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Hi gang, been a lurker for some months as I have been trying to find a good (read cheap, solid, and running) CB750 to cafe. My first bike was a Buell XB9R that I bought new in '03 and sold years later for my Porsche project which I posted over in cages some time ago. Anyway on to the show. Here is an image from the Ebay classified that I found my bike on, turned out to be a good one by my definition and even relatively close to me near Wash DC
Since buying the bike a about a week ago I have given it a good bath, polished some aluminum adjusted the idle speed, bought and installed a set of carpy's bars and headlight visor. I should have googled the wire run through the bars as I screwed up the left hand wires alot with cuts and broken solder bullets. Now that is fixed and I have also polished the controls while I had them off. Oh BTW the bike is a 71 #471 I believe, I cant't think of too much else I have done thus far. I am In the process of taking some measurement to beat out a new seat cowl of 3/32 ally. I will probably follow the lines of the tank for the shape as I don't like the idea of cutting a tank and or using steel for such a non steel part. I am a hobbyist metalworker, I built steel flares for the back of my Porsche so the idea of hammering allum into a shot bag doesn't sound like a hassle. By trade I am in the Army as a Prime Power Production Powerplant Sergeant, that is a long way of saying I run and service several Mega Watt powerplants for emergencys and disasters and the like. Bla bla bla , here's the bike yesterday after rerouting cables and wiring. Paint is doen by the PO and its gold rustoleum. Ya the pipes need to go.
I am already thinking about final paint of course and have grown to like the gold somewhat but would like to add some accent color like blue or red like ironman actually. I am not against taking the frame down to nothing for powder or paint but will likely wait till the winter to do that. The chrome and polish I dig up front. The path I am leaning towards is scallops like the Gee Bee air racers of the 30's in maybe red over gold or vice versa maybe over satin black with gold pinstripe. I am really open to ideas at this point. In the meantime I'm gonna pound some metal and put my tools away from the past weeks tinkering. Before you ask I do have a fender for the front, the PO threw one in that he had kicking around from a Sportster. I didn't feel bad cutting the brackets off but it still needs a bob as does the honda fender in the back need replacing with a shorter alum copy or even a complete delete under the cowl I'm gonna make.
Gimme some input gang.
Thanks Busa, I removed the rear fender today and just remounted the taillight to some strips of aluminum I bent up real quick, the plate is zip tied to a quick bracket under that. I can see that as others have done I will need to lob off the subframe behind the rear shocks upper mounts. That will have to wait until I hammer out a cowl.
If anyone has a 4-1 exhaust or header that would like to trade for my 2-2 set up please let me know. I would rather trade these off than hack em or toss 'em. Also need advise on what take off rear sets would fit well and look appropriate...
So today I solved my two remaining electrical problems, I had an inop Kill Sw and my lighting dimmer Sw had some crossed wires. After studying the prints for a bit and cracking the control apart I saw that my Off-Low-High beam wires were backwards and on the wrong side so after a half hour of soldering I solved that problem and everything now works as it should. The dimmer was my bad as I screwed it up on disassembly. The kill sw has never worked and I finally tracked that down by checking continuity between Blk/wht in the bucket and ground. There was, so then I checked with the blk/wht off the coils disconnected, same deal. Knowing that that foot of harness was the problem I started stripping it back and found where there was a crimp connector to ground, ding ding ding , now it works properly. Long story but perhaps it will help another at some point.
Remaining stuff to tend to:
Rewrap all the harnesses in either new plastic or braid or heat shrink or IDK what. What do you guys like? What looks most classic?
Form an Ally cowl and seat pan, gotta learn compund curves, or give up on making the tail piece of one piece. Is it easiest to compund curve in two pieces or three? keep in mind the curvature I am after is that of the rear of the 750K tank.
Order a Vincent STOP tailight maybe.. That can wait till later I guess.
Still wanna replace my exhaust on the cheap. I will ask again if there are any members who wanna trade?
I say just repaint it in a nice gold with some real heavy flake in it. Somebody on here did one like that with a black pinstripe and Honda wings and it looked very sharp.
Since my last post I have taken a sheet of aluminum from a street sign as I had it laying around and annealed, stretched and smoothed till I got something close to a model I made of 22 ga ally.
Pictured is the model and the full scale piece.
After trimming and mounting it to the bike, this is what it looks like now. I still need to make a seatpan and a seat. I am thinking of moving it back more or trimming it differently, I will have to see what it feels like and looks like. Does it seem a bit small next to that massive gastank? I plan on knee dents but am not in a hurry to do it. What can i do to make it more right?
Cowl looks pretty good, but I am not sure about running that big factory light, might want to try a smaller light tucked under the ned of the cowl. It does com out a little small looking against that tank, but I think it should look fine once you do something different with the light and put in some knee dents! Keep it up!
im diggin the build so far.
i agree with twisted regarding the light.
and also the knee dents in the tank will also ad to the flow of the body styling along with the new cowl.
overall good work man, keep it up.
Hey another 750! Excellent. +1 on the knee dents and getting rid of the factory light. I'm actually about to bash some knee dents into a spare tank I got for my 750. I'm building a 750 as well and I've got tons of parts for them, so if you need anything, just let me know and odds are I've got a few of whatever it is!
Go check out my build thread for ideas/what-not-to-do! It's linked in my signature down below this post.
I've still got lots of stuff to do... but it's on the road.
Anyway see ya 'round
Alex
Daily Bump, Today I am stripping the paint off of the top triple and gauge backs. I think that will visually lighten the front end. Pics to follow. I ordered a medium cateye tailight from DCC yesterday and some little turn signals with a fresh headlight bezel. I wish I had remembered a few days ago to place the order as even USPS priority will take till Monday at least. May make a seat pan today but I want to retain the stock hinges and latch so we'll see how far that will get. At least I can let the bits soak in stripper while I try new things with ally.
TOny
I didn't get to a seat pan or finalize anything on the cowl. I did strip the tank, the triple and paint the ears and headlight bucket. With the gold gone I can see where I want to head a little clearer. The plate mount is temporary. I need some advice on a good way to make legs for the front fender. The one that I got from the seller was from a sportster and as such the mounting was not the same. As it is now it is sitting on a few sanding sponges over the front tire.
After several tries I got a seat pan made and retained the stock hinges. I bent and flipped the hinges around to be narrower and probably a tad lower as well. I was able to remove the caps or the Hagon shocks that came with the bike. I believe they are 11" should I replace these with something longer? My PO has a set of vintage S&W's in 13" that only need retouching of the gold hardware. Also shown is my top triple that I stripped the paint from and I think it looks pretty nice against the controls that I did the other week. I would like to find a way to lower the factory clocks but would rather not cut the cast brackets, I thought that if I put the rubber mount rings on the top side of the ring that they would be lower but then I need a way to seal the space that is currently sealed by that rubber. Any ideas there are appreciated.
also is the current profile shot ripe for photoshopping some paint ideas hint hint.. blue and silver is what I am feeling.
Yup, its my teener. 71 with a 2.0 I built several years ago. Its my other getaway pod. Did you all notice the water in my gauges? I can't figure how to dry them out without taking apart and then how do I reseal tham so they don't get soaked through.
Also where do people find inch thick or so foam rubber for seat foam material. My original is too spongy and the craft foam from the fabric store is still too spongy though still new.
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