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Joe's 1976 CB400f


Goat

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So yea, the 'F' stands for FUCK YES

Love these things.

Tiny little 400 four cyl. 37hp at 11K rpm or some shit.

Won a bulk lot of these on trademe. The best one of these was running rough and the joker said that the piston rings were gone...

And alas, my compression tester doesnt have an M10 fitting. So i wasn't going to wait around doing nothing until shops opened to get one so i tried other means to get it running on four.

There were 12312424 sets of spare carbs, so i got the tidiest one i could find and wacked them on, the all looked really out of sync but meh, Wacked them on and ran on four. Yay!

However after 2 mins riding it would foul the plugs something fierce. Running WAY too rich. There is no mixture adjustment as such, so did a bit of research, and this is a symptom if the carbs were jetted to run without an airbox/filter. So, i took this out, and wam!, 4 cyl all day. Still a bit rough, but not bad for some carbs taken out of a big box of engine parts though. So next step is to balance as soon as i get some balance gauges and then get some trumpets. Win.

Plan is to cafe, over next few days i will build a single seat and wack on some clipons i already have, Dig a set of the original pipes out of the parts and heatwrap them and install a megaphone pipe. Also plan to drop the headlight and clocks a bit and find some better/new rear shocks as these are super boaty.

Need to rebuild the forks too. Next couple of months i will tidy this up and make it look tino. All low budget, but will be much fun.

Also, took it for a wof on christmas eve, clean sheet. Jeah, Summer riding, here we come!

Anyway, pics:

jnb05ttg.3gl.jpg

mke4mb4w.kor.jpg

After mucking around and getting it running ok on all four, wairarapa back roads hoon. Its far from cruisy. Screams its tits off at 100k (6000rpm!! in 6th gear). Needs a tune and a few new bits, but all in all quite a fun little thing.

g5lw24zh.24c.jpg

dtud141j.32h.jpg

pcwurewh.qka.jpg

galxbwvb.tbr.jpg

Going to pretty much replicate this:

honda-cafe-racer.jpg

Except, i want drum front. So if anybody has a cb350/360 drum front wheel in stock PM me please.

Ta

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men. I have a manwell and a few assorted parts lying around if u ned anything. most rubbish but I think I have an igniton barrel and keys, a switch thing for maybe indicators or something, some levers, some engine bits, maybe gbox aswel. had 4 pistons but I scrap them. think I have 4 cylinder liners/bores/whatever the cast things are called. One of my first memories is riding on the fuel tank of one of these haha

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  • 2 weeks later...

SO yea, have been away for a week. Back with the bike this weekend. Keen to make up a single seat as i didnt want to risk outlaying 170 bux for something that may not look right. IMO the seat makes or breaks a cafe racer...

Anyway, started mocking up on parts bike. In for lunch at the moment so photo upload....

This is what i have to work with. Not too keen to cut up the frame as this may give grief at warrant time. So am attempting to make it fit around the rear support etc.

Airbox will go and maby inner guard too. Though running filters with no inner guard could be a bit rough....

Started all the mockups on parts bike as i don't want to take the runner apart as i want to go for a ride this fine afternoon.

uedcq1xb.tvq.jpg

Making the wooden base for the fiber glass mould. Cutting out the center to clear the rear support as this will be covered in polystyrene and fiberglass etc:

3t4pws0y.kpf.jpg

Current side profile witout seat. You can see how far up the rear support goes.

gyq54txm.uhg.jpg

Choice as MS paint to show what im going for.

lhytugos.xcc.jpg

Still don't know if i will remover the side covers and relocate the battery etc. Im 50/50 on how it looks (i.e i think both look good...)

Win

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I quite like where your heading. Maybe follow that rear profile of the tank for the cafe seat?

Im gonna chop my rear frame up for my brat seat. i think as long as you do a neat tidy job and paint it good enough they shouldnt pick up on it.

Ill be watching your progress eagerley!

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Just went on a ride. So much fun. Screams the whole time! hah.

Also, saw a steamtrain out in the wops of the wairarapa. Was a pleasant supprise.

Have thought about cutting bum off another tank, but they are not the nicest tanks on these. Rather squareish. Need a cb350 tank or some such...

Now... Back to seat making. Will do some more A+++ 120% awesome MS paint photoshops tonight to see different looks.

Hi Ben.

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Progress!

So after making the base board, it was time to make the rear hump out of polystyrene etc to make a mold ready to fibreglass over.

First step, make the base out of wood. This was done using a bandsaw and a jigsaw to cut out the middle:

onp1lm41.5lp.jpg

Next step was to find some polystyrene to layer up to make the rear hump (scissors do not work cutting out. Ended up using a super long bladed craft knife.

p43iiah2.sq4.jpg

Once i had made the layers, i stuck them together with some dirty old contact adhesive. Seemed to work pretty well, although it melted the polystyrene.

u2agubpv.yl2.jpg

The final glued together rear hump ready to be sculptured to the desired shape. I angled the front of it as im no a fan of these straight back seats..

1fu4ibk5.4gw.jpg

A cut out to clear the rear frame brace thingy...

zvo3z3y4.c3b.jpg

Starting to take shape. First is to cut it into a semi circle type thing. This was kind of the length i am after:

qqd1wuwm.1xy.jpg

Cut out with super boso spec craft knife

1ngrc4jk.lko.jpg

View from afar to get the gist of what i am after.

in2thspi.2ar.jpg

Next step was to create the curv/taper down to the back. Again, this was just marked out on side profile and then cut with a craft knife:

sl3tfkhb.dj4.jpg

Alot of fine tuning with the craft knife to get the rough shape of how i want it to be:

tjrnhyuu.1ux.jpg

Time to cover the polystyrene in bog so it can be sanded to get it almost as i want it so the mold wouldnt need much tidying..

vzz3krws.cbb.jpg

A few hours of sanding, rebogging, sanding, rebogging and i have almost exactly what i want. Although its not perfect, i plan to just fiberglass over it and then fix any imperfections in the fiberglass with some bog as it will need a fair bit of panel to look mint anyway. Why duplicate work....

fo3xmvnh.say.jpg

Side profile:

5mvib1i3.3s5.jpg

Here is my mock up pic. Its looking pretty similar. If i mover the rear hump foward another 30mm it sould be pretty much spot on:

lhytugos.xcc.jpg

Taped it onto the base board. Gives a better idea of how it will sit with seat etc. I quite like the look:

p0qyevvn.xhe.jpg

Choice, i plan to cover it with gladwrap and then fiberglass over that. Will make the fiberglass stick down over the frame. I can always cut it back if i want to.

sf03ebus.d2i.jpg

I don't have any fiber glass so that will be a job for next weekend.

Yay, im actually documenting my progress for any of those that give a shit. I'm usually useless with my project threads...

Yay for next weekend.

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Yea, i was hoping to use some of that. But masterton has nothing. hah. So i would have had to have ordered it, waited etc. So i just used what i had on hand. It was super messy and quite haggard. But i think once its fiberglassed i can spend a little bit of time making it perfect.

Will probably end up just buying one off trademe, but this will be a good learning experience.

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Also a bit late but you can shape polystyrene with a bastard file real easy.

Also a hot wire/knife.

Instead of glad wrap use copious amounts of carnuba wax...(or however its spelt)...Polish each coat to a shine and the fibreglass will pop right off easy as.

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Yea, if i was going to run no side covers i'd put all the wiring/battery under the rear hump out of the way and have it clean as a whistle in that triangle.

Got plenty of swingarms so can cut/grind pillion mounts off for clean look.

Choice.

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