

Julie,
              It's great exercise for the wife or onyone on the back, full leg workout

[Tomb]

Unfortunately it was something Harley Davidson were still doing in 2000, maybe later but I don't know Harleys.



Seems you can buy a kit to change to frame mounted for Harleys, can you buy a kit for mounting 400/4? or has anyone done a home mod?

Is it just the bracing that has corroded on the swing arm or is it through the tube?

[Chris400F]

The Harley footrests look much closer to the pivot point than on the Honda so there would be less movement from suspension travel, although still some.

As for the mounting kit, I have never seen anything like this advertised.
The early bikes with the footrests on the swinging arm still had a loop on the right of the frame to mount the silencer.
Without the different frames to compare I don't know how the size of this compares to the later bikes.
Maybe this could be used as a basis for a footrest mount on the right, just needing a loop to be welded to the frame for the left footrest.

[Craig CB400]

So I will start playing a bit of a catch up on what has been done so far, will take a while so will spread it over a few posts to save boring everyone to death.

My first objective was really to get the frame stripped down completely and to break the components into smaller groups, then from their break everything into individual components. So after purchasing a new rack and containers to put everything in started the strip down process. First the tank, seat, battery, airbox, brakes, and headlight went into their respective bins without too many dramas so she was starting to look a little threadbare already. Everything taken off to this point looked salvageable to a point with a bit of effort, so far so good.



Next rear wheel came off without any problems, then the rear mudguards. At that point I found the outer guard was actually black fibreglass, so after holding back my gag reflex that went straight in the bin and a new item on the "Required" list. Also handlebars and clocks came off. From what I could see already almost everything had varying degrees of corrosion, from light surface rust to what looked like it had been left for a year in a salt marsh.



It seemed like I was going to spend the next 5 years just trying to clean up all the parts before I could even do anythig meaningful from a restoration point of view, when my wife came to the rescue with this 



So now armed with the ability to blast parts, started experimenting with various grades of grit to find what worked best on what material, finding the balance between removing old paint and corrosion without stripping back any metal. It was also time to invest in a new compressor, going from a baby 25 ltr 2 hp unit to a 50 litre 3hp unit, which allows for a much longer working time without pressure drop off, so now we were cooking!

Before



5 minutes later



Finally time to get back to the frame, and in a few hours she was looking super lightweight and time to start digging into the parts that had been stripped, but not after a liberal rust removal and rust curing session on the frame, I was not going to get it powder coated yet (reason will be revealed later), but no excuse to let it get worse



So that is all for now, going to sort through some other photos and prepare the next installment

[petermigreen]

Possible opening a can of worms but... the headlight ears don't appear to be correct for a 400/4.
Think there should be a bracket.

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[Chris400F]

Possible opening a can of worms but... the headlight ears don't appear to be correct for a 400/4.
Think there should be a bracket.

I noticed that too, but looking back at the first pic in the thread the indicators look to be on such a bracket.
Is the bracket present but has been butchered and the headlight mounts removed, and the chrome headlight ears added instead?

[Nurse Julie]

You are correct Peter. They should look like this.
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[mike the bike]

I spotted that too.  Don't bin them though, someone on here will be able to identify them.   Once identified you can flog them on fleabay.
I'm well jealous of your blast cabinet, I could have done with one of those.

[Craig CB400]

Interesting spot that, there are a few possible headlight type brackets in the boxes of bits, will have to have a dig about. So I wonder what the ears are off, have to say they do fit really well!

[Craig CB400]

Not needing much of an excuse to go off at a tangent, having done a bit of a Google search on the ears I think they are off a CB500 or CB550 based on the pictures I have seen, they suit the bike really well, but not original so not going back on.

With that in mind I have had a dig through the boxes of bit and have found something that resembles the headlight bracket as below. From my understanding though, the headlight bracket should also have the indicator mounting stalks on them as well, whereas with what I found it looks like there has been some bodging going on, especially looking at the quality of the indicator stalk mounting bracket that looks like it was done as some rubbish school project. Can anyone confirm my suspicions are correct and I need to get a replacement?

[Bryanj]

I seem to recolect that the indicators were on a long rod that would have been an extension of the tube at the bottom of the frame you have

[Chris400F]

Correct. It should look like this.

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I have heard they can get bent (when making contact with the road?) so maybe that is why the ends were lopped off yours.