Building the Tank Plug #2

I locked the two halves together with some scrap wood to make sure they
didn't shift while I jointed up the "ribs" of the tank plug.

Doing a rough mockup of the plug helped me determine the correct angle
to cut the "backbone" at.

I left the ribs secured to the base when I made the cuts for the tunnel so that
everything would line up later on.

Rough cutting the tunnel.

Checking the fit.

1974 Honda CB360

Here are a few pics of the latest addition to my (slowly) growing motorcycle collection.  This little beauty is a 1974 Honda CB360 that I picked up in Newark, OH.  Everything is stock with the exception of the air boxes that one of the previous owners had discarded in favor of a pair of crap uni-filters.  Thanks to the miracle of eBay I've already acquired a pair of NOS air filter units and a pair of original air box covers.  The missing hardware has been ordered from CMS in the Netherlands and should be here in a couple of weeks.

This bike was pretty well maintained, the throttle sticks a little and seat has
a couple of rips but other than that I haven't found any issues (famous last words).

There is a pretty good sized scratch in the paint/graphic on the tank but
no dents.  The previous owner had scuffed something along it somehow.

Not a bad looking bike.  I'm going to strip it down over the winter and go
over everything to check for wear and tear.  The carbs will need a thorough
cleaning at the very least, maybe even a rebuild.

All told I'm very pleased with this purchase.  I managed to get it started after an oil change, new plugs, new battery (that I pulled from the 450).  I had to remove the uni-filters to get enough air through to it.

Building the Tank Plug #1

Here are some pictures from the early stages of the gas tank mold building process.  I worked out all of the dimensions in Adobe Illustrator and printed templates to use for cutting out the various pieces that will make up the skeleton of the mold plug.  I built a mockup version using old scrap pine to see I needed to adjust any of my dimensions.  I'm building the final plug skeleton out of oak.

Here is the template for one half of the tank base.

The template has been traced and the locations of the "ribs" have been transferred.

2 pieces were screwed together and cut out as one to ensure that they are
symmetrical.  I cleaned up the curve using the sanding disc on the table saw.

I drilled all of the holes while the pieces were still together.  I used a drill press
this time around to avoid some of the accuracy issues I ran into with the mockup.

I cut our each of the ribs pairs using the same process as I did for the base.

Here is basically what the rib setup will look like.

In the mackup I used the same 3/4" boards that I did for the ribs and base but
it created too much of a flat spot long the spine of the tank so for this version
I'm using 1/4" thick oak.  Unfortunately our local Home Depot only sells it in
5 1/2" wide boards so I'm just using some scrap prices to bridge them together.

Here is the spine after cutting and sanding.

Everything fits very well, the benefits of doing a mockup version first.

The Bars

Here's another random pic from around Christmas time.  My lovely wife got me these clip-ons from DCC.

Now I have something to attach the NOS controls I purchased a while back.

Building the Seat Plug #2

It's depressing when I think about how little I've gotten done on the project so far. Here are a few pics of the seat plug frame that I forgot to post.

Because the positioning of the edges is so important I glued the pieces
before attempting to drill holes for the screws to keep the pieces from shifting.

The two side pieces were screwed together before the final sanding
to ensure that they were perfectly symmetrical.

License Plate Bracket

The last thing anyone wants to stick on the back of their bike is an ugly old license plate but I don't think I'd make it too far down the road without one.  I used the same 1" x 1/8" flat bar that I made the rear marker light mounts out of to make a license plate bracket.  I kept it clean and simple and rounded the ends to match the marker light mounts.

Clean and simple.

Nothing clutters up the back end of a bike quite like a license plate.  I used
the old one that was left on the bike when I bought it to check the clearances.
I wire-wheeled the finish off to make it a little less annoying to look at.

Building the Seat Plug #1

I'm a little short on cash for this project at the moment so I've decided to start working on the seat fabrication.  I've mentioned before that I wasn't thrilled with the seat that I purchased from BCR and I decided early on that I wanted to try my hand at building one.  Thankfully wood is cheap and I have all of the necessary tools to begin building a plug for the seat.  I'm going to use the BCR seat as rough guide for the style but I'm going to tweak some of the measurements a bit to give me a little more room under the seat hump for the wiring and electric bits.

I'm using 3/4" solid oak for the base and framing of the plug.

I had plenty of pine on hand from other projects but I wanted to go with something harder so I picked a few pieces of 10" wide oak boards at Home Depot.

I cut the tail curve using a router with a jig I made specifically for this project.

It would have been nearly impossible to get a cut this clean with a jigsaw.
After a few practice cuts on some scrap wood to get the jig set properly I
ended up with a perfect 4" radius cut.  No sanding necessary.

Mounting the Rear Markers

I used a piece of 1" x 1/8" flat bar to make a bracket for the rear markers and tacked it to the underside of the tray.  I rounded off the corners to follow the shape of the marker mounts.  The wires run through a rubber grommet in the tray and up under the battery box.

"Arrow Deco Style" marker lights from DCC.

The Battery Box

I knew right away that the battery tray I got from BCR was not what I had in mind. I may try and use it on a future project but for this bike it wasn't going to cut it.  I also discovered that it didn't have the necessary mounting brackets for the various parts that mount to the stock battery box.

I fabricated my batter box out of 14 gauge sheet metal and used 1" x 1/8" flat bar for the mounting points.  I thought I had taken some pictures of the parts while I was building it but it turns out I didn't.  I used some thinner (16 gauge) sheet metal to replicate the stock mounting brackets for the starter switch and rectifier.

The battery box with mounting brackets.

I was going to mount the regulator on the back of the battery box but there wasn't enough clearance for the taillight housing so I welded a piece of 1/4" flat bar to the tray and drilled and tapped holes in it so the regulator could be bolted down.

The battery box with the starter switch, rectifier, and my "battery."

Welding the Tail Hoop

I haven't had much time to work on the bike and I have even less time to spend blogging.  Here are some pics of the tail section.

I cut the "tray" out of 14 gauge steel.

Holes were drilled in the frame and hoop so they could be plug welded.

Clamped and ready for welding.

I'm slowly getting more comfortable with welding.

After grinding down the welds I noticed a few spots that I'll need
to go back and will with weld.

I gave the tail a quick coat of matte black to make it easier to spot the
little imperfections that I'll need to fill in.  Overall it came out pretty clean

Tail Hoop Fabrication

I haven't been able to spend much time on this project lately but I have made a little bit of progress on the tail hoop.  I wasn't thrilled with the battery tray from BCR so I opted to build my own.  I started with a DIY tail hoop from Dime City Cycles.  It seemed a little pricey but it saved me the hassle of finding a local machine shop to bend a pipe for me.

The frame hoop from Dime City Cycles.

I don't have a chop saw so to make sure I got straight cuts I used a regular old pipe cutter.

Cut to length with a pipe cutter.

I also cut some 2" pieces of 7/8" OD pipe to fit inside the ends of the hoop and frame so I can plug weld the pieces together.  The inside diameter of the frame tubing is nearly 2mm larger than the DCC hoop and a bit less than 7/8" so I had to bore out both the frame and the tail hoop with a step bit.

Pipes need to be plug welded before adding the hoop.

I want the entire tray and battery box to be removable so that if I ever decide to change the seat I have the ability to shift the position of the battery box if necessary.  I tacked in two pieces of 3/4" square tubing that will serve as mounting points for the bottom tray and battery box.

Getting the angles and curves just right took quite a bit of patient grinding.

I'm going to weld a 3rd piece of square tube to the frame.  This should provide more than enough support and mounting points for everything.

Checking the measurements before tacking in the 3rd piece of square tube.

Fabrication Begins

The first thing I wanted to fabricate for this project was a new mounting bracket to replace the one that came with the tank and seat I bought from BCR.  I'm sure Benjie's bracket would work just fine if the bolt holes in it actually lined up with the holes on the frame (which they don't), but like the tank and seat, it is a little rough in the details.

The BCR mounting bracket.  The bolt holes are a good 1/4" off.

I cut my bracket from a single piece of 12 ga. steel sheet rather than welding together pieces of  1/8" flat bar like the BCR bracket.  This obviously is a little more time consuming but the end result is much better looking.  Ultimately it took me 3 attempts before getting one that I was happy with.  In the first one the mounting holes were a bit crooked and I cut the second one a little too short.  Fortunately these botched pieces gave me something to practice the bends on  before putting the final one in the vise.

I still have a little more work to do, such as adding a spot for the seat tab to slide into but I think it looks pretty solid so far.  I should add that this is the first time I've ever worked with metal so I'm sure there are better ways of accomplishing this but with my limited experience and tools this is what worked for me.

I marked out the measurements in Sharpie on the sheet metal.

Cutting a straight line with a jigsaw is slow going at best.

I used a 7/8" step bit to create the curved corners.

I cleaned up the rough edges with a grinder.

This angle wasn't too difficult to get right.

The angles of the "wings" took a few attempts.

The bracket with the excess material trimmed off.

All mounted up.

Practice Makes...

One of the hardest things about learning to weld (other than the welding itself) is finding random junk that I don't mind ruining.  I'm practicing on an old steal aquarium stand that had very little surface area.  I have some sheet metal but I'd rather save that for the project I originally bought it for.  I adjusted the heat range and wire feed speed and I seem to be getting a slightly better bead.  It's not as thin as it was yesterday.

The new settings are producing a better bead and less splatter.

First attempt at a butt joint.

Nothing is safe from my welding rampage.