Honda CB400F2 Restoration Part Four
Series originally printed in Mechanics in 1994

Just as I was pondering my next move, I discovered a bank of four grubby carburettors hiding away in a box. They all live on a cast bracket and throttle actuation is done via a plethora of little links. Rather then have the bodies blasted, I find that a pot of cellulose thinners works wonders with intricate castings. Bodies and jets were dunked in the solvent but twelve years of idleness had taken its toll on the jets, which had to be scrubbed vigorously. If you use this method, make sure you do it outside as the vapour is not kind to the respiratory system. In order to free the linkage shaft, a pressed-in locating peg had to be carefully drilled out. With this done, a heap of rusty brackets, clips and fasteners went in the zinc plating consignment.

Bill Woods asked a reasonable £35 for bead blasting the engine castings. Dismissive of 'Japanese monkey metal', he made an excellent job of removing the dried on crud, corrosion and flaky lacquer. I decided (through laziness) not to mask off any holes or oilways. This meant that if I didn't want to repeat Bob's CBX misfortune, I had the job of washing all those nasty beads out of the intimate nooks and crannies. Multiple sessions with thinners, gunk, soapy water and high pressure hose eventually removed all visible traces, although I won't know for sure until the engine survives (or not).

Derby Plating Services made the various plated brackets and fasteners like new again for their £23.50, but managed to lose the rear brake rod somewhere in the zinc plating process.

I ordered stainless bolts from David Middleton, who combines amazingly quick service with high quality fasteners. I hate dealing with rusty bolts, so turn to stainless whenever I can afford it. It can be cut or modified without losing its glamorous looks so is ideal for DIY types. The CB400F parts book made life easy, by detailing the fasteners separately. A large order was compiled without having to measure up old rusty bolts.£85 was the bill for my obsession.

The carburettor jigsaw was reassembled with new gaskets, freshly plated widgets and a sprinkling of stainless screws. The replacement locating pin I made for the linkage has made the throttle operation a little stiff but this should ease off with use.

An order for engine bits & pieces went off to Tippetts of Surbiton, and was on the doorstep within a couple of days, in time for the Bank Holiday weekend. Although their spares backup is excellent, one doubts Honda's sanity in individually packaging single gudgeon pin circlips. Although 29p for a 40mm length of piano wire gives a clue!

As the Bank Holiday weekend was dry and warm I was able to make a start on the paintwork. I had a distant recollection, as I set about stripping the tank, that I had not been terribly thorough in my first respray. I rubbed away carefully at the green paint with well wetted 240 grit wet-or-dry and eventually revealed the original yellow finish with its blue and red stripes. When the design was visible, I traced it onto paper and photographed the tank with a tape measure in place, for future reference.

Following C & MM's lead, I bought a couple of aerosol cans of Simoniz 'Wheel Silver' to paint the engine casings. This was followed by a coat or two of clear lacquer to complete the illusion.

With advice from Dave Ayesthorpe of the VJMC, I contacted the helpful ladies at Padgetts of Batley who found a match for Honda Parakeet yellow amongst their stock of aerosols. I bought a couple of tins to try out, but having found the original tank colour, I changed my mind and decided to do the job with my proper spray gun. Morley Factors in Derby were able to find a match for the remains of the yellow I had uncovered and I then carted the smelly tank into Halfords to get matching aerosols for the red and blue stripes.

I was able to completely finish the sidepanels, right down to the transfers and a coat or two of protective lacquer. Because of damage sustained earlier in the life of the bike, the tank still contained dents and filler which had to be attended to. Following my earlier poverty-induced bodge, early in the life of the bike, I had always promised myself a brand new tank ( in '77 a new tank was £50 - very expensive! ). I finally got round to asking David Silver at last year's NEC show, only to be told that the last one had just been sold. Hey ho, I suppose waiting seventeen years to enquire after a replacement is stretching it a bit! Consequently, I had to redo the dent filling job. My last effort had lasted well, so I felt confident that I could repeat the trick.

By next month, I should have had enough decent weather to finish off the tank and the various forgotten brackets. Not only that, but the engine, which I have just started to assemble, should be looking shiny and pining for its chassis!

Graham Curtis 22 July 1998

Thanks to the following suppliers who helped with the project

Tippetts Motors (Surbiton) Ltd
312-320 Ewel Road,
Tolworth,
Surbiton
Surrey KT8 7AW

Mick Bull Motorcycles
Unit 2,
36 Canal Street
Derby DE1 2RJ
Tel 01332 367470

David Silver Spares
Unit 14,
Masterlord Ind Estate
Station Road
Leiston
Suffolk
IP16 4JD
Tel 01728 833020

Derby Plating Services Ltd
148 Abbey Street
Derby
DE22 3SS
Tel 01332 382408