The Red SL 350

I bought this 1971 Honda SL 350 from a guy in Lacey, WA who inherited from his Dad who bought it new. It lived in Spokane all its life, so was rust free and in need of engine work. it was also painted rattle-can black. So, I restored it.

Before:

Left exhaust rusted away, right exhaust appears OK
9000 miles

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In work:

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Engine going in with the original orange bodywork that will get painted red in Montana:

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Painting at Two Rivers Autobody in St. Ignatius, Montana:

Pats takes some time to finish the Honda insurance job in the spray booth. It\'s amazing how the color matching is much more of an art than science - even with their computer. Kat looks at it and modified the formula until the gold color is a perfect match - then she sprays it on.
The fun part begins!
After priming, the base silver is sprayed on
The silver will form the base for the candy color
Parts looking good in silver
Kat starts with Cany Apple Red
It takes a few coats to get the correct candy red color
The tank is loooking great!
After three coats, Kat declares the final level of candy color is applied
I bought a kit of Topaz Orange, but after spraying the candy red, it was very apparent that my pint kit of orange would not be nearly enough to do a complete set of parts. So we made an on-the-fly decision to paint the other bike Cany Apple Sapphire blue - a 71 SL 350 color.
Kat went into the paint room and concocted the candy blue from her cauldron and sprayed on three coats
Looks really, really nice - I like it better than the Topaz Orange!
Next two coats of clear
The candy red is amazing!
The side covers look great
The blue looks beatiful!
Headlight bucket in blue
Parts baking under the UV lamp - early morning sun relfecting on the tank

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Decals on, two more coats of clear (total four coats now)

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and after:

I took the red bike\'s engine apart again to install the little rubber ball in the case under the crank bearing. I had forgotten to replace that ball when assembling the engine
New cam chain tensioner wheels from Japan
I found a replacement kick start idler gear for the red bike to replace the one with the chipped tooth
Polishing up nicely
I sand and polish the lower fork tubes for the red bike

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