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I have recently picked up a nice CB350F for my collection. A PO did a decent job of replacing many of the expensive bits, yet really cut corners on many other items. Cut/spliced wiring harness, painted rusty bolts black and used cap head bolts on the engine and elsewhere. Chinese rims and spokes and tires with poor paint on the frame etc.

The PO had the bike professionally photographed as shown, so it looks really good at first blush. For all the money he spent on key parts, there are lots of short cuts done on the restoration.

So my plan is to take it to the next level and tear it down completely and repaint the frame and all the key parts including the motor. Get rid of all the Chinese parts that are everywhere. I have purchased all new correct bolts and JIS screws for the entire bike. The engine runs well, so just some paint and buffing.

The colour is Candy Bacchus Olive which is a rarer and favorite colour of mine over the Matador Flake Red that was a more popular colour.

New parts repainted and ready for reassembly. Gauges are before being sent to CB750 faces in Holland for new faces and rebuild.

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I had some help in reinstalling the motor by setting it on a pad sideways and finessing the frame over top of it and aligning the motor mount holes. Since the oil pan sump is deep it would take quite a bit of maneuvering and strength to do it upright.
The PO really did use a lot of Chinese parts and no proper JIS screws or Honda bolts in any areas on the bike. Many fasteners were the hex style cap head bolts, or any of the few original bolts were painted black to hide their poor shape and rust.

I have replaced all the electrical components on the battery box side with all new Japanese parts and installed OEM Honda hex bolts, flange bolts and JIS screws everywhere on the frame and motor.

This is the first time I have gone this in depth with fasteners and while many would not go to this trouble. I do like the fit and finish of new parts, so this has been a treat so far in the build.


I also replaced the Chinese rims and spokes plus the cheap Duro tires with new DID OEM rims and spokes. I installed new vintage tires to match the period with a Metzler block tread style rear tire and Bridgestone straight line tread on the front. I learned a new skill with lacing and truing the wheels after a few YouTube videos to guide me through the process.

Wow, a labor of love, thanks for sharing, brings back memories, my girlfriend (now wife) had a 73 Matador Candy Red, my younger brother bought a new 74 Blue Black Metallic. Super smooth bikes, if I remember correctly it had a little buzzing around 5k to 6k, still fun to ride.

More of a burn some Covid cash project.

Thank you though, as it has been a move to smaller bikes now for restoration projects with age and parts weight a factor these days. . I always liked these tiny fours as an exercise in Honda's engineering skills. Apparently Soichiro Honda liked to ride one around the Honda factory to visit various work stations.

Waiting on chrome work and gauge parts, so in a holding pattern for now.

Wow. Original exhaust as well. As rare as hens teeth. The cb350f exhaust mold broke at the factory and Honda didn’t think it was cost effective to make a new one. Once they rotted out that was it. Until about 3-4 years ago it was unobtainable until replicas came along.

Well truth be told the exhaust is an aftermarket system from the same manufacturer Sanki in Japan and the seat is also a repop from DSS. It is almost impossible to find a NOS exhaust system as you noted; even the other bits are 50+ years old. Unless a time capsule in a museum from day one the pieces do age out.
I sold a CB350F I restored to a couple in Ottawa about 6 years ago, they fortunately found an original NOS Honda exhaust from a Quebec fellow. A once in a lifetime opportunity I would guess.

Wheels reassembled with the original parts and the refreshed rotor on the front rim. The rear sprocket looks decent, as does the chain with only 9K on the bike, so I will leave well enough alone.

So I realize that I show the after pics and nothing about the work done to get there. I will try to show more when possible of the process.
A number of years ago I bought a buffing machine from a company like your Harbour Freight and started buffing my aluminum parts and such. I found it a pain to keep changing over to different buffing wheels on a single machine and contaminating wheels with other compounds. So I added machines over the past few years and recently added a new machine where I can buff plastic lens's with a string buff. This string buff keeps the lens cooler when buffing and doesn't melt the plastic, plus a razor buff which is very thin on the opposite wheel. That buff allows me to buff the inner parts of wheel hubs where those ridges are located and impossible to get at with a wider buffing wheel.

Here are the machines and the string buff.


I have also been working on replacing the signals on the bike as the PO used cheap Chinese knock off parts which look OK yet the quality is well Chinese. So Honda still sells the rear chrome bezel which is much better quality and the interior electric parts are all Stanley and high quality. The orange lens are still available too, yet I have lots of older signals that the chrome bezel and lens's are scuffed and scratched.
So my work around was to purchase the replacement chrome bezels and transfer over the electrical bits and buff and polish the signal lens and rear taillight.


Here are the lens and bezel being swapped over and a picture of the buffed orange lens now with no scratches.

Nice to see the attention of detail given, thanks for the follow up

Chroming and replacement parts that are still available from Honda were also on my list of updates.
The older shocks on these bikes are rebuildable, as they can be taken apart much like the early GL1000 rear shocks. All you need is MTS or (multiple tool syndrome) which I have over 15 years of collecting.

The top chrome caps on the shocks were reasonable, yet did show signs of chrome thinning and in light on many of these parts I have sent out to be chromed they were not great. So with the help of CMS in Holland I bought new chrome top caps and took apart the shock with my Motion Pro spring compressor. I buffed and repainted just the inner spring sections that were rusted with DupliColor chrome paint. Full disclosure this stuff is a reasonable facsimile, but it's not putting chrome platers out of business. It never looks like the cap top colour shows that's for sure.


Here are the parts at the chrome platers presently, as they too did show the same chrome thinning. "Everything affects everything" I believe was a Randakk quote and it is true in doing a high level restoration. The weakest part stands out like a sore thumb when finished.

Beautiful little bikes!!

Sweet! I was 18 when a friend bought a new 73 350f. I was so jealous. It was red.
That’s another Honda I’ve always wanted. Very nice.

Yep the Matador Flake Red was likely the most popular colour of these bikes from what I can tell. As previously noted I restored one a number of years ago. Not to this level of restoration, yet I regretted selling it.
I have been looking since and I really do like the Candy Bacchus Olive colour, so when this one popped up I grabbed it.
Here’s the early 1973 that I sold to a nice couple. The paint I shot was actually Molton Metallic Red, so not totally accurate.