[Aaron_NI_CB360]

This is my Honda CB360 that i picked up in April '09. I think its a pretty rare bike that you don't see coming up for sale that often. It had 2 owners, the first from 1975 - 91 and the second from 91 until i bought it in '09 but it had lay in a barn for most of those years as it only has 8k miles on it. The plan is to restore it to good condition with a lot of new parts to bring to a few shows and ride on dry days! It is moth-balled at the minute while we complete our other project but i hope to update the thread with pics of its progress and new parts bought etc. Here are a few pics of the bike from when i got it. The frame and chrome are tatty with a fair bit of rust and the carbs and engine needs a full service but i am looking forward to it and think she will be a good wee bike when a bit of money has been thrown at it.

I had read about the top-end problems so she will be stripped and checked over for any suspect wear! I did have it running and even got a blip up and down the road in it when i bought it but i was wary that the oil probably hadnt been changed for years and the inside of the tank was basically rust and dead fuel!!

As regards parts i havnt found much yet that has been discontinued. I have a partsfiche of every part number that i can check on David Silvers website or CMSNL and ebay.com has been invaluable for unearthing some little gems. For example i picked up a brand spanking new petrol tank and had it shipped from America for less than half the price that it should have been, never mind the fact that they have been discontinued! I really couldnt believe how good it was and solved my problem of the rusty tank in one foul swoop. Again, i should have some pics of that up soon.

I have spent over £1k already on new parts (exhausts, air filters, front mudguard, new rims/spokes, new screw kits etc) and the bike hasnt even been fully stripped yet! Here are some pics of what i had done before i put it away for the winter....


I sold off a lot of the parts i intended to replace eg. front mudguard, exhausts, indicators and removed some parts for chroming and painting over the winter when the back was hibernating.

And this is how it looked when i put it away in September ready to be worked on when the 400 four was finished

I have basically all the parts i think i will need, but im sure there will be a further shopping list as i get down to the bare bones. Here is my brand new petrol tank which i cant wait to see on. It seems a shame to have to put petrol in it! Although it was pricey it saved a ton of hassle trying to strip and clean the rusted tank i had on the bike. The tank badges are over £60+vat each from Honda. My own ones were tatty and i wasnt happy with the finish so i managed to pick up 2 badges which i would rate at 95% for £30 from ebay. The "cb360" and front badges i painted up and restored myself as they weren't too bad and are discontinued anyway!

So i went out to take the rear shocks off a couple of Sunday's ago as i was going to put them up on ebay........

A little later, it was looking like this.....

A lot later....

It took me about 5 or 6 hours of careful stripping and labelling everything and on the whole pretty much everything came off as it should have without breaking!

The next night i started with the wheels...

Black and Decker is my friend....

Manky hubs...

Here is the engine, equally as filthy and in need of a good clean up.

I took all the covers off and i am going to be polishing these on this bike.....

So that was the frame and a few other parts ready to be left down to the blasters.

With the frame away, the first thing i wanted to do was to clean and polish the hubs - i already have new rims, spokes and tyres so the quicker i got this done, the quicker i can leave them out to be built. I spent a Sunday afternoon on the hubs and think they came up very well. They werent as bad as they looked with most of the crud coming off in the parts washer then ages spent with a scouring pad a wire wool!! I also did the brake plate while i was at it.

So hopefully i will have the wheels built soon

The next thing i did was strip down the forks as the tubes will be sent to be re-chromed and the legs cleaned up and polished by hand....

Good fork, bad fork...

That is where i am at the minute, pics to come of some re-chromed stuff, cleaned and re-built carbs, some painted stuff and a restored seat


I got the frame and various other bits back, blasted and powdercoated....

First bits on were the battery and tool boxes....

Rear section of the frame fitted along with new helmet holder decal

Re-chromed mudguard, new shocks and grab handle......

Followed by the fuse box....

Next up was the new rear light and indicators on re-chromed stalks, along with a new number plate.

Next i stripped down the coils for cleaning up and re-fitting. Here you can see one stripped and cleaned beside the other grimy one...

Pics of the coils cleaned and fitted. I then cleaned up and re-taped the wiring loom and offered it up to the bike, connecting up what i could.

The swingarm was next up after having new bushes fitted and liberally greased, it went on a treat allowing me to bolt in the rear shocks.....

..... and fit up the chain-guard with its salvaged tyre info decal. As you cant buy them from Honda anymore, i thought this would add a bit or originality even though i probably could have got one made.

Brand new air filters were then fitted with their freshly blasted and painted (by me) cases.

I have also received my re-built wheels along with new tyres so these will be put aside until they are ready to fit

Overall i am really enjoying the build so far and everything is going together nicely. I am waiting on the fork legs and handlebars being re-chromed along with a few other bits and pieces but i should be able to fire on and re-furb the clocks and fit them along with the headlight bracket and top and bottom yokes. Also the engine is requiring a major clean before i can drop that in.


Recently i have only been able to do a few bits to the bike as i was being held up by a broken top steering clamp. Nearly £400 from Honda lol, so it was away getting aluminium-welded and for good measure i have picked up another good cheap one from ebay and we are going to compare the two to see which is best to put on. Have to say the welding was 1st class and will get some pics up soon.

So my main aims were to get the bottom yoke on and head bearings in etc, and rebuild the forks with new seals and oil. Had to shell out nearly £200 for new fork tubes as it was going to cost near as much to get them re-ground and re-hard-chromed (think that's a word?) Once i got the forks on, i could put the mudguard on which isn't important at this stage but makes you feel good when you look at it!

With the top clamp back i hope to get out this weekend and get a lot of parts cleaned up/restored/painted and put on (e.g. headlamp bracket, brake disc and rear sprocket) which would allow me to put the wheels on and get it down on to the ground. Still to tackle the engine cleaning, and the remaining chrome should be here in November! So, as you can see, still plenty of long hours to put in. Oh yeh, and need to get a bottle of gas for the fire in the garage as itis getting freezing!!:001_tt2:

 

[Znabb]

Great work Aaron, you should be proud. How much have you forked out so far on re-chroming of parts?

 

[drones76]

Excellent detail. Please keep it coming. I have a '76 and want to strip it down this winter for a good cleaning and paint. This is a great step by step in disassembly and reassembly. Great find on the tank. I just picked up a spare set of triples with forks for $20 on ebay. With the issues that the 360 has, I could not pass up the deal.

 

[thomas.tc.young]

that new tank looks awesome

 

[Aaron_NI_CB360]

Great work Aaron, you should be proud. How much have you forked out so far on re-chroming of parts?

I would say about £300 or so on re-chroming? We have tried to buy new wherever possible and sell on the old parts needing re-chromed.



Just a small update - last weekend we set to work doing a bit of painting of various parts and brackets. Then during the week i was able to fit up the top clamp, headlight bracket with indicators, headlight shell, clocks and brake hoses etc. Hoping to get the front brake sorted and fitted up which would let us get the wheels on and get it down off the lift. Stillwaiting on some chrome to come back which should be early November

 

[Znabb]

I would say about £300 or so on re-chroming? We have tried to buy new wherever possible and sell on the old parts needing re-chromed.

Thats not to bad. Sounds like a smart strategy.

I think the semi gloss on the triple tree and meters look really good. I masked my meters exactly like yours when I painted them.

 

[Aaron_NI_CB360]

It's been a while since my last update, but we have been working at the bike on and off, encountering a few hurdles as you do! Firstly, the brake caliper is seized solid, and no amount of heating, hammering or squeezing it in the vice has been able to make it budge! We spent a full afternoon drilling out the seized bleed nipple and associated rust to get the air flowing through it but still the piston won't budge. So that is on the back burner until we take some more drastic measures!

Next, i received the last of my chrome bits back from the chromers - handlebars, headlight rim, chain adjusters and a few other small bits, so that meant i could wire the headlight up and check if my refitting of the loom was up to scratch and the electrics worked. So the battery went in and the moment of truth.......no indicators, headlight on and off etc. After much head-scratching and testing we concluded that a new indicator relay was needed and the powdercoating would have to be sanded back so we could get a decent earth on the lights and indicators. Much later and all the electrics finally worked, and i was happy again lol

Today i was braving the cold in the garage to get the sprocket and front disc onto my wheels so they could be fitted up and we could finally take it down off the lift. Fitted the side-stand, chassis plate, horn and ignition also. Still a lot of hours to be put in and thats before i even start on the engine, but that's what the winter is for! I couldn't resist throwing the tank on for a bit of an idea what it's going to look like.:thumbup:

 

[fxray]

Aaron,

It's looking terrific. Thanks for the effort of sharing all the pics and updates. Looks like you are not holding back with either effort or expense, but you will have something to be very proud of when finished. If you don't mind, what is the brand name and where did you purchase the new rear shocks?

 

[Aaron_NI_CB360]

They are replica shocks made by a company called Rising Sun (i think!) and i bought them (and most other stuff) from here:

http://www.davidsilverspares.co.uk/CB360G5/part_28436/

 

[1971 CB450]

Wow, truly amazing the some of the work that goes on here. Nice work, beautiful.

 

[FastCletus552]

did you get your brake piston unstuck? I found out that if I submerged my caliper in water and filled it with as much water as I could then closed the outlets and heated the whole unit on an outside gas burner. After about 5 min the water starts boiling in the caliper, and starts coming through the bleeder outlet and also the banjo bolt screw, open the bolt the goes through the banjo and add air pressure. My piston popped out like a bullet

 

[Aaron_NI_CB360]

did you get your brake piston unstuck? I found out that if I submerged my caliper in water and filled it with as much water as I could then closed the outlets and heated the whole unit on an outside gas burner. After about 5 min the water starts boiling in the caliper, and starts coming through the bleeder outlet and also the banjo bolt screw, open the bolt the goes through the banjo and add air pressure. My piston popped out like a bullet

Jimmy, luckily the piston was fine - the bleed nipple was seized in and require drilling out and a re-tapped to take an 8mm one. Once we got the caliper on with a working master cylinder the piston pumped out fine and we were able to change the pad See my latest update below :-



Small update on the work we have been doing over the holidays. Front brake caliper reconditioned, this involved drilling out the seized bleed nipple and re-tapping to take an 8mm one. Connected it up and guess what.....master cylinder fudged!!! So it was £29+vat for a re-build kit, or £29+vat for an aftermarket version. We opted for the aftermarket item to save the hassle of re-building and to be honest it looks 100%. Got the brake working finally, replaced the pads and painted the caliper and she is now working a treat. We then built up the rest of the handle bars with grips, mirrors, new throttle cables and clutch lever.

Onwards to the rear brake and torque arm - spent an afternoon fitting this up and this is how it turned out - it will still need some adjustment when the exhausts etc. get fitted. Fitted up the rear pegs as well and tried the seat on for size. Looking at our parts shelf we now realised that everything has been bolted on to the frame and we are now left with the important part - the engine!

The engine looks like this - and will be getting a thorough clean before painting. All the covers have been polished and there are lots of shiny bits like the kickstart and gear shifter to go on, so hopefully it should take shape over the coming weeks.

 

[HerrDeacon]

Bike is going to look sharp!

 

[Aaron_NI_CB360]

Small update, the bike is now 99% finished. We set to work giving the engine a really good scrub down...this meant the bike got to see the light of day outside the garage for a while!

Then we set to work prepping and painting the engine. I had toyed with the idea of polished side covers but in the end opted to go for the factory painted look. Here are a few pics of the engine at various stages.

Then it was time to get the engine into the frame and bolted up.

Then the fun bit....building it back up with all the shiny parts and brand new genuine gaskets and screws!!!

One thing that was letting the bike down was faded and discoloured left switchgear. I picked up a very good condition replacement and in my opinion it is 100 times better.

before:

after

I fitted new points and set the timing before trying some petrol down into the carbs and hey presto, she fired up!! I am just waiting to get my petrol tank and side panels back from the painters which should be next week sometime and that should be it near enough complete in just under 2 years.

 

[Znabb]

Bike looks stunning, great work. Can't wait to see it with painted tank and side covers.

 

[Aaron_NI_CB360]

And she's finished Put new petrol in and it started first touch of the button. Runs really well, will get decent pics and a good vid of it running up soon.

 

[Znabb]

Bike looks so good! You should be really proud of your work.

 

[fxray]

Aaron, it's absolutely stunning. Great job!

Your Metzelers look really good on there. What size are you running? Any interference issues?

I did not see any mention of a new seat or seat cover, and the original pic showed a seat in nice condition. If you retained the original seat, you certainly cleaned it up very nicely.

Now . . . are you gonna be scared to take that beautiful rig out on the street?

 

[frogman79]

[youtube:bwy9nr0s]wbUpGoOjFWw[/youtube:bwy9nr0s]

Nuff said :lol:

 

[Aaron_NI_CB360]

Bike looks so good! You should be really proud of your work.

[youtube:2zepsyvz]wbUpGoOjFWw[/youtube:2zepsyvz]

Nuff said :lol:

:lol: Many thanks for the kind comments!

Aaron, it's absolutely stunning. Great job!

Your Metzelers look really good on there. What size are you running? Any interference issues?

I did not see any mention of a new seat or seat cover, and the original pic showed a seat in nice condition. If you retained the original seat, you certainly cleaned it up very nicely.

Now . . . are you gonna be scared to take that beautiful rig out on the street?

Thanks Fxray, the metzelers are perfect, no issues at all. Running a 3.50x18 on the back and a 3.25x18 on the front. The seat is all original - i got all the buckles re-chromed and sanded and painted the base of it and built it all back up again with plenty of leather cleaning wipes. It even has the original owners manual in the bag under the seat. Also, when i bought it, it still had the protective plastic on the silver rim around the bottom of the seat, so it was like new underneath!

I won't be scared to take it out.........providing it is totally dry, no clouds in the sky, 100 degrees and no other cars on the road :lol: :lol: Not much to ask is it?!