CB450 shock tear down

After struggling with some Irwin clamps for 30 minutes and a few pinched fingers, I finally managed to disassemble the 450 shocks. After seeing the shrouds removed on a friends bike I decided to keep them off. I polished up the chrome bits, checked that the dampers were still functioning properly, and reassembled; I like the look much better now. Next up is priming and painting the subframe and truing the wheels.

Teaser

The bike is almost done... more pictures to come soon

Time For Paint

First coats of color were put on today. It came out with some orange peel and a few air bubbles but hopefully it'll all wet sand out before the clear coat. The tank has been painted with the same color but its locked away in a box and I won't be moving it for a few hours out of paranoia so pictures will come tomorrow when it's dry.

Rear shock mounts in progress

The plates for the rear shock mounts are welded on. They're drilled with 7/8" holes that I'll dremel out to 1" at a horizontal angle since the plates are not vertical. The shock mounts were turned with a 1" step so that the bushing has something solid to butt against so this will be welded into the hole in the plate. My welds are still not great but they're getting better. They may not look pretty but these mounts aren't going anywhere.

Finished Fork Brace

I put the last coat of paint on the fork brace and attached the perforated aluminum. It's ready to mount.

Lacing Wheels

I finished up the rims and hubs today so finally time to lace them up. I took a timelapse video to show the whole process and a glamor shot of the finished products. Buchanan's really came through for me on the spokes. I told them my situation and that I was on a time crunch and was still told they would take a week just to manufacture. I requested 3-day shipping to expedite the process a little but was surprised to see that they had shipped the day after I ordered them. I definitely recommend their products and customer service.

Front Wheel

Finally got around to removing the front wheel and unlacing it. I was able to remove all the spokes with just a little elbow grease. The hub and rim were sandblasted to prep for paint and powder, respectively.

Buchanan spokes and Eastwood powder came today and I'll be powdering the rims and top coating the hubs tomorrow. If all goes well, I'll be ready to lace up the hubs in two days time.

Initial Ideation

A before image of the bike along with some initial photoshop renders playing primarily with color and seat and fender styles.

Rear Wheel Disassembly

I disassembled the rear wheel to clean up the spokes but they were beyond salvaging so a new set of Buchanan's is on the way right now. The hub and rim were sandblasted and the hub has gotten two coats of Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black primer with another few coats of their new 2k chassis black in the next week. The rims will be powdercoated with the color and sheen-matching Eastwood powder.

Headlight Guard

My headlight rock guard made from grill material and bent steel rod. I gave the mesh a contour to match the bulb by pressing it over a metal bowl that I hammered out of a sheet of stainless steel.

Fork Brace

I chopped the fork brace and used bondo to smooth out the lines. To attach the perforated aluminum to the steel brace, I welded in some threaded rod and used acorn nuts to fasten it. I had decided to go this route instead of using the chopped front fender but I realized after the fact that I can drill the fender to match the mounting holes on the aluminum and interchange the two whenever I want.

 

Front Fender

Chopped the front fender since I knew I wasn't going to keep it stock. I was debating whether to use the chopped fender or just the fork brace but I ended up coming up with a great compromise on accident... More photos of that soon.

Tank Progress

I traded my old headlight for these two gas tanks that I think are from a CB360. They were both in terrible shape, one with extensive rust and another with a coating of some black crust on the inside... not sure what that was. I decided to tackle the one that looked more structurally sound. I attempted to pull the largest of the dents using the hammer and superglue trick but that just wasn't doing it so I used a c-clamp to pull out the dents that I could reach.

I started to clean the inside with vinegar and BBs to remove the heavy stuff. Then a soak in evaporust on and off for a few weeks. After only a few days it looked like a different gas tank. You can see in the pictures the rust that was originally coating the entire inside.

The paint wasn't coming off with aircraft stripper so I went at it with a sanding disk on the angle grinder to get the majority. From there I used an orbital sander to take off the rest and a sandblaster to get the tight spaces. Considered leaving it as raw metal but wasn't too happy with the dents so on with the bondo...

Rear Subframe part 1

I didn't realize that the steel tubing that I bought to make the rear subframe was a different wall thickness than the original tubing. I turned down some plugs that match the ID of the old and new tubing and drilled through the tubing to weld the two together before I weld the seam. This made it a lot easier to align the tubes to be concentric and hopefully added some structural support.

Emblems

Sandblasted the emblems. I like the look of the raw zinc so I think I'll leave them.

Speedometer Bracket

Custom speedometer bracket made from 1/16" aluminum. The aluminum is pretty thin and easy to bend so I bent the edges to strengthen it and keep it from bowing under pressure. The speedometer is one from Dime City Cycles that includes the indicator lights. 

First Post

I've been building a custom 1978 CB400T Hawk for my senior thesis on the value of shop craft. I figured I'd document some of the progress on here for anyone interested in following.