When I started out in this business I wrenched in a tiny Honda dealership that was in a community of CB450 DOHC twin riders, so that I was broken-in as a mechanic on this model. Fast forward fifty years and I see a CB500T engine on ebay and just have to buy it. On a lark. No plan other than wanting to dive into a DOHC twin engine again. I rebuilt the engine, all the machining done in-house. As the engine neared completion I began to entertain the idea of finding a complete rolling chassis. With the help of the vintagehondatwins.com forum I found a very nice one. And thus the 450 project began.

1. Completely disassembled the 500T engine, inspected everything, found it to be very low-mile. Machined the cylinders and head (because the cylinders wear quickly on 70s Hondas), cleaned and repainted it, put in the usual gaskets and seals, all new screws, rebuilt the starter and starter clutch, re-zinc plated all the steel bits.

2. The rolling chassis was in surprisingly good shape. The paintwork seems professionally redone and everything is there, much of it apparently having survived the decades through good care.

3. There were a few glitches. The front fork was badly assembled, the tires were twenty years old, the front brake was frozen due to corrosion, the steering bearings needed replacement, as did the drive chain, and the exhaust while whole was battle-scarred and not very pretty. All in all, not bad.

4. The front brake was corroded to the point of dysfunction. The caliper bolts were stuck in their threads, I would say from pressure washing. The threads had to be chased before the caliper could be reinstalled after it was rebuilt.

5. One of my customers had an NOS exhaust set to sell me and I picked up some carburetors in good condition.