Honda-SOHC
SOHC.co.uk Forums => CB350/400 => Topic started by: Ken4004 on September 01, 2026, 10:40:57 AM
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Good morning everyone, I have just been looking through EBay and I have found a part finished project that might be of interest to someone if there looking for a project over the winter months.
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if there looking for a project over the winter months.
It would help if I had a cozy garage to work in! :o
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if there looking for a project over the winter months.
It would help if I had a cozy garage to work in! :o
I had the same issue so I built a log cabin in the garden !
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If you live in a Flat then shed is not an option.
Looking at the photos its had a lot of work done, in the current market it's not priced low enought to be snapped up imho.
The engine alone might need £1000-£1500 spending on it.
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I suspect many people go into bike restoration with rose tinted spectacles. But the fact is, they cost a lot of money to restore. In the world of classic cars the situation is far worse. I think very few people make any money from either. My own view is that if you enjoy restoring it and you can take satisfaction from your hard work as well as knowing that you've saved a classic bike from becoming spare parts, then it's money well spent. Some people throw vast amounts of money away on clothes, gambling, TV, whatever, but at the end of the day restoring bikes actually gives you something , even if it's cost a lot to get there.
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I agree with your observations about restoration costs, even the Bangers & Cash team made a massive loss on the early Land Rover they restored.
When I used to watch the US TV series American Chopper the remark "It's all about the build" rings so true.
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I suspect many people go into bike restoration with rose tinted spectacles. But the fact is, they cost a lot of money to restore. In the world of classic cars the situation is far worse. I think very few people make any money from either. My own view is that if you enjoy restoring it and you can take satisfaction from your hard work as well as knowing that you've saved a classic bike from becoming spare parts, then it's money well spent. Some people throw vast amounts of money away on clothes, gambling, TV, whatever, but at the end of the day restoring bikes actually gives you something , even if it's cost a lot to get there.
I totally agree, with my restoration I probably broke even if you exclude all the hours spent but great sense of achievement and satisfaction thats worth its weight on gold in my opinion.
It was I also keeps me out of trouble well thats what the missus says.
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One of the things about a restoration project is that there are so many aspects to the process, particularly if you are retired.
Maintaining or learning new skills that require mental and/or physical effort. Forget Suduko we have instead the puzzle of assembly.During the process there is the quest for knowledge from sites like this, learning new skills, reading manuals or online information. Improving our IT skills when posting photos etc. The challenge of restoring a part or the quest in finding a NOS, pattern or used part. The angst of things not always going to plan, learning from our mistakes, sharing our problems or solutions with like minded folk.
Unlike say furniture restoration, we have the option to not only admire our finished project, when the urge takes us we can ride on the open road, sometimes feeling the adrenaline rush of our lost youth, whats not to like?
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Unlike say furniture restoration, we have the option to not only admire our finished project, when the urge takes us we can ride on the open road, sometimes feeling the adrenaline rush of our lost youth, whats not to like?
Yup. When I got my bike eight years ago she was in a sad state and I would soon realize I had paid too much for her as well. Lots of bits quietly missing and even home made bodges on her, but now she is a lovely bike and a lot of people who remember the 400/4 especially stop me to let me know it. I've never had a bike so long and become so personal, definitely a part of me now. :)
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The only issue I have now is I would like to do another restoration but haven’t got the room for another bike and after completing my first restoration don’t want to sell it because it’s a fun bike to ride.
When I first started the restoration quite a few years ago I thought it would be quite straightforward and didn’t realise how hard it can be to find parts .
The other issue is because I was still working I didn’t get the time to work on the bike and we all know that it takes many hundreds of hours to complete , it was only when I retired I had to time to complete it and in fact it only took me another 6 months to get it on the road.
My long suffering wife thought it was a complete folly and thought I would never finish it and had visions of me dying first and leaving her the task of dealing with it, great to prove her wrong.
Now I am a great believer in always being able to learn something new from other people and I must say that in general this group has been very supportive and helps spur you on when it gets tough going which I am extremely grateful for and may long it continue.
It would be great to meet up with people from this group in the Sussex and surrounding area so I can put a face to some of the names .
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https://youtu.be/JYC-xFpoFAg?is=tcVAimNPixWDAQ_j
This is a link to a video of my 1977 Z1000 which I sold in 2014, really liked this bike but it was heavy and didn’t handle particular well whether it was me or the bike I am not sure but I thought I might wrap my self round a lamp post so decided to sell it on .
I particularly liked the Harris exhaust which sounded amazing, for anyone who lives in the Sussex area I used to go out of my way to ride it through the Lewes Tunnel which is very immature but enjoyable.
As far as I know the guy I sold it to has still got it and has fitted a set of standard exhausts to it at great expense, I need to go over and see him again .
I did say to him if he was considering selling it to let me know as I would love to own it again but don’t tell the wife !
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I do have to apologise for the heavy breathing I sound like Darth Vader
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Many years ago I bought a E-Type Jaguar in need of "restoration." It was pretty cheap and I figured doing all the work myself (I had a real job at the time), it would take me about a year.
Seven years later I sold the still incomplete car to another fool, er, I mean enthusiast who wanted to take a shot at it. Maybe he finished it; I don't know. A friend on the Isle of Man recently bought a Honda CB400F to restore; he sold it two months later after doing some rough figures on the cost of restoration...
The point is: be prepared to spend a lot more time (and money) than you think you will. ;)
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Dave Silver once offered to tell me how much i had spent with him, i said dont be stupid my wife doesnt need to know! I did once come back with 5 of his us imports!!
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My current 400NA Superdream will be my last ever project, a combination of old age, being the main Carer for Wendy has substantially restricted my free time. With the benefit of hindsight, part of me wishes I had done more projects when I was a decade younger.
There are still a few things I want to change/improve on my 400/4 when the Superdream is finished. A few short rides out next summer plus general servicing & maintainace will keep me busy enough in my twilight years.
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I bought a crashed (wrapped around a tree) but previously restored MK4 Spitfire back in 1986. It needed a new chassis as the front of the original was pointing skywards and a new bonnet. I stripped the body from the original chassis and bought a second hand one from a guy in East London for £50. The problem was getting it home so I bought a pair of really cheap roof bars and fitted them to my Vauxhall Chevette (or the Shove-it as we called it). I then tied the chassis to the roof bars with rope and drove the 30 miles home. It was not without incident, the chassis acted like a sail and at one point turned 45 degrees whilst on the A40M as it was then called! A bit further on I drove past a police car coming the other way and the occupants were open mouthed! Anyway I got home, cleaned the chassis up, painted it and put all the running gear on along with the main body tub.
A new bonnet was £500, I was on £110/week so it was expensive and would need painting as well.
A couple of months later Mrs T hiked up mortgage rates to 15% and that was the end of the restoration, I was forced to sell it for £500 just to pay that month's mortgage.
Restoring anything costs a small fortune and as has been previously stated takes at least three times longer than expected. Probably the reason why you see so many '90% complete but lost interest' projects for sale.
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Think of a budget, double it and you still wont have enough.
Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk
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Laverda Dave's post reminded me of the only car restoration of my own that I attempted.
When I divorced in 1977/8 I was handed back my Mini Cooper Mk 1 that had failed it's Mot.
I can't remember how much I had to pay for it out of the divorce financial arrangements, too much.
I stripped it to a bare shell with a view to fitting a new shell. The cost of transportation & painting was more than I could afford. The shell stood on the driveway of my new house (and new wife) on 4 oil drums for about 18 months. Loosing my company car with a change of job spurred me to get the Mini roadworthy again.
I bought pattern new front wings, inner ,& outer sills plus a complete boot floor, a local mobile welder did a great job of fitting the new body panels. Six weeks later it passed it's MOT. New bodywork was rattle canned in grey primer. I never did have it re-painted. I brush painted it using Coach Enamel. I ran it for 10 years, new mortgage meant I had to leave it as it was
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I’ve been retired 5 years now and having just bought the 1977 CB550K3, it will be my fourth project.
That was my plan for retirement and so far, I’m sticking to it. In fact, the wife 100% encourages me to have one on the go (Bike obviously 😬)
I always buy them too expensive, I always spend more than I really should and I always thoroughly enjoy the processes and frustrations mentioned by so many in previous posts. I’m also always proud of what I’ve achieved.
The three bikes completed so far will leave me around £10k out of pocket. I did go waaaay over the top on my CX500 spend with hand made exhaust, cerakote etc etc but that was always the plan for that one. When I sold it, the guy who bought it said something along the lines of….
“If you’d bought a brand new bike and kept it for 3 years, then sold it, how much do you think you’d have lost on it”
That was a little nugget for me, yeah I’d “lost” money BUT…. It’s actually still a pretty cheap hobby / vice and the enjoyment it brings is worth its weight in gold.
I have something to do in the winter months, it keeps some of my technical skills crafted over years in the engineering world and tests the grey matter from time to time. Oh, and gets me out from under ‘upper managements’ feet.
I might not be restoring every bike back to its original (I did with the GT380) so might upset a few along the way but I’m still taking something that’s close to the scrap heap and turning out a rideable, stoppable and enjoyable machine to clock some miles up in the summer months.
Long may it continue gents 👍
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In my youff, my first sort of renovation/ restoration was a Suzuki GS550. It was looking a bit shabby and losing power so I decided to go all in.
I took the frame to be powder coated and I called them a couple of weeks later to ask if it ready. I was surprised to be told they can't powder coat over filler! I paid them a visit and sure enough on the down tube in front of the side panel there was filler. After removing the filler we found a big dent. I asked them to just powder coat it. I made a few inquiries with a friend and found out that a car had reversed into the bike and it had been sold on to a well known breakers in Wrexham, who I bought it from as I was on my uppers at the time. :-[
I stripped the engine and found 4 burnt exhaust valves probably because there wasn't any clearance in the valve tappets, so that solved the power loss mystery. My boss went home for lunch every day so I could count on him being away for at least an hour, so I used to bring in parts every day and clean them. I got a mate to respray the tank and panels and to be fair, although not perfect, it looked pretty good. Better still the missing power was back.
Things improved for me considerably during this time as I changed jobs, my wages were literally doubled and my commuting costs were a fraction of what they were. So I decided to let go of the Suzuki and buy a Jota.
A friend who had done me a lot of favours but would never take a penny off me inquired about the bike. I told him about the dent but he was cool about it and I offered it to him for a Pound a CC. (£550) He said it was way too cheap which I knew, but it was a good way of repaying him for the favours he'd done me.
I warned him to run the bike in as I had only just rebuilt the engine, he promised faithfully he would and off he went.
Exactly a week later he called me from hospital and asked me if I could help his mate collect the bike as it was in a field.
He's been going round a corner almost flat out and lost it and he was in hospital pretty beat up and had a broken leg.
The bike faired even worse than he did, since it had bounced and was literally bent in half and was written off. All that effort gone to waste in a few seconds.
I didn't have a lot of sympathy and reminded him of his promise.
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And you still have the Jolly Jota 8). That's one to never let go ;)
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The Jota is a story in itself. But yes, I still have it. When I was in school, my teacher was into bikes and knew I was becoming interested/obsessed too. I asked him what bike he would buy if he had the money. He said easy Robert, a Laverda Jota. I'd never heard of one, but the next day he brought in a magazine with a picture of one. I might not be the sharpest knife in the draw, but it took me a millisecond to know that one day I MUST own one. I had to wait 9 years before I did.