Finishing up my ‘75 cb750F. Nicely restored by the two previous owner’s, starting with a freshly painted frame and top end rebuild, engine painted and running when I bought it. It needed new tires and when I pulled the old one off the rear, wheel pretty much collapsed. Looked OK from the outside, but completely rusted inside! New rim, spokes and some hub polishing. Then the front looked lousy, so I did that too. Next I installed a C5 Power Arc ignition (and coils and wires) I had sitting on the shelf. Built a separate wire harness for this system, so I can go back to stock easily.
Found a better front fender, rebuilt a “damp” caliper, and repaired some minor wiring issues (the neutral and oil light didn’t work). New fuel lines, some cleaner turnsignals I had and a host of other details. The machine looks great, previous owner had professional paint done by John Connery. This local, Toronto shop is famous for really nice work.
The darn bike looked so good, I decided to replace the seat cover....... 4 days later, it’s finally done. Rotten seat pan needed some repairs and paint. Then the first seat cover I got on EBay was so thick and huge (and didn’t match the ‘75 pattern), I ordered a different one. Came from vendor TOP-QUALITY-COVERS and very nice! Excellent match to the original and a perfect fit. No trimming required.
Biggest issue was the 5 fasteners that hold each chrome side strip on. The Honda fasteners fell apart and were totally corroded. Wanting to move ahead, I cut some thin, copper strips from sheeting I had on my shelves (very thin). Punched a 3/16” hole in each one and soldered in a small brass 8-32 machine screw. Trimmed them to just the size to slide into the channel in the back of the chrome strips. They slide back and forth and with a few stainless washers and nuts, it’s finally back together. I’ve probably already spent 40-50 hours on what was a nice, running motorcycle! Looks great, can’t wait ‘til Spring!
