Cb450

[thearcticsea]

Just bought this thing for a song.

In the photo I'm pretty well exhausted after kicking the thing over for 20 minutes till it finally fired up.

It sounds fantastic though.

 

[rodburner]

Nice...

 

[D9]

Nice bike... looks mostly original! One owner?

 

[strokerlmt]

Nice find....looks pretty clean.
LMT

 

[thearcticsea]

Well well well, look what I found.

This bike is nearing reassembly (next week), so I'm resurrecting this thread whether you like it or not.

 

[thearcticsea]

When I had turned my Triumph from what it was into what I wanted it to be, I decided I was ready for a real classic machine that needed a full rebuild. I love the parallel twins, so I went with a CB450 that I found back in 2009 in New Jersey for $445 bucks. That's one dollar per cubic centimeter!! Not the best deal, but not bad!

It's been a couple years and I've made steady, if not slow, progress in that time. In this thread I'll catalog the project with photos and videos. To start things off I'll show how the bike was when I got it into my garage. You'll also see that over time the garage has evolved from an ugly, unfinished frame into something that's relatively clean, modern, and nice!

Here we go.

CHEESY SELF-PORTRAIT FOR POSTERITY

450 AS IT SAT FOR A FEW MONTHS

Okay, there will be more to come later tonight. Just have to go through the photos and get things in order.

I'll be painting a bunch of parts this weekend, so if you're interested in this thread stay tuned. I have about 2 years worth of work saved to show off.

 

[thearcticsea]

So I spent some time getting the bike to run and taking various photos. This was some time ago.

Then it was time to just rip the thing apart.

 

[thearcticsea]

Started on the typical polishing routine that everyone seems to go with. What can I say, I like shiny things. The polished bits include the motor covers, valve covers, upper triple tree, lower forks, carburetor parts, etc. Had to strip the painted parts with chemical stripper. I used the citrus based stuff because I didn't want to kill my pet rabbit with fumes (he lives in the garage).

Polished up some of the motor covers, but I wanted to keep the rest of the motor looking old. It's not bad.

Rebuilt the carburetors.

And rebuilt the front brake.

More coming up.

 

[thearcticsea]

Okay, so then it was time to rebuild the forks. This was easy and fun. I honestly really enjoyed this part of the project.

The original fork tubes had serious pitting and corrosion and were beyond repair. I decided to buy new ones.

No real shots of the process, but once they were reassembled they look great.

Polished the hubs and installed new wheel bearings. This was stressful, but now is simple.

At this point I had a frame and a bunch of components sitting around that needed to be painted. So I wanted to strip everything really well and this required bead blasting. I didn't want to send out the parts, as I wanted to do everything myself. Looking at prices for large bead blasters, however, it became immediately clear that I wasn't going to be buying a cabinet. So I decided I could probably build one myself.

My friend Bruce (can you tell we're Bruins fans around here?) hangs out a lot and I get him to do labor on the cheap (pizza).

We stripped all the painted parts that needed to be refinished with the bead blast cabinet.

Once everything was stripped I primed the pieces myself. These include frame, swingarm, brake retainer rod, lower triple tree, motor brackets, etc. I also rebushed the swingarm.

I also blasted and primed a CEV headlight bucket that I'm planning on using on the build.

 

[thearcticsea]

There are, of course, lots of parts that aren't very exciting but nevertheless need to be restored. I place everything that's finished into drawers or cabinets awaiting paint and reassembly. Things like the front brake fluid junction, brake lines, stickers, lever, controls, etc. Just the odd and ends.

I also got a bit bored the other weekend and decided to "restore" an old pipe-vise that I found at the scrap metal place. I bead blasted it, primed it, and painted it "Laguna Seca Blue", a color BMW used on one of their older M3's.

Got to keep mixing it up. Sometimes you just aren't feeling working on the bike, right?

I cleaned up the garage to make sure I could fit my car as well as my wife's car and all my other crap when the inevitable Massachusetts blizzards start rolling in.

I realized I was looking at all of my favorite things (possessions- not the important things) and decided to snap a picture.

Alright guys, thanks for letting me waste some of your time. I'll be posting photos of the reassembly process in the next week or so because the project is moving along nicely and I've still got a lot of backstory here.

Thanks again.

 

[D9]

Great pics of a cool project... well done! Looking forward to updates...:cheers:

 

[jphickory]

Very impressive post - your work looks great. Can you explain your process for polishing the various parts? You cleaned them up nicely.

 

[thearcticsea]

Sure. Nowadays I simply bead last the aluminum till its clean and then polish. But back when I was doing these parts I would start sanding with 320 grit and WD40. Then I would bump up to 400 grit going across the grain from the previous sanding session. Then up to 600 grit, again crossing the grain.

At this point I'd clean the part, make sure it's dry and head to the buffing wheel.

Using rouge compound on a sewn cotton wheel I'll "cut" the part by drawing the part against the rotation of the wheel. Dress the wheel often with compound and continue cutting until all the scratches and sand marks are buffed out.

Then I'll "color" the part by buffing with the rotation of the wheel with lighter pressure on the wheel. I'll do this until I see the shine I'm looking for.

I don't go onto a softer compound or wheel because this process has given me all the shine I want. But you could go further if you desire.

Thanks for the interest. Hope this helps.

 

[strokerlmt]

Wow....great job and post......
Thx
LMT

 

[jphickory]

Thanks -

 

[koifarm]

Nice work ASea.....sure takes a lot of meticulous work to get one back to factory new or better, but looks like you have the patience and tenacity to see it through....no doubt it's gonna be a sweet looking project when you're done...
Thanks so much for posting, great sequence for sure...looking forward to seeing you ride the finished bike....gonna be a sweet first ride for sure !!!

 

[thearcticsea]

It'll be fun as long as the wheel bearing doesn't seize. Irrational fear of mine.

 

[thearcticsea]

So my frame, swingarm, lower triple tree, and other miscellaneous brackets and bits are at the powdercoating shop.

I decided to start attacking my tins.

Woke up on a nice, warm Sunday morning and before I was even dressed the dog had co-opted my bed.

Okay, out to the garage. I got a new toolbox for free from my high fallootin boss. He bought a bunch of stuff at auction and I got some freebies!

It's the black one on the left.

I love a well-supplied toolbox.

So I'm rebuilding a CB450, but I'm not crazy about the stock fuel tank. I like the looks of the angular 1969 CB350 SS tank, but they're pretty rare it seems. At first, I found one with knee pads. It was way too rusty to use, however, so I scrapped it and found another on ebay. This one has some rust inside, but it's not bad at all.

I know some people will get bent out of shape about this, so "sorry" in advance, but I needed to hack off those pad brackets.

So once I removed the brackets I had to sand off the welding points. I used a grinder and a sanding block.

Once that was done I used a product called metal rescue, and filled the tank with it. Within four hours the tank interior was shiny, beautiful, and rust-free!!

Now I have to bead blast the tank, fill the dents and divots, and prime for paint.

I can't wait to get my powdercoated parts back so I can start reassembling the bike!

 

[DIRK]

this is going to be a great bike. my first was a 67 cb450

 

[thearcticsea]

Got my powdercoated parts back and am starting to reassemble.

The color is Dark Blue Pearl. It's so dark it looks black, but in sunlight or under flourescents it has a really subtle blue pearl to it. The camera I used made it look more purple, but it looks really nice anyway.

The tank and sidecovers and fenders will use this color as an accent and then Steel Blue Pearl as the main color on the bodywork.