great project choice Dubbs!

there are a bunch of vintage honda forums, but for the most part they are in active. Your best bet is to just check google and see what pops up for your specific model.

For starting off advice, besides for just the generic "get a haynes manual,"

1) I'm assuming its non running right now. Before you even kick it over, drain the bowls on the carb and clean the screen in the petcock. Your petcock will probably leak like a Bastid, but no worries, they sell rebuild kits with new gaskets.

2) Other then that, its straight forward the way you'd go about anything. Clean your airfilter(s).....can't remember if the cl 350s have twin carbs or not. Get new spark plugs, check your valve, change the oil, and get a new battery.

and since its been sitting, your gonna want to clean the tank out. If you don't mind pulling it off, do it, and toss some pellets or something in there to rattle around and break up the rust. Then rinse with gas.

This looks like its gonna be a fun project, let me know if you need any help with anything, I love me some old hondas!

 

Absolutly beautiful bike, looks all original, I would love to restore some thing like that my self, I would love to get me an old Honda CB350K

I have a friend who is restoring an old Kawi KZ650, Kerker and all.

Some pretty twin Hondas here. open the links sight, I'm sure you'll finds lots of info here.
http://www.honda350k.com/index.html

 

Its already got a flat rear tire...its soooooo your bike. ;D

 

HAHAahaha... can't believe I missed that... thats great

 

That bike looks better than I feel and I'm only a year older. I've always loved the look of bikes in that era, nice find.
It seems that you're up to the work. My only advise is to label EVERYTHING you take off!

I never seem to learn that one.

 

Your girl looks better on it than you do

 

she looks better period... i'm a lucky little boy

 

cool looking bike, old hondas are rad. should be a fun project

 

Good looking bike.

Fluke's wrong on the inactive sites. The Single Over Head Cam forum is VERY active. Bunch of friendly guys there that will help like crazy.

http://forums.sohc4.net/

His other advice is spot on, though.

 

Are you going for a restoration, or true cafe bike?

I always wanted to do a vintage style cafe.

Good thoughts on ground up. Contrary to what a lot of people think, a bike with few miles that has been sitting for a long time tends to be harder to get to run good than a high-mileage bike taht was never put away.

The carbs are more than likely toast and will require a full rebuild, due to sitting with fuel in them.

Use ziplock bags and identify the parts when you take them off, like "motor mount bolts", or "frame bolts".

It is really not that hard to get a bike from fully assembled to fully disassembled and back as long as you keep some order to your project.

 

Are you going for a restoration, or true cafe bike?

restoration... i guess would be the best way to describe it. Its not gonna be super clean. just clean enough. I'll see how it suits me and if i like it maybe grab a CB and cafe that thing. I would love one as well

 

Congrats! I would recommend you don't take the whole thing apart. I know its fun to see it come apart, but its tough to get it all back together without having excess parts or get discouraged by the sheer ugliness of all those parts sitting around.

Rather, do sections at a time, such as the front end, or back end. Lets you see good progress and keeps the enthusiasm up. The most challenging part will be the engine. Keep parts well labeled, take pics along the way and clean everything as they come off. Follow the manual and resist using excess force to separate parts. Have a good clean floor with plenty of room for spreading out parts. Most of all, enjoy the journey.

Woot!

 

+1 on the vintage Honda. Love those scrambler pipes!

+1 on the "hot librarian" girlfriend.

 

the ironic thing is I was shopping around for a Triumph Scrambler. Then this thing drops into my lap... awesome.

yeah, i keep telling her she missed her true calling

 

guys,
thank you for the replies. I'm gonna take all this advice to heart (even if some of it is contradictory ). I joined up on that sohc4.net site. looks like its pretty active with a decent amount of info, thanks for that.

I was thinking of simply replacing the carbs, just gonna have to do some research as to which ones I can use on this bike. Rebuilding is not a bad idea but it was suggested that I simply get new ones and not have to worry about them.

As recommended I got the POR-15 tank kit.

I'll grab a battery in the next couple of days, replace the plugs... go from there.

 

nice find. Don't forget to update as much as you can, cause I'm looking forward to seeing this thing come along.

 

oh definitely. but it will be a slow process. Lets hope there's still an SVrider by the time I'm done ;D

 

I like the wicked curled clutch lever

 

yeah soon as i saw that, i was like WTF???

 

They were pretty hard to kill. I'll bet it will run without too much effort.

 

knock on wood

 

anyone know anything about this site:

http://www.hondatwins.net/forum/

seems pretty decent

 

I would love to be able to do a restoration project and probably could if i wasn't constantly replacing parts on my trail bike. When you're all done fixing it up sell it to me. ;D

 

why don't i just skip that step and give it directly to morgan:nana:

 

First piece of advice for ya on this bike...

(Unless I'm mistaken)

Honda built the timing cam into the heads on these bikes. What does that mean? Instead of the the timing cam and points being on the crank, like every other bike in creation, they're in the head. Those oval, rust-pitted plates on the head--the one on the right is the cam cover.

What does this mean to you? Well, for one, you don't have to bend over as far (or lift the bike up as high) to inspect the cam.

What else does it mean? When the cam gets worn out (and it will), you have to replace the whole head as an assembly. You can't just swap out the cam. So, do yourself a favor...If you see ANY chance of you riding this bike a lot, snag a couple of spare heads off eBay. Put them in a box, and toss them in your attic. When the time comes around that you need a new head, and there are no more on the market, because your bike is now 50 years old, you have replacement parts.

 

hmmm... did not know that about the cams. thank you.

 

congrats on a fun project bike. Parts are still available for that bike.

My first "real" bike was a '71 SL-350 Honda. In our small rural town in Iowa we had two SL-350s, on CL-350, one CB-350 and one XL-350 (single cylinder).

We were some bad dudes when we were all riding together.

 

I race a 72 CB. They're tons of fun. I've got two more in a shed I plan on rebuilding for the street.

1) Dribble some Marvel Mystery Oil into the cylinders through the spark plug holes and let them soak at least overnight. Use the kick starter to turn the engine over slowly and free the pistons / lube the cylinder walls.

2) The (2) carbs are dead simple. Look at rebuilding them before replacing them. Parts are super plentiful on E-bay, including floats, kits and air filters. (If you're doing a resto - you do NOT want to get rid of the air boxes. Do you have the covers? They're getting more expensive to buy.)

3) The oil filter is a centrifugal type that needs a special tool to remove. If it's got high mileage (doesn't really look like it does) be sure and clean it out before running the bike.

4) Clean and adjust the points and plugs.

5) Check out CAFERACER.NET . It's a good mix of grumpy folks that have forgotten more about these bikes than I'll ever learn.

Edit: Don't panic - the cam IS replaceable, and quite bulletproof in stock trim. It's the timing chain tensioner that's the weakest link.

 

Edit: Don't panic - the cam IS replaceable, and quite bulletproof in stock trim. It's the timing chain tensioner that's the weakest link.

I wonder what model it is that I'm thinking of...

 

Make sure I'm right on that. Don't take it as gospel yet, as I don't know all about the Hondas of the 70's.

 

so what's ur timeline to getting it on the road?

 

i'm not making one for the simple reason that i have no idea what i'm really doing and am gonna take my sweet time to make sure i do it right. if i set a date i know i'm gonna half a$$ something and i really want to avoid that.

 

Carbs are dead simple, man.

Take pics of everything with your digital camera every time you pull something out and then it will go right back together.

 

ok **** it... best price i can find for a pro to do it is $250 not including parts. lets see what i can do with them

 

The only thing you'll probably have to replace will be the float bowl gaskets. Other than that, nothing really wears out on these things.

The diaphragm under the top cover on the carbs may be frail. When you remove the cover, very gently immerse the diaphragm in gasoline and let it sit for a while. They can deteriorate over time, especially if they aren't used. Try not to touch or poke it. It's the part of the carbs that ensures that whole "constant velocity" concept.

 

Here is a nice cafe resto write-up for those here who may be interested:

http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/BBS/viewtopic.php?t=5844&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

 

**** dude... thanks. great find

 

Ah, I knew RD would come to the rescue.