Topic: 1975 Honda CB750P2 Police Restoration - White Gold

[JamesH]

So, now that the ‘68 CL450 has finally ‘had it’s turn’ I thought I’d start work on this ‘plod’ bike that I’ve had for a few years now.

This is an ex-Saudi 1975 CB750 P2 - and let’s just say it’s going to need a LOT of love and attention.

This is going to be a slow-burner over the winter months, especially given the amount of painting required..

Anyway, as they say a picture paints a thousand words, so those of a rust-averse disposition best look away now…












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[JamesH]

I’m documenting this build mainly on the UK forum, but I’ll try and keep both the Uk and this thread up to date..

[JamesH]

Managed to grab an hour at lunchtime to lay out the various parts I’ve been collecting over the years for this specific build.

If you thought that K0 / Sandcast parts were difficult to find NOS, think again. Think Unicorn bitcoins..

Looking down, I realise there is a serious amount of £ on the floor in front of me - a scary amount in fact.

[rickmoore24]

White  Gold indeed! I imagine many parts are police bike specific? I don't know anything about them. How long did it take to collect these pieces? Following along. Rick.

[JamesH]

White  Gold indeed! I imagine many parts are police bike specific? I don't know anything about them. How long did it take to collect these pieces? Following along. Rick.

Thanks Rick. About 3 years collecting parts..

[JamesH]

The engine rebuild actually took place over the last few weeks (in advance of a build like this I always like to get the engine buttoned up an ready to just put back in when the rest is ready).

The oil pressure switch wire (with the horrible red crimped connector) is just there for testing - I have a new Honda wire and moulded rubber cover to fit..

Looking nice…

 

[Prospect]

This is going to be a great build. Please update here as well. How did you get a hold of an ex-Saudi police bike? Can you give us a bit of history regarding the bike and how you found parts for it?

[JamesH]

Well I bought the bike back in the summer of 2018 - the seller was selling lots of NOS Honda parts as part of an estate sale here in the UK, and I couldn’t resist taking the bike on.

Sadly with the owner deceased, I don’t have any history of the bike, how it came to the UK or when it was dismantled.

But it’s definitely an ex-Saudi police bike and a correct police model..that’s as much history as I have.

This was the day I picked it up back in 2018 and I’ve been sourcing parts since then.

I’ll keep the thread updated as and when progress is made.

This is definitely going to be probably my most challenging restoration to-date, but certainly will be rewarding..wish me luck

[MauiK3]

Wow, where did you locate the NOS stuff?
Impressive, the speedo is interesting.
Following, keep us up to date.
Who did the motor, looks great.

[supersports400]

Wow, what a project, following !

[seanbarney41]

This is cool.  And I fully expect James to do his usual delicious work.  I am curious what discoveries will be made as to performance upgrades only available to police?  Upgraded suspension? Stronger brakes?  Engine mods?  I have owned an ex-police 1991 Chevrolet Caprice and that thing definitely had heavy duty equipment that was not available for the general public to order new.

[JamesH]

This is cool.  And I fully expect James to do his usual delicious work.  I am curious what discoveries will be made as to performance upgrades only available to police?  Upgraded suspension? Stronger brakes?  Engine mods?  I have owned an ex-police 1991 Chevrolet Caprice and that thing definitely had heavy duty equipment that was not available for the general public to order new.

Thanks for all the comments.

Sadly Sean you’re likely to be disappointed - the engine is/was a completely stock 736 motor.

Incredibly, the rear shocks are completely standard Showa 341’s as well. As far as I can tell, the only major mods are to the frame (additional brackets for front, side, rear bars and rear box) and the obvious wiring mods.

All will be revealed over the coming weeks

[zalion0]

Hello from the neighbouring county haha ! Very cool project! Interesting bike with the sirens too!

[Don R]

 I enjoyed seeing the mix of k1 and newer parts. Another illustration that Honda often used what they had.

[desertrefugee]

Definitely following this thread as well.

However, that motor is waaay too pretty to go into a utilitarian police bike. Police motors need to show signs of a little industrial usage.  Joking of course, but I suspect the typical delivery to a police department only looked like that for a short time before they did yeoman's duty.

[BenelliSEI]

Great project. Following along!

[kap384@telus.net]

The engine rebuild actually took place over the last few weeks (in advance of a build like this I always like to get the engine buttoned up an ready to just put back in when the rest is ready).

The oil pressure switch wire (with the horrible red crimped connector) is just there for testing - I have a new Honda wire and moulded rubber cover to fit..

Looking nice…

 

Beautiful work on the engine!  Looking good!

[JamesH]

Big pile of CB750P parts dropped at the blasters to be blasted and primed, prior to refinishing with 2-pack (2k) semi-gloss white.

Managed to take the NOS rear top box to my local Automotive paint merchant who did a spectrograph colour mate - Fiat Bianco 224 seems to be the closest OEM White - so that’s what I’ll be going with.

Will be a few weeks hiatus over the festive period, so next update will likely be 2/3rd week in January..

[Don R]

 It's amazing the difference when it's in white. Every little nick and bit of dirt just jumps out at you. If it was black, it would appear to have a lot better finish. L0L! 

[JamesH]

So has been a quiet few weeks drinking / eating too much and waiting for a few things to come together.

Collected the frame and painted cycle parts from my painters yesterday - and they’ve done a lovely job. The colour match is 90% perfect to the NOS rear carrier / top box that was used for the colour match - so I’m pretty happy.

Just waiting for rear hub to be re-lined so I can get the wheels built and start assembly and get the engine in and get her back on her feet..

[BenelliSEI]

Nice progress, looks great!

[MauiK3]

Looking great!

[RAFster122s]

White gold indeed...
I don't like keeping white clean, but it is easy to see if it needs cleaned. Ceramic coating your paint or some of the high tech silicones might make clean up much easier for you...

[JamesH]

Minor progress today on the wiring loom. The existing loom was beyond repair, so I decided to modify an OEM K5 loom to serve as the basis for the replacement loom.

The only difference I could find between the stock loom and P2 (‘75) original loom was the provision of a switched positive feed that runs the entire length of the loom front-back and T’s into the ignition switch (where it gets it’s switched feed from). The simplest solution was to cut this out from the old loom and ‘graft’ into the new loom.

The P2 loom also uses a square connector for the unique police ignition switch (which has 4 positions). This has 5 rather than 4 terminals in the loom—>ignition switch plug (the 5th is the additional switched positive feed which is a red wire with a white band at each breakout point).

I’ve also been searching for weeks for some OEM silver-grey glossy PVC harness sheathing in 18-20mm ID for the headstock end of the loom. The seller in the US only has up to 12mm ID. In the end I gave up as I need the loom in the next couple of weeks as the build accelerates.

So I’ve had to think laterally/innovate a bit here with silver-grey PVC heat-shrink, which luckily turned out pretty well.

Overall was a 2-3 hour conversion process. Photos should tell the story.

The original P2 loom:






Testing the PVC heat shrink on the old loom:






Replacing the ignition switch 4-pin round connector with the original P2 5-pin spade/square connector:








Applying the silver-great heat stink on the replacement loom:






The finished loom, complete with original (faded) P2 label:

[Don R]

You've been very resourceful making that harness. I've found a company will use as much off the shelf as they can to save custom building anything.