Topic: I restored a 1976 CB750A Hondamatic.

[GUTS]

I restored this Hondamatic for a friend of mine so he could complete his collection of CB750A's. This bike has 661 original miles on it, very correct and complete but stored very poorly. All of the metal was corroded or rusted. I had to re-plate all the hardware and the spokes and nipples. I re-plated the kick starter also, it was tired. I found that there are quite a few 1976 CB750A parts that were only used for the first year model. I think they had to rush it into production for one reason or another so they used some Gold Wing parts and some made up parts just to get by until the 1977 model came out. I replaced the upper fork headlight mounting brackets, the chrome Honda front fork cover, the grips and the seat with nos, the rest of the bike is the parts it came with. When I got it on the lift I thought it was a weird ugly motorcycle but after it was done I think it's a real sharp looking bike. I haven't found anywhere to buy replacement caution decals so they are missing. It's the only think incorrect about the restoration. If I find them I'll put them on. I think there are one or two that are the same as the CB750 K6. I do all the work myself except for the chrome and the paint on the tins. There was also more parts than normal that were finished in gold chromate. I put that finish back on them. there are a lot of pictures I left out of each component being redone but I would have to post another 100 pictures. I hope these will do.

[bek1966]

Absolutely beautiful work!  Thanks for sharing.

Brad

[CycleRanger]

Indeed very nice!

[SanDogDewey]

Nicely done!

[rocket johnny]

great attention to detail  !    excellent job !

[bear]

Nice job indeed.

[PeWe]

A brand new good looking bike!
Milage as Honda factory tech performed a better test run

[Stev-o]

Great job GUTS!  How do you like working on the Honda vs all the Kawasaki smokers you've done in the past?

[GUTS]

Great job GUTS!  How do you like working on the Honda vs all the Kawasaki smokers you've done in the past?

Thanks Stevo and the rest of you for the compliments. This bike was a little more complicated than most of the others I've done, things were packed together kind of tight. The wiring harness has a lot of branches and a crapload of wires. It took some wriggling to get all the connections to go where they should. The little triangular box under the lower tree is stuffed so full I didn't think I would get them all in there. This was restoration #26 and all but 3 were for Leroy. I'm going up this week to get the next one and I'm pretty excited. I get to restore a 1914 Excelsior 7C. I've always wanted to restore an American motorcycle from the teens. It should be fun. By the way, Leroy now has the only complete triple collection in the world,(the ones sold in the USA)every color of every size. He also has every Honda four of every color and every size from 1969 to 1977.

[Stev-o]

Great job GUTS!  How do you like working on the Honda vs all the Kawasaki smokers you've done in the past?

Thanks Stevo and the rest of you for the compliments. This bike was a little more complicated than most of the others I've done, things were packed together kind of tight. The wiring harness has a lot of branches and a crapload of wires. It took some wriggling to get all the connections to go where they should. The little triangular box under the lower tree is stuffed so full I didn't think I would get them all in there. This was restoration #26 and all but 3 were for Leroy. I'm going up this week to get the next one and I'm pretty excited. I get to restore a 1914 Excelsior 7C. I've always wanted to restore an American motorcycle from the teens. It should be fun. By the way, Leroy now has the only complete triple collection in the world,(the ones sold in the USA)every color of every size. He also has every Honda four of every color and every size from 1969 to 1977.

Leroy's collection must be amazing! Didnt know he had all those Hondas too. 

I know Brett had been selling off his collection of Kaws...

[rocket johnny]

what did you use on the air cleaner to make it look so nice ?

[WideAWAKE]

Very nicely done!!!!

[andy750]

Beautiful job!

[HondaMan]

What a SPECTACULAR job you've done with it! They never looked that good when new!
I often think one of those is in my own future if I lose my coordination abilities (for shifting-clutching) when I get near 100(?). That won't stop me from riding, but might make shifting tougher, and the "A" is also lower in the saddle because of the wet sump design.

What headers and pipes are those? They look SO fine!

You are correct about those parts: Honda was quite unsure when the "A was introduced about whether it would fly, as it had to be seriously detuned to cope with the in-gear stopping ability in city traffic, so they didn't design everything at the beginning. It was far better received than they thought, so they kept on afterward with their usual minor primping, just enough that the later parts have now become more common to locate.

600 original miles! Where DO you guys find these bikes?!

[newday777]

Great job GUTS!  How do you like working on the Honda vs all the Kawasaki smokers you've done in the past?

Thanks Stevo and the rest of you for the compliments. This bike was a little more complicated than most of the others I've done, things were packed together kind of tight. The wiring harness has a lot of branches and a crapload of wires. It took some wriggling to get all the connections to go where they should. The little triangular box under the lower tree is stuffed so full I didn't think I would get them all in there. This was restoration #26 and all but 3 were for Leroy. I'm going up this week to get the next one and I'm pretty excited. I get to restore a 1914 Excelsior 7C. I've always wanted to restore an American motorcycle from the teens. It should be fun. By the way, Leroy now has the only complete triple collection in the world,(the ones sold in the USA)every color of every size. He also has every Honda four of every color and every size from 1969 to 1977.

Well done on that automatic GUTS
I remember we had one for test rides at the shop I was parts manager at when they came out. I had my K5, so I took the A out for a lunch/parts pickup run just to see how it did. I wasn't impressed with it at my 20 years old(read need for speed). The 20+ horse power detune on them was such a letdown to me and not having the engine braking was an eye opener! Yikes!

That 7C should be a fun resto and ride. Have you started on it?
Sounds like Leroy has quite the collection.  Are they available to see if I get out that way? Close to you?

[GUTS]

Leroy's collection is in Mandan ND, 100 miles from me. Just pm or email me if you come out this way and I will get you in.

[bryanj]

If you have pics of the stickers go to the UK forum and look at Redice(pikki is a forum member) and he can make all of them