Still January...nothing but Fog around here...

Too cold and damp to paint...just dreary weather...lots of foggy days...the cold damp kind...though the sun did shine this afternoon...giving hope for some sun this weekend.

When last we left the 350 it looked something like this (pic from before Winter)

Oh yeah....there's my late lamented Toyota before it was hit and totaled....now replaced with a Soccer mom model Honda Accord... 

I did strip the tank of a ton of old paint and bondo...to find some mild denting. Did the new bondo and re-primed it with a ruddy red primer... The tank is from a Honda 750 KO model...and if it had been pristine, could have been sold on E-bay for a tidy sum I suppose...but since it wasn't, it'll work for the 350. 

Yeah, if it is warmer tomorrow, I might rebuild the carbs and install the wiring, work on the front brakes...maybe even get it fired up with the old tank and seat....just to see how it runs... 

It's now tomorrow...

And the morning view out my 'office' window tells the tale...42 degrees, dreary, damp...making it feel much colder. Think I'll hang out inside and get some blogging and reading done...

It was amazing the amount of Bondo the previous owner of this tank had applied. I decided to not have badges...and applied a fairly thin layer of the plastic stuff...to take care of the smallish dents.

Thinking about trying to achieve a similar look on the larger tank...this is an early model CL-350 tank pictured here. For some reason Blue appeals to me these days, rather than other colors...

So... Wiring....carb rebuilding...caliper rebuilding...painting the body parts when it gets warmer...designing and fabricating a new exhaust system...building and covering a seat/tail unit...and thinking of fabricating a semi rearset footrest/shifter/brake pedal set up. Some where I have some new old stock Dunstall Honda 750 rear-set stuff...but it might be just as easy to build from scratch...rather than mod that stuff. Really want to get back into machining metal again. One of my goals this year is to get my lathe home...and up and running. I still have limited access to lathes at work...and my teacher friend Rich will let me use his milling machines. Trying to convince him to start up another Adult Education class in the evenings again.

 Always inspired by the work of Tim over at the "Loveless' blog...a link in "My blogs" list over to the right. If you haven't checked it out...you should. Recent builds of his include a beautiful 'modern' Bonneville, with many subtle modifications...with a lot of his own engineering...love his work. On the bench now, is a Ducati coming together, to be used at the 'TT' this year...can't wait to see this one together. A real 'ugly' duckling that was not treated so nice by a previous owner...but is becoming quite lovely in Tim's capable hands...yeah, check him out.

And what has become of my 'trusty/rusty' CB 550, you might ask? Well...maybe not...here it is last summer...before the head gasket decided to give it up and blow. But, to it's credit, it served me well as transportation when I was carless... It is going to get a complete strip down, and if the bottom end is sound...will be turned into something resembling the 'Cafe Racer' CB 500 I rode in my motorcycle mechanic days in the 70's...yeah another old guy reliving his youth...

And this is why I stay out of Motorcycle show rooms....

And, it's probably a good thing that Honda doesn't offer the 750 version of this bike in the states...70 plus MPG....tempting...

But no...under tarps and stored in various parts of this country...I have plenty of current and future projects. 

Another project....this slightly out of focus shot of my last years "DirtQuake US" SL-100 entrant. There is already talk of this years "DirtQuake" in the UK....and as a date for the track in Washington state is secured....this years "DirtQuake US" will be announced. So time to get the clutch sorted on the SL 100...and try again. Even though we made it to Washington last year, we had to drop out from actually racing...due to the clutch problem. But I did get to take a few laps of the track the day before the festivities... and had a blast anyways.

Should probably charge up the batteries on the rest of the motor pool and run the engines a bit...yeah...too many projects!!  

It's up 3 degrees to 45 now....think I'll stay in for awhile...maybe try to put together a posting for that other blog I started...maybe post some old car and truck pics I've instagrammed recently, and while away some time reading other peoples blogs... stay warm people.(those that are experiencing Winter at the moment)