Thanks Per, and I'm pissed off that Tim has to work tomorrow, so no ride? Damn, it'll have to wait until next weekend now, oh well............
Anyway, back to the latest "Swamp Rat" (Thanks Per) build. I drove the 200 miles to my home town and straight around to Gary's house, to collect the remains of his old 750. I didn't know, (but I suspected) that Gary was an Aboriginal, so when I got to his place, I was confronted by around 20 people sitting around his yard drinking booze, and as i walked up the driveway, I realised that I had become the centre of attention. Oh well, having kissed the "Blarney Stone" in Ireland in 1974, I seem to have a way with hostile crowds, and soon we were all sitting around yakking about motorcycles.
Gary wasn't home at that stage, so someone thrust a can of beer in my hand and engaged me in conversation, and a couple of the guys even took me up to the shed and showed me Gary's other bike, a 2003 "100th Anniversary" Harley softail. That was a bit of a surprise, as most of the local aboriginals are pretty poor, and I've never known one who owns a Harley before, because they're arguably the most expensive bikes you can buy here in Oz, even second hand.
I looked around the shed for other CB750 parts, but sadly there was just a very rusty seat with a rotten foam and ripped, non-original cover, so I left it. That's OK, I've got at least one good seat here. Gary arrived and I explained that I wasn't sure if I'd be able to drag the rotting hulk down his driveway to my trailer, but I needn't have worried, there were plenty of big strong boys who had it on my trailer in minutes without any input from me. Good sh1t! I took a pic of Gary with the bike, and as I left he promised he'd look for the missing bits and let me know, but I'm not fussed, I've got most of the parts I need to build a delightful rat 750, which I'll probably only sell to raise cash for my numerous other build projects.
Terry's Swamp Rat CB750 28 Apr 2019 9 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I towed it around to my Ma's place, and emptied a can of WD40 onto every nut and bolt, I did this with my CB350F back in 1996, and every nut and bolt came out in one piece, and it was pretty much in the same condition as the swamp rat.
Terry's Swamp Rat CB750 28 Apr 2019 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
When I got home I mixed up a 50/50 mix of ATF and Acetone and tipped some into thee inlet ports, and drenched the spark plugs, which (thankfully) were all in place, and all the nuts and bolts again. The rims are shot, as are the spokes and tyres, I actually had air in the rear tyre until it exploded 5 minutes after I pumped it up to 30 psi, although that might have been my fault, I had the rear end strapped down pretty tightly at the time, so the extra pressure was obviously too much for the perished old rubber. No biggie, I've got a better (not great) front wheel, and a (slightly better) rear rim and spokes that I can lace up. It'll do. Maybe I'll do the "Cafe Racer" thing, and paint it.
OK, so that's about it, once I get the plugs out I'll pour more ATF/Acetone mix down the plug holes and leave it for a few days, and pray to the great pumpkin that the engine will free up, but to be fair, I'm not holding out much hope. We'll see.
Terry's Swamp Rat CB750 28 Apr 2019 1 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Terry's Swamp Rat CB750 28 Apr 2019 2 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
