Hello everyone, I've been looking to cafe a bike for a little over a year now and it wasn't until the 26th of last month that I found and bought the perfect one. It's a 1974 Honda CB750. The previous owner DID NOT do me any favors on this bike. Every bit of the bike has been an absolute pain in the ass however, this has thus far turned into a labor of love for me so I'm all for the pain and agony that I have thus suffered so far.
When I got the bike home, it was a sorry mess of wires, dirt and road grime from years past, and a terrible looking tank. However, that first weekend, I got the bike stripped, sandblasted, and primed. This last week has been all about tearing the engine apart. The guy before me left the spark plug holes uncovered so the pistons welded themselves to the cylinder walls. However, with a little bit of coaxing from a two pound deadblow and my 10'' extension, I was able to get the cylinder jugs freed from their prison.
Next order of business is to get stainless valves, valve guides, valve seats, and a weisco forged 836cc piston kit so I can get the overbore going. I'll be crinkle coating the entire thing and when I get the valve cover cleaned and coated, I'll post a picture so you all know what to expect. The paint scheme that I'll be following is a candy apple red and a heavy copper metal flake.
This is what I had waiting for me in his garage. I was excited about starting my new project due to the fact that my superhawk is damn near done. All I need to do with that is wire in the front turn signals, register it, insure it, and ride it!
This is what I found after I sandblasted the frame. In some other time, someone decided to take a hack saw to the stock swingarm. I don't know what would possess someone to do this and to what end but all I've got to say about it is dumbass. Not so sure about how the triple tree broke but it doesn't matter. I'm getting a new one anyway.
I have TONS of other pictures about the things that I've done with the bike but I don't really know where to start so I'll just post these up now and if you all want to see more, I'll post up some more. Anyway that's what I've been up to.
Started taking the valve train apart and I needed a way to keep it all organized so I arranged the parts in the exact order and location that I took them off at. I'll figure out a better system than this sooner or later to save me a headache down the road. Hopefully sooner. Hah
Because the engine was locked up, I couldn't turn the crank to get the masterlink out of the timing chain so I bought a pair of 18'' bolt cutters and cut the #$%*er off. Cost myself 30 dollars in the end but it was worth it. I'm rebuilding the whole thing anyway.
When I finally did get the head off, I found gratuitous amounts of carbon build-up on the valves. It was definetly time for a rebuild.
As I said before, the guy before me did not do me any favors. The pistons were welded to the cylinder walls but I got it off after some persuasion.
Tomorrow I'll post up pics of the pistons outside of the cylinders and me taking the top of the crankcase off.
Cracked open the crank case today. There were a lot of bolts going into that thing but I got them all figured out. I dropped the top half off at the machinst's place and he's going to hot tank it for me. When I get it back I'll crinkle coat it and wrap it in saran wrap until I get my crank bearings, wiesco forged pistons, and a complete engine gasket kit. Then I'll start to put it all back together.
Got the top of the crankcase back from the machinist today. He hot tanked it and a lot of the old paint fell off. We found that the case itself has been polished by someone. This case has magnesium in it. I imagine it would have been really hard to polish it.
I just got it taped off and am now sticking it in the oven to heat it up. I found that when you heat up the thing that your coating, it crinkles tighter and it adheres better. I'll put up a picture when I'm done.
WOW! Let me just say how impressed I am with crinkle coat in a can. I heated the thing up to 200 degrees F in the oven (God bless my wife. Haha) and sprayed it immediately following that. I'll be waiting a little bit to do the bottom because I want to make sure that I know exactly what I'm doing with the internals. I want to keep everything organized and I want to understand exactly how it all goes back together.
Just a quick update, I called Cycle X in WI today and on monday I'll be shipping out my crank and transmission (assuming I can get it out) for them to "pork chop" the crank and send me a coated race transmission. I'll get pics up of both pieces as soon as I get them back.
That is how the motor sits right now. I got antsy and went out to take it completely apart but I'm stuck on getting the transmission out. I have no idea how to take that sucker out. Figured I'd come in and do some youtubing to see if I can figure out how.
Got some parts back yesterday from the machinist. He hot tanked them for me. I went ahead and painted them last night and this is how they came out. Not to much longer and I'll have to start painting the hardware. I think I'll go with a burnt copper color
Sprocket cover
Oil pan cover
Alternator cover
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Bottom half of the crankcase
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Did some painting on the oil filter cover today.
I realize the beginning of this and all the pictures may be a little overwhelming for a new member to just come in here and post but I'm going to be really active here. I'm glyptal'ing the case this weekend, and am getting my CX-7 cam also. Mid month May I'll be ordering my 970cc pistons and getting the jugs machined out. My question is though, where can I find a good swing arm that has been either braced or boxed, or if there is even a race swingarm out there? Also, what are people doing for racing front ends? Are they swapping in something different? Putting Race tech internals in there? ANd one final thing, if someone can point me to a drouin supercharger or ATP turbo kit that would be fantastic.
BY the way, My name is Josh nelson and I'm in Idaho. I've been fascinated with cafe's for the longest time now and just recently was able to pick up this gem. I look forward to your feedback and any advice that you may have! Keep watching as this build is not going to be something that someone skipped out on. I'm doing a complete frame up cafe bike out of. This is my dream bike and I refuse to settle for anything less than perfect.
