The rebirth of a C78 305 Honda Dream

[4shorts]

neus68 first of all let me welcome you to the board. It's a great place to be as you already know to learn a bit about these old beauties. There's not allot of talking going on here but then again I guess no one has the gift of gab I have. I'm like you, I've learned a thing or two just by being here and the good folks that do comment usually have great advise. I hope you'll post on your bikes progress as well. Well all enjoy seeing what it takes to get these bikes back in shape and the methods we use to achieve that goal. I know in my last post I said It was the second last one but in moving my Dream to her final resting place I snapped a few pictures that I thought some of you might find interesting.

The first picture show two of my favorite toys. In 1965 the 305 Dream was the largest Touring bike Honda made. Well the bike next to the Dream is a GL1800 GoldWing which is today's largest Touring bike and Honda's as well so I am either privileged or foolish to own both.

Thanks again neus68 for your kind words. I'll be watching for your posts from now on and looking for pictures. Happy Holidays from Newfoundland, Canada

[4shorts]

Hi everyone. Hope you are all having a great Christmas out there. Ours was a green one with no snow at all until the day after boxing day.

Anyway this will be the last of my pictures I'll be posting. By now most of you must be saying "Thanks Gawd" Ha! Ha!.

Here is how the Dream is displayed. I still didn't get the crash bar on but will in the next few days. As you can see the Dream has her own rider and they both look happy. Hope you've all enjoyed this blog. It's time for me to move on a tackle something else. I have a chance to purchase an old Indian motorcycle so I'm contemplating doing that next. For those of you who are restoring an old vintage Honda 305 make sure you take the extra time to post pictures and details. Someone went through all the trouble of building this site and lets try to keep it interesting by posting our work on here.

Thanks for taking the time to look at this stuff I've posted . Happy New Year to all and ride safe. Paul

[Dogsbd]

Great display for the Dream Paul, but I do hope you will take her out for a ride now and again. A bike as beautiful as that needs to be ridden some.

I would love to see your work on the Indian, if you would keep us up to date on it in the Off Topic section that would be great.

Thanks for sharing, I've really enjoyed this thread.

[bkelly23]

Paul - I am restoring a CB77. What did you use on the brake panels to make then look so nice? Did you paint them, powder coat or what/ thanks - love your Dream!

Bob

[4shorts]

Paul - I am restoring a CB77. What did you use on the brake panels to make then look so nice? Did you paint them, powder coat or what/ thanks - love your Dream!

Bob

Bob you asked a great question there and I've received a few emails asking me about that same question. When it came time to do something about my hubs break parts and other aluminum parts of the bike I considered cleaning up the old parts and polishing them and applying a clear coat over it but unless you have the right tooling to do It ( I didn't) it's going to be tough to do. I did a bit of research on polishing aluminum and one of the big "Do Nots" when polishing aluminum is not to use any equipment with steel brushes in it because parts of the steel gets imbedded in the aluminum and will actually start to rust on the part after the polishing. There are allot of steps to do it right and special solvents should be used which I had none of so I did it another way.

I used aluminum oxide in my bead blaster and cleaned up all the aluminum parts. Any cuts, cracks or imperfections on the parts were taken care of by TIG welding them and filing and or sanding the effected area. All the parts were then sprayed with Etching Primer and then I mixed some silver non metallic base paint and sprayed all the pieces then after that two good coats of automotive clear coating was added as a top coat and all the parts look perfect and very clean.

This was the easies way to do for me seeing I had all the equipment here to do it this way but If I had someone who could have polished the parts I probably would have went that way.

Everyone who has viewed the bike in person always comment on how clean looking it is especially the hubs and wheels so for my bike I was very happy with the results. On another note, I've been having problems locating a rear rack for my Dream so this week coming If I don't find one I plan on fabricating a factory looking one for my bike and when completed I'll post a picture of the end result. Hope this info on the brake parts helps you out Bob. Good luck with your restoration. Paul

[4shorts]

Great display for the Dream Paul, but I do hope you will take her out for a ride now and again. A bike as beautiful as that needs to be ridden some.

I would love to see your work on the Indian, if you would keep us up to date on it in the Off Topic section that would be great.

Thanks for sharing, I've really enjoyed this thread.

Thanks Dogsbd for your comment and all your participation in my thread. You were actually a major source of encouragement for me to continue adding to the tread it's self. I think I've spent half my time keeping this tread going while restoring the Dream and it was sure nice to see a post about it once in awhile. When there are few replies on any thread It makes one wonder if anyone actually reads any of the posts or if anyone's actually interested in them so your posts were very much appreciated. Stay well, ride safe. Paul

[4shorts]

I said I wasn't going to post anymore pics but I wanted to ad these. A few items I bought off of Ebay. The covers under the battery box such as the cover over the air filter and also the hold down for the battery. In the picture there black. I had a hard time finding these parts but I found them after awhile thanks to Ebay.

Also pictured is a NOS crash bar. I guess you either love these or hate them . I happen to really like the look it adds to the bike. A few other nice touches are the 60's patch and key ring. Paul