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Well, It's finally time to pull this tired old girl out of the shed and give it some serious TLC. I bought this bike back in the spring of 1980 when I was a senior in high school. I rode it home...pleased as punch with a huge smile on my face. Well, two days later, I was involved in a fairly serious accident (not on the bike..I was a passenger in a school bus) that put me in the hospital for a couple of weeks and on crutches for three months. Undeterred, I strapped my crutches to the back of the bike and had some of the most enjoyable riding I've ever had. I rode this bike for nine years wracking up many thousands of miles.
So here it is in all it's glory.....well, more like neglect. And yes, I rode this bike with that ugly fairing
I am planning on doing a full teardown and restore the bike as close to stock as I can...within reason. Repro pipes are going to run $1200.00 minimum so thats going to take a huge chunk of the budget right there. I don't even want to think what the cost of good oroginal pipes would run. I will be searching for good deals on good used parts that are nice, but not necessarily perfect. I want to ride this bike a lot.....so it will get the inevitable nick and scratch anyway.
I ran across this CB750 in Italy when I was over there for work this summer. This bike is why I brought my 750 to the front of my project que. This is the color I plan on painting.
First step was to remove the fairing and throw it in the trash heap!!! Then off to the car wash to pressure wash as much of the dirt and grime that I could. Then I started taking stuff off.
My wife says I have too many bikes in the garage.....I just can't understand that. My 68 bonnie is on the lift in the upper corner of the photo. Not in picture is my sons BSA project and the CB750.
I decided to take some time away from tear down and powder coat some of the parts. First I had to patch a couple of holes that were drilled in the tool tray.
I figured I would powder some of this stuff early on for motivation. It helps me keep my nose to the grindstone. Unfortunately, I have to leave for work for ten days starting tomorrow, so things will be at a standstill for a while.
Tool tray holes welded up, ground down, and powdered
Subscribed. I have seen your other bikes and ridden with you so I know this one will be beautiful as well. CB750's, pigs as they are, are amazing machines and I cannot wait to see and hear this beast in its original glory.
How did you clean your airbox so well?
Let's get together when you return (and my life slows down a bit) and we can dig through Winona Riders' pile for the missing parts for you need.
Lagunitas Hop Stoopid, appropriately named, is a cruel mistress, use sparingly.
Thanks for the vote of confidence Jon. It would be very difficult to match the meticulous attention to detail that you have in your bikes. I'm looking forward to getting a look at your Gold Star. Now that is an amazing restoration!!
As far as the air box, nothing special....washed in hot soapy water followed by a few applications of an Armour All clone called Turtle Wax Formula 2001. I've had this stuff rolling around in my garage for years.
Hop Stoopid...definitely no power tool usage with that wicked brew
I just ordered a half gallon of wintergreen oil for the carb and intake boots per your tech thread on the dohc forum. It looks like that is the ticket for reconditioned pliable rubber.
Not a huge progress report but I am making headway.
The engine is out and the frame is nearly ready to be cleaned, blasted and coated. I have to remove the center and side stands, bearing cups, and misc. rubber grommets. Thanks to my 15 year old son for helping me manuever the frame off the engine.
I got a little more done this afternoon. The center stand and side stand are now removed. The center stand was scraped off from over zealous corners or getting laid down sometime in the past so I decided to build that area back up and shape with a grinder and file. Little did I know that the ball on the end of the center stand was actually hollow. Thinking it was solid, I cranked up the amps on my Lincoln 180 MIG. I layed a good long bead to heat it up good and blew a hole right through it. Oops, I backed off the amps and used a series of short bursts to fill the hole back up and then build up the whole area. It looks decent now.
I removed the swingarm bushings with my blind bearing remover. Instead of using the slide hammer part of the tool, I ran a pipe through the swingarm and hammered it out from the other side. It worked great!
Crusty front brake master cylinder
My front caliper was stuck. I went to three different places today trying to find a 10 1.25 thread grease zirk and nobody had one.......So, I drilled a hole through a 10-1.25 bolt and then tapped it to accept a 1/4 by 28 grease zirk. then I cut the bolt off and came up with this.
I screwed it into the caliper, and pumped the piston right out
Caliper parts bead blasted and waiting for powder coating
Small steps forward. The caliper and master cylinder are powder coated. I ended up using semi-gloss for everything......I had thought of using satin for the calipers but I'm lazy and did not feel like changing powders between parts. I think that it looks about right for the master cylinder but maybe a bit shiny for the caliper.
I finally got a very stubborn fork seal retainer clip out last night after days of soaking with penetrating oil. This morning I disassembled and cleaned the forks. I soda blasted the lowers and then started sanding the corrosion out of the aluminum. I used 400 grit first and then 800 grit. A lot of people then use 1000 to 1500 grit paper. For some reason, I find that when I go super fine with the paper, the first buffing compound is actually coarser than the paper. After the sanding I used Red Tripoli, Black Emory, and finally, White Rouge. I still have to hit it with 3M finesse it finishing compound. They actually look better in person than in the photo.
when your wife said you had too many bikes in the garage she was probably inviting you to move some inside ..........
can you explain why/how you use black emery, i thought it was for ferrous metals...i use tripoli and white rouge on aluminum but willing to try something else....i also use coarser paper to finish before buffing, 400/600 grit...
joe
when your wife said you had too many bikes in the garage she was probably inviting you to move some inside ..........
can you explain why/how you use black emery, i thought it was for ferrous metals...i use tripoli and white rouge on aluminum but willing to try something else....i also use coarser paper to finish before buffing, 400/600 grit...
joe
Hello Joe, you are absolutely correct about the emery. I'm using compounds I have on hand. I use the emery after the tripoli because, for me, it seems to even out (for lack of a better term) the tripoli. The emory seems to get a nice even satin finish before final polish. After reading your post, I went to the caswell site and reread their buffing how to. I think I may try the three compounds in the order that they recommend. It appears that they recomend black, brown, then white. http://www.caswellplating.com/buffman.htm
Definately more than one way to skin a cat though.
A long tedious day of degreasing and cataloging all the nuts, bolts, washers, and misc. pieces for zinc plating. everything is broken down by sub system, such as engine mounts, center and side stand, brake master cylinder, etc. etc. I measured all lengths and diameters of every bolt, washer (inside and outside for washers), and nut. I have 12 pages so far. Hopefully this will make it easy to separate and organise everything when I get it back.
I also discovered I need to add a new swing arm spindle to my wish list. It is really worn and scored.
Oh, a couple more shiny bits. This was my experiment with Duplicolor 1615 and clear coat.....baked afterwords. It seems pretty tough.
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