CB750 Update

Haven't taken to many photos of the project lately, but heres the scoop:

Frame, trees, side stand, and center stand have been painted;

Fender has been primered and just needs wet sanding and paint;

Tank still needs more body work and to be primed and painted;

Carb work has begun, tried it in the house, wife through me out after an hour of gas fumes permeating;

Have begun cleaning up the front end;

Will be ready to start reasemmbling and ordering a few more parts next week

Items needed:

some bars(clip-ons or maybe clubmans),

top clamp(s) for riser (7/8), 

11.5 shocks (eye to clevis),

small headlight (bottom or side mounts),

Please shoot me an email or comment if you have any of these laying around and want to get rid of them!

Here is one crappy cell phone pic from the other night after the frame was moved back inside after being painted and before it rained, Again.

Neat Bikes residing at the local bike shop.

Stopped in the other day to get an oil filter for my bike and finally decided to grab some pics of the old Harley's and Simplex that reside at the local bike shop. It's really just a boat dealership now that still sells various items for the bikes they use to sell and service.  These bikes belong to one of the capital contributing owners.

I read where these bikes would get 100 mpg fuel efficiency.  Energy crisis could be solved and everyone would be a lot cooler if they rode a Simplex!  Genius idea!

Fathers Day!!!!

I haven't been posting anything lately because I've been super  busy.  This is about a week late, but Fathers Day was awesome.  I spent some quality time with the family and they did Poppa proud by offering me this new Biltwell lid as a token of their appreciation.  I'm pretty sure this is my new favorite helmet.  I use to rock these all the time as a young chap and wish I could find them now.  I'm thinking a search of the two shops at my folks house is in order now.  Oh yeah, ~T hooked it up with a shirt and some pants for Fathers Day to but I will spare everyone a picture of slacks and a polo.  :) 

Body Work Made Easy - CB750 Progress

Decided to fill some holes on Saturday.  Thought I would put this little how to out there for the poor man who wants to fill holes the simple way. 

First, apply a little Duck Tape to the outside of the area you want filled.  Sometimes you may want to take a hammer and give this area a slight indention.

Next cut your fiberglass sheets to size for the area you want filled.  Mix the hardener with the material you can purchase in Fiberglass kit from most any automotive parts house.  Brush some of the mixed material onto the surface the sheets will be applied to, lay the sheets down, and cover them with the mixture, taking care to spread out the edges.  The finished area should look something similiar to what's below.  (This is definately not professional work but CAN save you some $$$$.)

Once the fiberglass has been applied to the inside of the fender and allowed to set for several minutes, the Duck Tape can be pulled from the outside of the fender.  The result will appear similiar to the two pictures below. 

You can see the basic items you will need in this picture, although you really don't need tape for body work, I was just trying to experiment and reduce the sanding since my DA sander is not functioning currently.  The fiberglass kit in the box will have everything you need to do many of these type jobs.  It's also a great way to fix the pesky fender well holes in old trucks.  The process is the same.  

Below: just a shot of the beginning of the body work on the tank. I decided to remove the Honda emblems and this area will be smoothed.

Next, Mix your Bondo Body Filler and apply generously over the holes.  Wait a minute or two and grab a simple "cheese grater" (about $4 bucks at the parts house) to knock down the excess before it gets to hard and to begin getting the desired shape.  (Again the tape was an experiment and I don't recommend it at all.)

 After some sanding with varioud grits of sandpaper ending with some vary fine, you should not be able to feel where the bondo meets the fender.  It is now ready to be primed and painted.

Like I said earlier, this is a quick and dirty way to do it and it has never failed me before.  

Patriot Guard...THANK YOU!

So this is what is going on today outside the office. Thanks go out to these guys (Patriot Guard) for doing what they do and to all our service men and women for all the sacrifices they make. It saddens me and pisses me off though that such acts are needed at the memorial services of a fallen soldier in this country. I just got done eating lunch with my 9 year old daughter who inquired about all the motorcycles in my work parking lot. She wanted to know if they showed up to tell the family, "It's going to be o.k., and he's going to heaven." I told her ALL our soldiers go the heaven and as I finished explaining the situation to her, she pauses and says in an emotional young girls voice, "Daddy it's not very nice for people to show up and say ugly things about our soldiers...But (after a brief pause)...Thank God there are people who ride motorcycles that won't put up with that CRAP!"

The conversation was emotional for her and myself and brings tears almost out of my eyes as I write this. She knows and understands the sacrifices our soldiers make because we discuss it. A member of her family HAS fought and IS still fighting every war since WWII. My grandfather who is a WWII vet is still alive and with us today. This carries through both sides of her family on mine and her mothers.

U.S. Army Sgt. Christopher Bell, may your heart be at ease, and may your family have peace.

The article from today's local paper for those interested.
http://www.cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=11779

Top photo courtesy of Luisa Porter. 

Day 9 CB750 Progress Engine Removal Made Easy

Well, I didn't get a lot done last night.  My back hurts so bad there wasn't much I wanted to do.  I did however get the motor out relatively easy after discovering the frame rail was removeable yesterday morning.  It took about 5 minutes and was relatively simple with the assistance of a motorcycle jack.  

 By placing the two small blocks of wood under the oil filter area the motor remained completely level and slid out with no problem at all.  After knowing it would slide out, I threw two straps on to secure it to the jack, and out she came.

 Below is a decent shot of the frame with removeable frame rail unconnected and laying next to the bike and motor. I'm still concerned I may of tweaked the frame a little bit because when I put the rail back on there was a small gap in the downtube.  I will have to figure out how to remedy this.

 My helper is proud of our accomplishment for the day.  We decided this was enough for the day.

 Below, engine removed, and frame rail back on.

Days 5-8 CB750 project

 I got the wiring harness to come out in one piece.  Looks pretty simple, right?

 I then took the old bars, cut them, and bent them some to get an idea of what I would like to do.  These aren't long enough, but give me a rough idea of positioning and what I want.

Pulled the drive sprocket off, removed chain, and loosened the engine mounting bolts.  This was pretty simple for a Monday night.  I was thinking the motor would come out pretty simple. 

And then a discovery was made. I don't know if pressure from the engine against the frame did this or if it was already like this.  I wiped this area off to photograph it.  All I know is that as soon as loosened that bracket on the right side the downtube was sheared clean and started open up. (Insert whatever emoticon here that wants to throw heavy objects in the shop!)

**Edit-After talking to a friend this morning, I've learned that this model bike has a removeable frame rail and can be disconnected from under the engine and slide right out.  mic, Appreciate it homey.  I knew this was going to be a learning process, and I'm sure it won't stop here.**

Oh yeah, one last thing, bad backs and pulling CB750 motors by ones self, does not equal a very good morning. 

Day 3 1980 Honda CB750C cafe project

Took about two minutes to pull the carbs and airbox out last night.  Got the battery tray out, all the wiring is ready to come out (trying to take my time with this), and got all the lights and various items on the front end off. 

I just can't wait to tear into these and have fun rebuilding them. (Insert whatever bullshit SARCASTIC emoticon goes here please.)



A little before shot of the clunky, jumbled up mess of a front end.

After, starting to look a little cleaner.  I'm going to do my best at simplifying the wiring.

I kind of like how the bars bend down.  I may end up making something like this instead of doing clip-on's.  This will save me a few dollars as well.

Bruton coozie in action.  I met this guy at the Dixie Roundup in Birmingham.  His shop is next door to Garage Company Customs.  The guy was super nice and his shop was super cool with lots of neat bikes.  You can find more information about him and his shop through these two links.

http://www.brutonvintagemotorcycle.com/

http://www.brutonvintagemotorcycle.blogspot.com/

If anyone wants to send stickers, I got places to put them.  Drop me a line and I will tell you how to get them here.

Day 2 1980 CB750C DOHC

These carburetors suck.  I didn't get home until 8 last night from work.  Removed some old wiring and the battery tray from the bike.  Tried to get the carbs off with no success.  It was late and I was tired so I decided to call it a night.  They were loose on the airbox side but didn't want to slide out of the manifolds coming off of the cylinder side.  I will pull the whole air box out tonight and get them off for a full rebuild and see what else is going on.  Good news is I may be receving a free parts bike on Friday.

Day One '80 CB750C DOHC

I got a sneaky suspicion that these 4 carburetors are gonna give me a headache. The one on the far right is leaking fuel pretty steady from the drain plug when the petcock is turned to the 'On' and 'Res' position.  Got a few things to check when I get home.  The goal is to get the carb issues resolved, tune, clean and polish motor, strip bike completely, re-assemble with mild mods, paint, ride, sell.  Hopefully this will be done in under a month.