1979 CB750K Cafe - Sold

Re: 1979 CB750K Cafe Build - First Time Builder

And notlob comes in to save the day. Great advice.

My advice is to just leave it. Buy another bigger, newer bike if you want more power... there is only a certain amount of upgrading we can do before returns are vastly diminished. This is very true considering age of our technology!

But if you are determined, maybe you could look for the engine and do the swap. Do not let anyone discourage you but consider the costs and the headaches that will be on that road

1981 CB750K (getting there now)
 
Re: 1979 CB750K Cafe Build - First Time Builder

Sorry it's been so long everyone. I haven't done a whole lot in the last 8 months or so due to funding. I did get to do some carving on my seat. The foam turned out pretty interesting. It's easy to cut and sand but it does have some pretty massive air pockets on the inside. I was thinking of filling those and the outside with some modeling clay similar to the way carmakers mock up their designs. It's not close to done yet, and I have done some more refining since these pictures but wanted to get them out there. Anyone have advice on the best way to get the hump to be symmetrical? I'd hate to have some sort of deformation in the back. It's not quite as rough looking as it is in these pics. I'm having issues with loading pics to Photobucket from my phone, so I have to wait until I have a moment at work to do so.







Also, not to sound weird. I'm trying to find some buddies who live around me where we could possibly hang out and work on bikes or talk about bikes or cars or whatever. I find most dudes in my line of work don't wrench very much (kind of like me) but I would like to maybe hang out with some wrenchers and get some experience. I don't know if there's a section on this site where you can find local friends or if anyone in the South Phoenix area reads this, PM me. OK it sounds weird. I feel like Paul Rudd in "I Love You Man". LOL
 
Re: 1979 CB750K Cafe Build - First Time Builder

Nothing too exciting for the more experienced here. I was pretty proud of myself. I've been dreading messing with my wheels for a while and finally got the inspiration this weekend to go pick up some tire irons and an impact wrench to get my sprocket off. After wrestling with the back tire for about an hour and scratching the rim some, I finally got the rear wheel off. I hope I can sand out the scratches and then have the rims powder coated so no harm no foul. Here's the back wheel with the tire finally off.



Got the front tire off as well after yet another wrestle-mania.



Then I unlaced the rear wheel and started in on the front.



Finally got both the rims separated. I need to figure out how to disassemble the front hub to get the spokes off that bad boy.



I was thinking of powder coating the rims and hubs matte black and then buying a nice new set of chrome spokes to lace it up nice and pretty.
 
Re: 1979 CB750K Cafe Build - First Time Builder

Two words: Rim protectors. They're cheap! If you're really cheap, you can use the type of plastic off the white Tropicana orange juice containers. Also, white hand cleaner makes a great and cheap tire lube. I also find that three tire irons makes tire changing easier. If you can't save your spokes, try to find OEM first or you'll pay out the ass for a set from Buchanan. If you powder those rims, be super careful you don't pop the coating. Better to take them to the stealership because they have silicon tips on their tire changer.
 
Re: 1979 CB750K Cafe Build - First Time Builder

biker_reject: I did realize that three would have been much easier as well as smaller ones, but it was all that was available at my local Harbor Freight this weekend. I really don't want to try and save my spokes as some are rusted and broke while I was cranking down on the nipple (that sounds painful). I am looking for some OEM ones on eBay with chrome nipples and found a few reasonably priced ones, but shipping is over the top since they're overseas. I'll keep an eye out for OEM though. I will pay a professional to put the new tires and tubes on so I don't damage the rim or wreck the tube, or put the tire on in an unsafe manner. (Any suggestion on tires and tubes?) I will also let a pro handle the lacing and truing up of the rim. Worth the extra money to me. I'm lucky that even though I live in a cruddy neighborhood, I live right down the street from one of the world's largest Japanese motorcycle junk yards, a Harbor Freight, and walking distance from a powder coater who is giving me very reasonable quotes.
 
Re: 1979 CB750K Cafe Build - First Time Builder

Where I'm from, there is one mc salvage yard, and it's tiny and way on the other end of a neighboring city. Lots of people turn their noses up at HF, but for some types of tools, it can't be beat! For my KZ400, I had to search fleabay for the longest time to find spokes, and they were never in complete sets. For instance, I found all the inner spokes for the rear wheel in one set, but bought outer spokes in threes and fours and found a few at a local dealership. The rest I salvaged from the original spokes. Liquid Wrench and PB Blaster is your friend. Ha! As for tubes, I reused originals and for another bike, I just bought a pair from the local Honda shop. Lacing is kind of a pain at first, but once you get the hang of it, I don't think it's a skill you'll ever forget. Youtube taught me how to lace wheels, BTW. :)
 
Re: 1979 CB750K Cafe Build - First Time Builder

So after all the work I've been doing on my foam seat mock-up deal-y, I had an interesting opportunity come up. I work on an Innovations group at my work, so I'm surrounded by a bunch of really smart dudes who make me feel dumb. Lot's of hard-core programmers and guys who build robots and tiny controllers to monitor the temperature of their house when they're in the office. These guys do this stuff all day, and then go home and do it some more.

I got to talking to the guy who sits next to me, a nice young fellow 12 years younger than me and 3 times smarter. He told me about this place in AZ in downtown Mesa called a "Hacker Space". I had no idea what this was. It's basically a free co-op filled with all sorts of tools, computers, printers and gadgets. All free to use as long as you clean up after yourself. Drills, welders, presses, laser cutters and...a 3D printer. I got to talking to my cube mate and we thought, why not scan (oh yeah they have a 3D scanner too) the back end of my bike and then design a seat in a CAD program to make it perfect and then print it on the 3D printer in sections that I can then glue together and give to a fiberglass guy to glass. So, we took a trip down there, but it must have been an off night and no one who could work the scanner and printer was there. We'll try again in a couple weeks when my cubie comes back from a business trip. I'm pretty excited about this idea though.

At the very least, I can maybe have them print out smaller bracket type parts that can be plastic.

I've been staring at both of my hubs on my work bench. Can't get the front axle out, and have no clue how to disassemble the rear one. My manual, and schematics just don't go that far in depth. A little frustrated.
 
Re: 1979 CB750K Cafe Build - First Time Builder

So, as I destroy my hubs trying to take them apart, I decided to move onto something else. I went back to mounting my motor on the car engine stand I bought at Harbor Freight last year. I went to my local Industrial Metal Supply store and went to the scrap bin to find some angle iron bits. I found four almost identically sized scraps in the bin and wasn't charged for them. I got them home and started drilling.





I've gotten two of the angle irons drilled out to fit the upper engine bolt. I got those mounted onto the engine stand adapter. It's kind of hard to see, bad lighting, bad camera phone. I hope you get the idea though. In looking at the pictures now, I don't think I took into account having the upper bolt level with the motor bracket thing. I banged up my knuckles pretty good trying to get that all dialed in, guess it needs more tweaking. Hopefully, I'll have the other two drilled out within the next couple of days and have this mounted onto the motor. Then, I'll have to figure out how to get it onto the stand, with a 9 year old and my 116lb fiancé as my only roommates!



 
Re: 1979 CB750K Cafe Build - First Time Builder

Got the engine mounted on the stand. Of course now that it's on, I realized the cases won't come apart, so it'll only be on the stand for a short while. Need to shop of the clutch nut tool and whatever other weird tools I'll need. Sorry for the crappy photography.



 
Re: 1979 CB750K Cafe Build - First Time Builder

Take the good with the bad.

I am fulfilling my lifelong dream of moving to an area of Washington State near Seattle. I am finally purchasing a home at the ripe age of 39 and in order to afford it without breaking the budget, I had to select a house without a garage or a shed or anything of that nature. This means, I'm selling my "bike" on craigslist. Hopefully, someone buys it before I leave, otherwise, I will have to donate it to the local motorcycle parts yard, if they'll even take it.

After all the time and money I spent, I'm taking $100 for all of it, just because of time crunch. Plus, all of the lessons I've learned and friends I've made here are more valuable to me. If you know anyone in AZ looking to start a project or looking for parts, they can go here and see the add:

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/cph/mpo/5783247812.html

Plus they'll have my posts here to have that as part of it's history.

Thanks everyone for helping me along all these years, and I 'm sorry I didn't get to finish it. Hopefully, some day, I will be able to build a shed or shop at my new home and begin a new project. Till then, tootles. I will keep watching everyone's projects of course!
 
Re: 1979 CB750K Cafe - Selling

Good luck with the sale, Silky. :) From someone who lives in Puget Sound, I think you will really like it. There's a lot to do around here including cafe motorcycle culture if you find yourself with an old bike and a place to store it again.
 
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