1970 Honda CB350K3

[julianl]

This is my current project bike. Bought it off eBay. It's a US import and hasn't been registered yet. I have the NOVA number for it, so to get it UK registered it needs an MoT first. It's old enough to be both VED and MoT exempt, but I can only apply for historic vehicle status once it's UK registered, so need to get it through an MoT as part of the registration process.

Here's a few photos from the eBay classified ad. It's been off the road for about 15 years. The photos make it look better than it really is. This is the condition it was in back in May 2018 (spoiler: I haven't got it back on the road just yet).

[julianl]

It arrived in the back of a van.

Missing speedo.

Damaged headlight bowl (US sealed beam unit, so would be swapping it anyway).

Bent headlight brackets.

Cracked left hand controls.

Love the off centre filler cap though.

[julianl]

Update 01 - May 2018

A bit of a more in depth look to see what I could find.

Damaged / repaired float bowl on one of the carbs.

Points actually look in pretty good condition, except for almost every scren having a rounded off head... Some Americans haven't heard of JIS.

Plugs look good.

Install a new battery.

[julianl]

Update 02 - May 2018

That HT lead's a lil' short...

And the insulation's perished as the cable exits the coil.

Disassembly.

New (repro) coils! Thanks to David Silver.

Back on the bike, and new caps too

[julianl]

Update 03 - May 2018

Time to investigate the fuel tank. Not looking forward to this part (or the carbs, but that's another story).

Pull the petcock out. Oh.

Flip the tank over and notice a leak. Great.

Zoom and enhance!

Well, bugger.

[fastbob]

Is this any use to you , I think it's off a Honda .

[julianl]

Update 04 June 2018

I investigate how much it would cost to get the tank repaired. I do a short search online. And off to eBay for a replacement tank it is!

I move on to the brakes whilst I wait for my 'new' tank to turn up.

Rear wheel removed.

Shoes don't look too bad, but best to replace them. I'll reinstall them for the moment, but will replace them before taking the bike for an MoT.

Shoes and springs removed. Brake cam removed too as this is usually the first part to dry up and seize on a drum brake.

Yup...

Cleaned and ready to be greased and reinstalled.

Only noticed this at the reassembly stage that there's supposed to be a split pin to stop the nut holding the reaction arm from coming off. An old split pin leg was jammed in there and I had to use a punch to get it out.

Got the cam back in and the lever back on. Alway to remember to alight the dots.

Rear wheel back together and serviceable (for pushing round the garage). Will change the shoes and tyre before riding it.

[julianl]

Is this any use to you , I think it's off a Honda .

 

That does indeed look like a Honda speedo! Are you thinking of parting with it?

[fastbob]

Is this any use to you , I think it's off a Honda .

 

That does indeed look like a Honda speedo! Are you thinking of parting with it?

 

Yours free if you want it , PM me and I'll post it .

[julianl]

Update 05 - June 2018

I do the same on the front brakes. These are also drum, but 'dual leading edge'. More bite than your average drum brake.

Single cable, so there's a linkage between the two brake cams.

The speedo drive is still nicely greased up.

A closer look at the dual leading edge drum brakes. The leading edge of both shoes are pushed into the drum. On a 'normal' drum brake, only the leading edge of one shoe would be pushed into the drum (and the trailing edge of the other shoe).

Cleaned up, regreased and putting it back together.

And back on the bike.

Again, the shoes and tyres are temporary, and will be replaced before going on the road.

[julianl]

Is this any use to you , I think it's off a Honda .

 

That does indeed look like a Honda speedo! Are you thinking of parting with it?

 

Yours free if you want it , PM me and I'll post it .

 

Wow, that's really kind of you, yes please! I'll PM you now.

[julianl]

Update 06 - June 2018

Move on to the indicators whilst I'm waiting for parts to arrive. More JIS screws that have been destroyed by years of abuse.

I think it would just be easier to switch to hex socket head, so source some A2 stainless from eBay.

Head is a perfect match for the old ones.

You can really see the damage here - all of them were like this.

Test fit in the indicator lens.

Perfect.

More parts turned up... Battery cover from David Silver. The underneath of the seat is metal, so this would have been interesting without something there the first bump I went over.

Installed.

The rear brake rod was missing the correct adjuster nut. It had a nyloc nut instead, making it impossible to adjust without tools. I changed it back to stock.

Installed.

[julianl]

Update 07 - June 2018

Stripping down the front end.

Looks like the headlight bowl has been repaired before. The plastic was perished too as it pretty much crumbled to pieces as I took it apart.

Removed the bars and the bar mounts.

The chrome isn't too bad as the bike is covered in a think layer of dry oil. I guess it's something like ACF50

One fork leg out.

Yeah, that's not good... it's supposed to be straight.

The other side is slightly more straight, but also more cracked.

Looking a little distressed.

Other fork out!

All the extra bits from the forks. The headlight brackets are both bent and cracked, and the fork tube covers look ok, but are full of dents and filler.

Expensive unicycle.

Ready to rebuild the forks.

[julianl]

Update 08 - June 2018

My 'new' tank has turned up at this stage. Before I get it sand blasted, I want to make sure it's a good'un. Here's what it looks like when it turns up.

Not good, but one hell of a lot better than the old one. Time to see how well it cleans up.

Step 1 zip tie the fingers off a glove to the balance ports on the tank.

Donor

Other port too.

Magic bottle.

Leave to soak, turning frequently.

Et voila!

That's nice, looks like this *is* a good'un.

On to the carbs next. First, the right tool for the job.

Carb no 1, that's not too bad.

This is what happens if you don't drain your carbs when you put your bike in to storage.

Nasty.

But I manage to get the jets out.

...holey float bowl Batman!

(photo after cleaning it up)

The butterfly is jammed, so I need to strip the linkage down and extract it.

More disassembly (will use locktite on reassembly)

The petrol has turned to varnish and stuck the butterfly linkage, so this was an arse to remove.

On to carb 2.

!!WARNING!! Graphic image if you are mechanically sympathetic.

This stank as bad as it looked. :( :(

I need to take my mind of that, so switch to taking the forks apart. I will return to the carbs at a later date.

More disassembly.

Circlip pliers were a god send for this stage.

Apart!

Looking pretty good.

Needed to order more parts (and lie down in a darkened room after that carb) at this stage.

[Bianco2564]

Great work,pics and details.

Keep it up.

[julianl]

Great work,pics and details.

Keep it up.

 

Thanks dude

[julianl]

Update 09 - June 2018

This was when I noticed that the handlebars were cracked.

Bugger. Back to eBay to search for 'new' ones...

Anyway, back to the fork rebuild. Forks reassembled and new seals installed with lots of rubber grease.

I've used this universal seal driver so many times. I've rebuilt the forks on my Kawasaki, the XR twice, and now the CB too. Well worth the ~£35.

It's made up of two weighted parts, and a spingy (so can fit different sizes) driver part that can drive the oil seals (pointy end) and the dust caps (flat end).

Oil seal driven home and circlip reinstalled.

I like using generic parts where I can to keep the cost down. In this case I couldn't find anywhere that had the seals in stock, but after a little searching I found that the o ring seals around the top bolts on the forks are 11 x 3. 11mm ID, and 3mm dia. I got a bag of them off eBay for about a quid, where the only place I could find with them in stock was a place in the states that wanted an arm and a leg for genuine ones.

The old ones had been pinched and were starting to perish.

Nice.

Fork oil before temporarily installing the top bolts (to stop the oil leaking out).

Workshop manual check for the amount of oil, 200cc of 10W fork oil.

Nice new oil, like night and day compared with what came out of the forks...

Both oiled up and the top bolts installed (need to be removed to fit through the top yoke).

Another part turned up - the indicator switch lever. The old one the plastic button had snapped off. Got this off eBay.

Edited April 27, 2019 by julianl

[julianl]

Update 10 - June 2018

I had been scouring eBay for ages trying to find replacement headlight brackets in better condition than mine, without much luck. CMSNL had some, so I ordered from them. I ordered a few other parts to make the shipping cost less onourus, but these were still quite pricy, but they are genuine Honda NOS, and in perfect condition.

I love the old Honda packaging and logo, it's so cool.

Minty fresh.

Primer.

Never used these spray can gun things before, but now I love them. You can angle the can easier, don't get paint dribbles on your hands, and makes the job easier. Would recommend.

The paint colour is BMW Topaz Blue. It's the colour of a car I used to have and one that I like (obviously). I know it's not a standard colour, but I think it looks like it might have been.

Several layers of colour coat, followed by several more layers of lacquer.

Shiny

Also shiny

[Smithers]

Very interesting series of posts, I'm looking forward to seeing the end result. Question; What caused the holes in the float bowl?

[julianl]

Very interesting series of posts, I'm looking forward to seeing the end result. Question; What caused the holes in the float bowl?

 

Thanks. Corrosion I believe, but it is quite odd the way it's so localised. From what I understand there's a specific content in US petrol that can cause this issue. No idea what it is though.

[julianl]

Update 11 - June 2018

I only had one very worn key for the bike. I found you could still get NOS Honda keys using the code on the lock.

I got some NOS reflectors cheap too.

After finding out the bars have cracked, I need to remove the switch gear. I also need to remove the old headlight bowl too, so disconnect all the wiring in the headlight. I have lots of photos of which wire went where.

Got the bars removed.

I want to repaint the switch gear housing since I have them off the bike, so I start to disassemble the kill switch.

Need to desolder this part to get it all out.

That's as far as I got on the switch gear for the moment, as I got a call from the guy doing my media blasting. My parts are ready to collect.

This is the holy tank. It mostly looks good...

Underneath the paint where the leak was.

And on the same place but the other side, not as bad and wasn't leaking until the rust was removed. Couldn't tell this was bad when the paint was on.

The fork covers look better than I was expecting.

Oh wait, no they don't.

Dammit

The good news is that the red tank I got off eBay looks really good on the rust front!

But does have a few dings.

Nice!

The top looks pretty good.

[julianl]

Update 12 - June 2018

With the switch gear taken off the bike, and apart, I give it a coat of Halfraud's finest satin black.

Bottom half too.

I give the tank a coat of etch primer on the bottom. As I'm going to be filling and sanding, I don't on the top, yet.

Whilst I have the satin black out, I paint the insides of the headlight brackets. Should have done this first really to make sure I don't get any overspray on the top coat, but I manage it without drama.

Back to the red (eBay) tank to investigate it closer.

Out with the marker pen...

I don't like slapping on loads of filler. I want to have the least amount of filler on the tank.

More marking...

This is the worst side.

I should buy shares in this stuff.

It's like the tank cut itself shaving.

Fill, sand, fill, sand, fill, sand...

More...

To break the monotony, I try my hand at some brazing on the original tank. It would be good to have a spare.

Not too bad.

This tool helps a lot.

Back to sanding.

Sanding, sanding, sanding... I hate sanding.

Guess what? More sanding.

Time for some primer.

Wet sand and leave to dry in the sun.

More primer.

To mix things up a bit, I go back to filling and sanding, but this time on the side covers. Fun times.

This one's not too bad. I'll probably replace them though, as they have had the badge holes and recess filled. I can get patern parts from the US for about £50 the set. Expensive I know, but I think it's worth it for these in the long run. I'll use these for the moment and make the final decision once the bike's back on the road.

Actually I lied, I didn't get to sand the side covers this update, but I did get a coat of primer on both tanks, as I don't want anything to rust. This was a full day, from about 09:00 to about 18:00 non stop.

[julianl]

Update 13 - June 2018

New headlight. It's a generic repro based off the headlight for a CB750.

Headlight idiot light.

Drilled a hole for it and test fitted it.

Nice.

Scuff it up for painting.

Give the inside a coat of paint first to help stop rust.

Whilst I'm waiting for that to dry, time to paint the side covers.

I'm not sure if I'm going to have enough top coat for the tank, so I paint the underside black to save paint.

Whilst I'm waiting for all that to dry, I turn my attention back to the switch gear.

Then get back to the headlight bucket and paint it with etch primer.

Let it dry and go over with base coat.

[julianl]

Update 14 - July 2018

Reassembling the switch gear.

This was a PITA getting the circlip back on for the kill switch.

All back together and painted.

Switch still work too. Bonus.

Installed the new plastic lever too.

The headlight bucket is looking good, so it's time for the lacquer stage.

Then it's back to wet sanding the tank, again...

Lacquer on the side covers too.

Filling...

Sanding...

Filling...

More filling...

Even more filling...

Headlight bucket is looking good.

Nice.

More filling...

And even more. Really thin coats now, I think I've nearing the end.

Mostly sanded off.

Another coat of primer.

More sanding. I think it's ready for a base coat.

Base coat! Finally, I've lost count of the number of hours work on this tank so far, but it's a lot. Easily the same as all the other work combined.

Tools of the trade. This is all the stuff I've been using for the tank. Etch primer, zinc primer, thinners, base coat, spray gun, body filler, knifing putty, tack cloths, etc, etc...

Wet sanding the first base coat.

And letting it dry. It was another full day again, mostly working on the tank. I fitted all the other little jobs in around the tank.

[fastbob]

Another great thread unfolding here . I'm not going to read it all now , I'll save that pleasure for when I'm bored at work . Those carbs , salvaged from the Mary Rose by any chance ?