smithenhiven

As some of you may know, I'm in the process of restoring a very early Honda motorcycle, a 1952 Honda Dream E-type.

Anyone remotely familiar with these bikes would know that parts are basically non-existent, and usually have to be custom fabricated based off of original examples that other owners are gracious enough to remove from their bikes to take measurements and sketch "blue-prints", or allow to be used in castings, etc...

This particular bike is an even rarer case, as the emblems are the "early" design, which Honda used on the Dreams from 1949 through 1952 (most Dream owners have 1953 onward examples, so even borrowing an emblem to cast a reproduction will be next to impossible to find) I don't know of any US owners with such a bike, and the only other examples I know of are in the Honda Collection Hall in Japan.

Here's what I'm looking to recreate:





And here's what I have to work with, the remaining "Shadow" I guess you could say, of where the original emblem was, and some pictures I'm able to find online.



At least with this "Shadow", I know the overall dimensions, and with the pictures I've found online I know the design.

I had some thoughts, to cut a piece of metal to the exact shape of the "Shadow", and Photoshop touch-up the image of emblem and print off a decal to overlay the metal, but it would be 2-D and wouldn't have any depth. This would at least fill the void, and I may do this just to have something there, but if I'm going to do a museum quality restoration, then I'd like to have a 3D brass emblem like the original.

I asked a jeweler about having this custom engraved, they basically said the cost would be extraordinary.

So I think I'm going to try to tackle this task myself. I bought some modeling clay (the hardest they sell, it's the kind for carving, not molding). I'm going to overlay a sketch of the emblem "Shadow" into the clay to get the outer dimensions, then place a transparent print of the emblem picture over that to get the wording and wingspan of the character. Then I'll hope my engraving skills are sufficient to sculpt out a rendering that's somewhat close to the original. Once complete, I'll be able to make a casting mold which will hopefully yield a replicated brass emblem.

That's my plan at least, I would be happy to hear other's thoughts, concerns or ideas on this topic.

The_Head

Did you check Ebay? They have reproduction decals for many honda bikes, but they may not go back to 1952 bikes.

smithenhiven

Yeah there's nothing on ebay for pre-export Hondas.

Sliced Beard

Contact Steve Stirewalt, he is the owner of Dirt & Street Cycle outside of Charlotte, NC. He has a whole warehouse full of old and rare motorcycle parts.

smithenhiven

Thank for the info, but no-one in the USA is going to have parts for this bike.

I guess I made this thread hoping for tips/info/ideas on how to "make" a set of reproduction emblems based on nothing more than some pictures found online.

I abandoned the clay idea, and bought a block of jewelers wax. I'm going to attempt to carve out a rendering of the emblem, and form a "Lost Wax Mold", which should allow me to cast it in bronze. I'll post some pics later of my progress, which isn't much right now.

smithenhiven

Figured I'd take a few pics of this project and share with everyone.

Here's what I wound up getting, a block of carver's wax.




I then took this sketch based of the shadow that remained from the frame of the bike.



Re-sized the image of an original badge that I found online, to match the outline of the sketch.



I traced a pattern with tracing paper right from my laptop screen.



Wound up with this.


(It's still a work in progress, this won't be the final trace, still want to get more detail in the lettering and figure, but the perimeter is there).

Chopped of a sizeable hunk of wax, probably double the thickness I'll need, plenty of room for error, lol:


Laid the sketch over and retraced the outline.




And here's where I called it quits for now, got it roughed down to within a few mm of the perimeter. Now I have to decide how I want to get a smoother finish on the edges, I'm thinking a super fine blade on a band saw, or a micro bit on an upside down router table. The problem with any kind of reciprocating blade or bit is the speed of the movement causes the wax to melt. I guess I could do it all by hand with files and what not, but that will take quite a bit of time. This is definitely going to be a time consuming ordeal and I haven't even begun any of the detail work, and I still have the other side yet. O well, all part of the joys of restoring vintage Hondas.

blackaneseman

this is an interesting emblem project. im excited to see the finished product.

have you thought about replicating the emblem as a sticker?

smithenhiven

Thanks; yeah I thought about having the image touched up in photoshop, then printing it out as a sticker, and I may still do that just to have something there in the interim. But there would be no depth/3d effect that an actual emblem would have, which would be something I would want long term for a proper restoration. So I'm going to go through the painstaking process of reproducing them.