Topic: 1973 CB750 Four K3 -- Project "Terry's Fault" -- BUILD RESUMED

[edwardmorris]

Thanks Don! I'm glad I won't be lacing and truing this time

So I think I finally settled on option 3 for exhaust and moving forward with it. Sorry if I'm boring people, just talking out loud here in case someone has some advice. Looking for someone in the area who owns/has access to a slip roll to get a prototype going for the muffler. One of my buddies at the local autoshop was interested and offered to make a prototype collector for me, I hope it works out

Tail end 4" dia
First joint 3-1/2" dia
Collector out leading into the holey pipe is 2" dia

[edwardmorris]

Mocked it up today with cardboard, 4---3-1/2 cone is getting to be too large, have to dial it back down to the original idea of 3-1/2---3 cone, but the lengths and angles worked out perfect. Hard to see in the pix as I couldn't push myself back far enough to show the length correctly.

[edwardmorris]

So, its been a while, been working a lot and waiting on some parts to get the exhaust done. Minimally I need the center stand to get the clearances sorted out with the pipes. Had some free time to mess around with custom faces, so I scanned in my old ones and photoshopped them to this. Thoughts? The ones on the left are using a futuristic font, and on the right its the stock font. Obviously these aren't finished and I've held back some elements that will fill out the gaps when I'm done.

[calj737]

Avoid using blue text in a black background. You will not be able to read it legibly in certain lighting conditions. It has a tendency to "bleed", unless you outline it with white.

You'd be better switching to white or yellow on black (red has same potential as blue for bleeding out).

[edwardmorris]

Even with LED backlight and a 60% through clear back plates?

[calj737]

Asked and answered. BTW, especiallly with an LED backlit source.

It's all about color saturation and your eyes ability to distinguish one color value form another. Look at numerous web sites, those with black backgrounds. Notice anywhere there is red or blue text, you can barely read it. Same issue. It's a terrible graphic choice and visually, you'll have an extremely difficult time reading it.

Yep, looks cool on the screen or printer. One of those "better on paper than in real life" ideas. But knock yourself out and try it. I'll add this as a final "why not": ever seen it on another production gauge? ^^^^ That's why not-

[edwardmorris]

Gauges sorted. Will post pix when I have them assembled, black and blue worked out fine with exactly the amount of illumination I wanted. Hit up Tige for suggestions with LED set up and he gave me some pointers, great guy. I'd share the mock up but that'll give away the theme  so in time

Well, the K3 drew blood today, busted up a finger trying to straighten out the center stand mounting tabs that were bent jackschit. Center stand, chain guard and some other goodies arrived from Bill Benton. There was no way I was going to throw my back out trying to pull one of these beasts up on the center stand. So I used my shiny new motorcycle lift to prop it up and swing the stand under it 

16" wheel is too small, look how far up in the air it stands, crazy  I'm glad I had the K2's stand chopped an inch. This one will follow.

[edwardmorris]

Ventured into the rats nest after that, boy what a mess, this is going to give me nightmares. I'll have to redo all wiring for the dash and controls. For the longest time I wondered where the heck is the ignition key, turns out it has a NASCAR style ignition 

[Tews19]

Rafi what are you going to do with the rear shock lowering blocks?

[edwardmorris]

Rafi what are you going to do with the rear shock lowering blocks?

Sell/Trade?

[Tews19]

Let me see if the guy I know wants them. How much if you were to sell?

[edwardmorris]

Let me see if the guy I know wants them. How much if you were to sell?

Check PMs.

[edwardmorris]

As the exhaust work continues in the background, I'm glad the tank got done 

Original Ford's Mustang GT Race Red

[Davez134]

Very nice!

[edwardmorris]

Thanks! Most of the exhaust stuff is out of my hands at the moment, really need that fitment locked down so I can start tearing into the engine. Any pro welders wanna lend a hand  ??

[edwardmorris]

Look what arrived today from half way around the world! I had a very specific custom set in mind for this bike, but Joe's/FrankenFrankenStuff foundry isn't quite ready yet so these will have to do. There's always another 750 right  Besides, I have something else cooking that he's helping me with right now, details in time 

[Davez134]

I'm blinded Very nice!

[HondaMan]

As the exhaust work continues in the background, I'm glad the tank got done 

Original Ford's Mustang GT Race Red

Beeyootiful!


How are the pipes doing (or should I ask?).

[edwardmorris]

Thanks!

As for the exhaust, so far having schit for luck with local shops and welders. A good friend form here is looking into it for me, so hopefully some progress on that soon. Exhaust is what is holding up the teardown.

[edwardmorris]

Got a good jolt of motivation after early release from work, so I started tearing it down. Need to make room in the garage anyway to start the K2 assembly in March. Some good and bad news. Good news is that the frame is intact, and what looked like rust is actually crud falling out of the seat.

The PO had used 7/16" bolts instead of seat hinges to mount the seat, total PITA to get them out. Gas tank has a nasty smelling light yellow colored coating on the inside, no idea what it is. Took off the controls, and its safe to say they are toast. The wires are so hard, they're cracking like twigs. And the insides of the controls are a cruddy mess too  The electrical stuff at the battery box is just as bad or worse, very little hope of saving anything there.

[edwardmorris]

The rear fender is a total hidden disaster. Every other bolt is SAE force threaded over the metric stuff, left mounting bolt was a 1/2" torx, right was the metric equiv  Front of the fender has a massive tear near the mounting bolt, now I know why it looked like it was leaning right. Worst of all, since the rubber inserts for the wiring were missing, the PO used sealing foam to cover up the holes 

[edwardmorris]

The seat latch bracket screw was pretty banged up and I was ready to drill it out, but I decided to try Gordon's impacta on it anyway. One hit and the thing came right off 

The carbs! They're shedding their pods 

Pulled them off caveman style with a broom stick The slides are stuck in plate, choke moves with great resistance, these are in need of some serious work

[edwardmorris]

Didn't make it back to the carbs yet, but since I'm trying to get the controls for the K2 back together, I started with that for the K3 as well. The ones that came off the bike are basically unusable, save for the outer shells. I went back to my box of misfit parts and found a set of K4 controls that came with the K2, mostly intact but missing the throttle adjust screw and spring (aren't they all missing this now a days?) and a broken high/low beam siwtch.

As luck would have it, there was a K1 part out thread here that had just the controls I needed! K2 and earlier on the RHS and K4 and later on the LHS (seriously what are the odds  ). So two birds in one, have the kill switch knob to use with the K2 and the high/low switch to use with the K3 (with K4 controls). Took em apart, soaked in electrical parts cleaner and separated everything (no pix though, damn phone's been on the charger). Not a bad evening 

[Restoration Fan]

Love that tank!  Where did you get your paint?

[edwardmorris]

Ford dealership, about $50 for the red and clear. Had a local body shop do the paint as I didn't want to ship it out. They didn't want to touch anything motorcycle related like all other shops here . But after constant pestering and imploring, and the fact that it was a new tank already primed and sanded, they agreed to do it.