A few weeks ago Auto Fabrica's Type 7 featured on these pages, a chance for the guys to work on a stock SR400 fresh off Yamaha's production line. For this customer, a degree of nostalgia was required, only deliverable by using an old donor with the more aesthetically pleasing tech of yesteryear. With any remaining SR400s from the 1980s being quickly snapped up, the base options for this project were slightly limited. A chopper conversion with every component painted blue was to be the only bike available, extending the strip and clean-up process considerably. With boxes of parts ready for blasting and powder coating the build could begin. Rather than loop the existing subframe new tubing was bent and welded in from the spine, back to the shock mounts, kicking up slightly at the rear to give a smidgen more ground clearance. The Auto Fabrica Type 3 proved a huge hit at the Bike Shed Event II in 2013, so much so that one of our crew bought it as a fun tool for nipping around London's mean streets. The Type 7a is an evolution of their first scrambler and shares some styling cues and engineered improvements. The forks have been lowered slightly and a pair of Hagons drop the rear enough to improve the stance whilst maintaining a some off-roadability, a prerequisite for this customer. OK, so he won't be clearing 60ft table tops but this thing looks like it would be a really good laugh around the woods. The front stopper has been upgraded to a twin leading shoe drum set-up from a Honda CB350, a fine choice as when dialled in correctly often outperform disc brakes from a similar era. Rims are new and alloy rather than steel, laced with stainless spokes. The distinguishable colour palette has been used again, this time a soft olive green for the tank which sits well with the combination of matt and gloss black. The almost anti-Brat seat is a gorgeously thick wedge of hand-stiched, brown leather that goes further than simply complimenting the rest of the build. A neat touch one now comes to expect is the AF triangle of reversed leather on the rear, showing the maker's marque. The engine has been completely rebuilt using new bearings, seals and gaskets. A 0.5 oversized Wiseco piston provides the punch, fed by a VM36 Mikuni on an open filter. Combined with the signature, hand-bent exhaust and minimal 2 stroke baffle welded in, this little SR promises to go as well as it looks.