The reason I haven't been around as much ....

I knew many of you enjoyed what I did to my sixth gen
http://www.vfrdiscus...o-custom-paint/

and I got some encouragement to share this build with my fellow Honda friends.

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So I got bitten by the build bug again, on February 5th (yes only 61 days ago!) I read an article in Cycle Canada about a guys XS650 Café build. I though that's cool and sounds fun. Then I started looking at what Honda's get Cafe'd a lot and saw some really cool CB360's. I like the lines and the frame design, welded rear loop and single down tube.

This bike really sparked my desire, thanks Pete!

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The very next morning I searched Kijiji for a CB360, within minutes I found a listing for a 1974. It was a rough runner and the only one within a few hours drive. I called him, asked a few questions and said "I'll take it, sight unseen. I'll be there tomorrow.

This is what I got along with a bucket of parts. $500

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The next day I started hacking bits off the classic frame.

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Shortened the rear end and kept going with the mini grinder!

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Down to a bare frame

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Engine on the floor

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Painted the frame with VHT Epoxy enamel. This was a mid-budget build so I did all the paint with rattle cans.

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Started polishing and painting engine bits

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Tarozzi clip ons

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rebuilt the forks, tore down the top end of the engine, rebuild, rebuild, replace

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Cleaned up the wheels, came up better than expected but there is some pitting

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New headlight ears

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This seat was the single biggest purchase $$ wise but I really like it

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Shorty Dunstall style muffler, will be 2 into 2

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Cleaned Carbs by boiling in lemon juice and rinsed with vinegar then water then blew dry. starting to come back together New gaskets, pistons, rings, rockers etc Rebuild, clean and polish front caliper before & after Cross drilled the rotor & painted Rebuild/refaced the tach. CB360 was added by me Designed and built a tach mount with pedestal mount for Bicycle computer. Mini signals from Dime City Cycles I got some LEDs to mount in the factory handlebar rubbers for neutral and turn, I put the high beam blue LED in the top of my modern CB599 Hornet headlight. Here you can also see the faded out stock tach face. All in one LED tail light Motor starts going back together, I left the cylinders and head raw. Slight difference in thickness, technology Ah, my first time with points, after slowing down and studying it really isn't too bad. I got a transistorized ignition box, should fire better and points last much longer. Thanks HondaMan My K&N pods and the battery box I designed to mount on the factory tool box mounts. Vintage Ed Roth Made in Japan sticker I like these glass fuel filters Waiting for spherical rod ends so I can get my peg controls finalized at the Tarozzi rear sets. I gave it a quick fire last night, first time hearing it run. How it sits right now waiting for muffler gaskets, first ride Saturday. thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed.

very, very nice.

I am also a fan of Honda twins
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A lot of work and time put into that beauty..... Very nice, I love the Cafe' look.
Be sure to send some pic's to the person you bought it from.

Wow! That's quite the bike you made from an old beat-up Honda. Looks great. Not exactly my type of bike but I sure would like to get on one to see how they ride.

Tell me, since I know nothing about rebuilding and make an old bike look pretty again, how did you clean and polish that front caliper?!?? Sanding and repainting? Looks fantastic!!! How did you get it so shiny? I have to do some of that to an old bike and I'm wondering how to make some parts look better if not like new (pitted gages, pitted wheels, surface rust mufflers and exhaust, etc.). Maybe there's a "How to" somewhere?!?

Cheers,
C

[image: View Post]Monk, on 07 April 2011 - 04:52 PM, said:

A lot of work and time put into that beauty..... Very nice, I love the Cafe' look.
Be sure to send some pic's to the person you bought it from.


Thanks, I have been sending him some updates. Unfortunately he's not a guy who ever rode the bike. He bought it a while back to fix it up but lost interest.

[image: View Post]timmythecop, on 07 April 2011 - 04:33 PM, said:

very, very nice.

I am also a fan of Honda twins
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Love the Scrambler pipes, I may someday go that way. I looked for a set but gave up.

Wonderful work!
Enjoyed reading and looking at pictures.
Thanks a lot for sharing!

[image: View Post]PolarBear, on 07 April 2011 - 05:03 PM, said:

Wow! That's quite the bike you made from an old beat-up Honda. Looks great. Not exactly my type of bike but I sure would like to get on one to see how they ride.

Tell me, since I know nothing about rebuilding and make an old bike look pretty again, how did you clean and polish that front caliper?!?? Sanding and repainting? Looks fantastic!!! How did you get it so shiny? I have to do some of that to an old bike and I'm wondering how to make some parts look better if not like new (pitted gages, pitted wheels, surface rust mufflers and exhaust, etc.). Maybe there's a "How to" somewhere?!?

Cheers,
C


Thanks a lot, they don't ride all that great really. I just like the look and wanted a "slow bike to ride fast"

Polishing aluminum isn't that hard it's just tedious. remove paint, file, sand, progressively sand with finer paper. Then the extra fine wire brush on the bench polisher and then finally a bunch more time with compound on the buffing wheel. That shine is not paint, it's all polished aluminum. If you have chrome issues however that is another ball of wax. De-chrome and re-chrome is the only option other than paint.

Here is a video I found with a quick search

[video: http://www.youtube.com/embed/rCC6gJ4BuWs?rel=0]

[image: View Post]spotthedogg, on 07 April 2011 - 05:13 PM, said:

[image: View Post]PolarBear, on 07 April 2011 - 05:03 PM, said:

Wow! That's quite the bike you made from an old beat-up Honda. Looks great. Not exactly my type of bike but I sure would like to get on one to see how they ride.

Tell me, since I know nothing about rebuilding and make an old bike look pretty again, how did you clean and polish that front caliper?!?? Sanding and repainting? Looks fantastic!!! How did you get it so shiny? I have to do some of that to an old bike and I'm wondering how to make some parts look better if not like new (pitted gages, pitted wheels, surface rust mufflers and exhaust, etc.). Maybe there's a "How to" somewhere?!?

Cheers,
C


Thanks a lot, they don't ride all that great really. I just like the look and wanted a "slow bike to ride fast"

Polishing aluminum isn't that hard it's just tedious. remove paint, file, sand, progressively sand with finer paper. Then the extra fine wire brush on the bench polisher and then finally a bunch more time with compound on the buffing wheel. That shine is not paint, it's all polished aluminum. If you have chrome issues however that is another ball of wax. De-chrome and re-chrome is the only option other than paint.

Here is a video I found with a quick search

http://youtu.be/rCC6gJ4BuWs


thanks, I'll keep all that in mind for when I have more free time to work on mine.
c

I fixed some of the links, like the brief Youtube vidoe of the second time I heard it run. What a relief!

Nice work! Came out great. Its actually quite a coincidence because i was tossing around the idea of doing this to a 74 CB360 to a friend about 2 hrs before you posted this. Its a spitting image of your staring bike.

originally inspired by perusing across this.

http://www.pipeburn....cafe-racer.html

Very cool. Can't wait to hear it with the mufflers on. Good work Sir!

That is nice!! Building a cafe bike is on my to-do list. Ideally I'd like to do one with my kid, but I couldn't even keep him focused on rebuilding his MTB over the winter...

I think you need to do a separate mini-thread on redoing that tach face! That really looks good!

[image: View Post]AndyJ, on 07 April 2011 - 07:29 PM, said:

I think you need to do a separate mini-thread on redoing that tach face! That really looks good!



:+1:

Sweet! The amount of work you put into this is only marginally represented by the pics. NICE job and congrats on finishing.

:fing02: Nice work!!!!

That has so much cool factor that you'll turn a lot of heads pulling into the local bike night.

:fing02: VERY NICE :fing02:
Thats a good looking bike, thanks for sharing.

spotthedogg, on 07 April 2011 - 05:09 PM, said: Love the Scrambler pipes, I may someday go that way. I looked for a set but gave up. Yea I know. I did some research and found out that CB 175 and CB200 pipes were the same (Except price-these 175 pipes were less than 100 bones) I wish I had your "stick to it ism"

Great looking bike, love the cafe bikes! Hard to believe you did all that in 2 months too, nice work. :fing02:

Good job!! :fing02:

I love the looks of it, well done sir :fing02:

[image: View Post]spotthedogg, on 07 April 2011 - 04:28 PM, said:

Rebuild, clean and polish front caliper before & after

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Oh my gawd that is AWESOME! :cheerleader:

beautiful... one day I'm gonna do a cafe.. but it'll be a RD350/400... gotta be a smoker.. LOL

Very nice, I've been kicking the same idea around for a few years now. i just never act of it.

Edit - Where did you get the seat from?

Very impressive, nice job and well down :fing02:

[image: View Post]AndyJ, on 07 April 2011 - 07:29 PM, said:

That is nice!! Building a cafe bike is on my to-do list. Ideally I'd like to do one with my kid, but I couldn't even keep him focused on rebuilding his MTB over the winter...

I think you need to do a separate mini-thread on redoing that tach face! That really looks good!


Sorry, I only took a picture when I was done. I should have documented it better. I just had to take the tach apart, carefully removed the needle with 2 spoons and took the old face to a local sign/sticker shop. He scanned it, added CB360 logo and printed me a couple right there. I sanded the old graphics off so it wouldn't show through and stuck the sticker on. Easy

[image: View Post]Graves, on 08 April 2011 - 08:37 AM, said:

Very nice, I've been kicking the same idea around for a few years now. i just never act of it.

Edit - Where did you get the seat from?


Thanks, I got the seat from Vietnam. www.hondaclassic31.com

Thanks for all the positive feedback. I am a little pissed, my rod ends didn't come in the mail today so I may not get to ride it this weekend. I did however get my muffler gaskets.

Fantastic work!

My love for riding started with a '75 CB200T and we had a '74 360T that my brother ran into a curb shortly after we got it running. So your post brings back a lot of good memories.