Sunday 9 June 2013

More time in the garage

Got some more work done on the CL 350. I stripped more parts off of the frame to prepare them for painting. Everything came apart easily with no seized bolts or rounded heads.





Everything was going well (too well?) when I discovered a problem.

One of the clamps had been overtightened, cracking the top yoke (triple tree). Hmmmm. On a 41 year old bike not sold in Europe, this could be a problem....
Luckily, the same part was used on the CB 350 K4 sold here and I found one on Ebay with a 'Buy it now', so I did.
I cleaned up a lot of bits then gave them a coat of  Satin Black Hammerite. The bike is going to be a 'working restoration', i.e. - it might not be perfect, but it's going to be a usable bike rather than a show piece.
The footrest bar, propstand, and the inside of the rear mudguard were given a couple of coats of brush on:

And the rear light mount (in picture above), headlight shell, toolbox and chainguard got a coat of spray on as they will be more visible.

Later this week I'll strip the rest of the frame and give it a coat of Hammerite as well. Once it's dry I can start reassembling and that's when the project really starts to move forward.

Talking of CL 350s, when I was looking for articles about them on the Web when I found reference to one appearing in the 1971 film 'Vanishing Point'. I found a clip from the film which shows that CL 350s are so cool, naked women want to ride them! (View at your own discretion, but you don't really see much!)


mr combo had posted on Facebook that, due to the good weather, he had dug out his groovy 70s blue metalflake open face helmet. Never wanting to do outdone, I dug out my, ahem, 'special helmet'.
I'd bought this with a mind to wearing it at the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride and it's an ivory coloured open face with blue metalflake stars and lightning flashes, and a cerise leopard print lining. Mmmm, nice!


However, that's not the best bit - it's luminous, so if you've been out in the sun then go somewhere dark, it looks like this.


Needless to say, it's made in China, has no safety standard stickers, and probably gives off lots of radiation, but what price style?







1 comment:

  1. Another clip of the CL350 (and rider) can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA4ymmXa8rs

    Regards

    TH

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