1974 Honda Work Log

[Iain]

I can solder but my friend who is in his second year of an electrical engineering course recomended I use those, and I wasn't about to argue. I acctully quite like them, makes life easier then solder, its neater, and easier to work on later if I have to. I suppose there is always the risk of them coming loose, but after I get some heat shrink on there, it should be fine, and I couldn't get them apart when I pulled on them pretty hard, so I'm not worried.

About getting it running, hopefully tommorow my dad and I will take a trip out to the bike places around here and pick up a few parts (its pay day ), and then try getting it running. It was turning over when I used the starter so hopefully its all good from there. The carbs were very clean when I decided I'd give them a cleaning, so lets hope the rest of the engine is in as good shape. I was mostly working on cosmetics becuase it was something easy for me to do with my limited knowlegde on the mechanics of a motorcycle. Knowing my father would be home from the states shortly just made me wait before risking screwing anything up.

And about ordering the brand new speedo and tach, if its gonna cost me any more then 50$, its not going to happen, I can't bring myself to buy something that much for a bike I got for 200$.

Anyone want to give a rough estimate how much a bike like mine would go for once I get it in good shape? I'm curious how much potential profit I will make when I decided it is time to move on from my first bike. It will help me judge how much money is worth putting into it. Once you get it to a certain point, the price stops jumping radically as you put more and more money into it.

[Iain]

So I managed to get the speedo and tach apart, and did a pretty good job of it if I do say so myself. Took about 45 min of work on each, of me sitting and gently prying the band back. Once I got the speedo apart, I then had to pry another piece out so I could get out the glass. After tapeing the glass together I popped it out and now have a piece to measure a new piece with. I think I will pick up some plexy glass or acrylic tommorow. Anyone have suggestions on how to cut such a perfect circle? I was thinking maybe one of those adjustable hole saws, but I'm afraid if I try to drill out plexy, it will melt the edges. I might be able to take the jig saw to it, then round it out with the dremel.

Unfortunatly my dad and I didn't get out to the bike places today, as we were renovating my sisters room and it took longer then expected. But he has tommorow off, and promised we would do the stores tommorow. So thats all my progress for now, I got a picture so you can see the parts i ahd to take out. Time to hit photoshop and design me some metric replacement stickers for these.



4 hours later:

Well, I just realised I didn't hit the submit button, so I figure I'll just add to this post what I got done in photoshop. Took me alot longer then I thought, becuase measuring to make sure everything is exactly where it should be is tough. I only got the inside of the speedo drawn up, I will tackle the tach tommorow night probley, I just can't handle any more mindless drawing in photoshop. So here ya go, a sample of what the speed should look like after it is printed.



Remeber, this is a jpg of the original, it is much higher quality and a higher DPI. So it should print out nicely.

EDIT: the fact that the 60 isn't supposed to be centered may be whats throwing me off, but does the mph look slightly off center to anyone else?

[TechTMW]

Don't worry about it - M/C speedos are fairly inaccurate from the factory anyway. Before you reseal the thing you could possibly test it out w/ a radar or gps or something.

Also - are you sure your printer ink isn't going to fade in the sun ?

If I may make another suggestion tho - visit a glass shop and get your piece cut out of glass. Should only cost $10 if that.... you will kick yourself for NOT doing it once you get a scratch or two on the plexiglass.

[Iain]

I don't plan on using my printer, probley head to staples or somewhere, and get it printed on high quality sticker paper.

The plexi versus glass is where I run into a problem. Non-glare plexi is significantly cheaper then Non-glare glass, and plexi offers a much higher UV protection, to help avoid fading as well. UV protection for glass can be very pricey too. So my options are glass which scratches less, or plexi with UV protection and anti glare. Or maybe I should use both? But I have a feeling that would be too thick.

[Quick 350]

I took a Honda Speedo apart to glue the needle back in place.

I ran it around a grinder on the clamp part until it spit a part.

To Reassemble I went to the plumbing section of Home Depot and found that a stainless steel compression clamp worked well to hold it back together.

Not to mention a nice look as well.

Good Luck!

Mike

[Iain]

So i got the deisgn for the tach done as well. I'll post a picture of it when I get a chance to convert it over to jpeg, photoshop takes too long to load and I'm being lazy. It's not very interesting anyway.

I decided to use the guide for achiveing the satin effect on the front forks that I found a link to on the main page. All I have to say is it came out amazing. I left one not done so I can take a picture and show the difference. Its pretty amazing. Unfortunately, there are a few bigger scrathes or just defects in the metal I never saw under all the dirt. Its no big deal, but they are there, and noticeable if your looking hard enough.

I also reassembled my handle bar and everything on it. Somehow I managed to creat a short. Or at least thats what I think I did. Now whenever I press the starter button, it will turn over a bit, then the fuse blows. Now, I'm not sure if it is becuase now I have the bike in neutral, and before It was in gear when I hit the starter button, but I can't use it now, and can't figure out the problem. I've got 2 fuses left before I have to take a trip out and buy some new ones. So any ideas on what might be wrong would be nice.

When we took a trip to the stores the other day, I only ended up picking up a small 5$ piece to put my brake system on the front together and working. I can't remember what its called but its a black rubber ring, anyways, my dad said I needed it, so I picked one up.

We also looked at a few places, I may have found some tanks worth looking at, but I'm going to have to take my tank down to compair. I'm torn between buying a replacement tank thats not an acctual 1974 CB350F tank, and just another that fits. I might take a trip to Doctor Dent to see how much it will cost to have the dent removed. Then I can figure out if its worth fixing. I'd like to use the original tank, but its alot of work, and the rust is pretty thick inside, I'm not sure if one of those rust removal kits, with the tank liner, will clean it up.

Thats all for now, I'll post some pictures of the forks and stuff later today.

[Iain]

Alright, here are the pictures I promised.

First off here is the tach redesigned. The numbers seem very large compaired to the other, but the thing is, for this one, I took a picture of the original and used it like a tracing guide to redraw it. So the size of the numbers is more accurate, but I'm still contimplating shrinking them slightly.



Here is the right side fork. Uncleaned and unpolished. As you can see, very dirty and ugly.



And here is the nice clean left side fork. Looks great except for the scratches that are too deep to remove. I'm still very impressed how well it cleaned up.

[TechTMW]

Very nice work!

Find out if you can get the dent pulled out. Also have them check and make sure the tank is still sound (No holes)

You can just use some muratic acid and water to clean the rust out of the tank. I don't recommend a liner kit unless you have some time on your hands to do it right. I've seen alot of problems w/ poor liner jobs. makes the fuel lines clog ... nasty. Anyway. If you just use the acid (or rust converter or something) and clean out the tank, if you keep it full of gas and maybe clean it once a year or so, you won't have any problems with it. I have an '82 bike that had a tank that was rusted like yours ... I have had it for 3 years now and never used a liner, and the inside is still rust-free. You just have to keep water out of it

[BuzZz]

Unless your going for a full factory restoration, your forkleg is bitchin'. Do up the other one and your homefree. Looks good.... now you got to keep polishing it forever to keep it from turning furry....

[ronboskz650sr]

Unless your going for a full factory restoration, your forkleg is bitchin'. Do up the other one and your homefree. Looks good.... now you got to keep polishing it forever to keep it from turning furry....

A good use for Nevr-dul (not sure of spelling). Once it looks like that, the stuff works great for quick cleanoffs.