Topic: The Black Brit - (name is tentative)

[Helo229]

Well, I was a little too bashful to post early on in the project, since I didn't know what the hell I was doing most of the time, but as of this weekend, it looks as though I might just get this bike finished, so here's a peek at it.

Before:


As of 7/13/08:
















Everything is just mocked-up in the photo, I haven't gotten the tank finished (used some crappy masking tape that peeled the paint + still wet sanding and touching up), seat mounted, or alot of the wiring done. It's all very dusty as well, as this project has been running on for about a year. All in all though, it's coming along much better than I thought it would, since this is my first motorcycle + the first project of this magnitude.

The seat is Carpy's new 750F style, and I gotta say, it's awesome.


Here's the link for my photo bucket, as I set up photo descriptions for everything on there if you want to know more. Feel free to comment and lend criticism/advice and ask about anything.

http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t243/helo229/

[troppo]

Very nice mate, she has a reall look to her...
What are those gauges from?
I am always surprised by the talent that shows up on this forum.

[Helo229]

Thanks a bunch! Seriously, I expected a great many comments, but 'talented' didn't rank up there, haha. Like I said, this is my first go at both a bike and a big project, so there's alot of flaws here and there. I did it on a budget too, so except for the powder coat on the rims everything else is rattle can. The guages are from MikesXS. There's a link for the site in the FAQ's, if you do a search for the gauges on here you'll find a great many people have used them.

You can order them in black or white faces,  Tach's in 1-12k or 1-15k readings, and the Speedo's in either MPH or KPH, with or without the built-in indicator lights. If you buy the ones with the indicator lights in them you'll have a little bit of tricky wiring to do with the turn signals. From my understanding you'll have to place a diode between the wire coming off the gauge and each of the signal leads on the wiring harness, or else you'll end up turning your signals into 4-ways.

[coyotecowboy]

Nice job!  Where did ya get those bars?

[Hush]

Just a question, is the nice beefy looking blue 750 in the first photo the original bike before project or is that another bike you own?
Anyway nice look coming along there.

[Helo229]

Yea, that was indeed the original bike. At a distance, the bike looked to be in good shape, and I originally bought it because of just how 70's it looked, but at closer than 10 feet it showed it age.

Almost all of the chrome was pitted, the guages were rusted up, bearings were all shot, engine bolts were all stripped out, coil wires were pushed into the boots and needed inspected constantly, wheels out of true, cables were all stretched, needed everything but the fuse box replaced on the electrical panel, the seat needed reupholstered pretty bad, panel covers each had one original tab left on them and the other two were made from JB weld and fiberglass, and the rear fairing on the seat was cracked in 3 places around the bolt holes.

All in all, just a bunch of really small stuff, and it broke my heart to tear it all up since the original look is what first drew me to the bike and many people would have loved it the way it was... But... The more cafe's I saw the more I liked them, and I came to the conclusion that this will probibly just be the first of many CB's for me, so I stored all the vintage parts I took off to use on an eventual vintage build.

It's for the best I think, since a vintage build is going to take alot more time and resources, making this bike somewhat of a practice run. My plans for it are a hardtail frame, lots of chrome and polished parts, extended forks, and, of course, that sexy king/queen from the first pic.

[Helo229]

Here's an update on my project - I have it about 98% done. While I had it running and cooking the VHT on the pipes I decided to take a video of it and showcase it some. It was a historic day for the bike, as I was able to take it on it's maiden ride since I had my way with it (wasn't able to safely video tape that, however).

You'll no doubt notice that my muffler is sitting on a block of wood in the video - I only placed it on the tip of the pipes because I didn't want it to scratch paint off the header, and I really didn't want my neighbor to call the cops because I was revving an open exhaust while he was having a cookout with his fam. In any case, that exhaust isn't going back on, I'm going to pick up a morosso spiral exhaust and install it with a 3" black chrome tip. All in all, it should shave the muffler down to about 20 inches and give the bike some much needed growl.

[youtube=425,350]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="

name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="

type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube]

[olds-cool]

Looks real good.  At first I questioned the british flag on a jap bike but after watching the video I understand why you decided on it.  I'm anxious to see what you do with the exhaust.  Do you have a link to the one you are thinking about?

[Helo229]

Here's the actual muffler:


http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=MOR-94051&N=700+4294923429+4294922711+4294922710+4294891681+4294906132+4294791977+4294906121+4294906122+400105+115&autoview=sku

And as for the tip, something along these lines:

Option A)



Option B)

[troppo]

G`day Helo
Just thinking about your bike, you said in the title that the name is tentative, i figured you have a union jack (a pure red one anyway) on the tank that instead of "the black brit" how about "black jack"?

[heffay]

instead of "black brit" or "black jack"... how about "turncoat" ?!   

aside from the blasphemy the  bike looks really great!   

[winnipeg550guy]

Wow! thats a fantastic makeover, great job on the rebuild

[jevfro]

looking good! how'd you go about painting the carbs?, specifically masking for all the breather holes etc ? Keep up the good work

[rachet]

It's always inspiring to see garage builds, especially when they turn out!  I'm also interested in how you painted he carbs.  I've contemplated having mine Powder Coated when the time comes, and wonder what damage heating them could do.  That's best left for another thread, anyways, Looking good!

Rachet~

[Helo229]

When I painted the carbs, it was actually kind of a completely half-ass effort, haha. I'm lucky they came out as good as they did. I left the entire carb assembly together, backed out the idle screw completely, and hung it from the garage rafters, then put masking tape over each float bowl. Any nook on them which looked important (I know just about nothing carb-related) I stuffed toothpicks in to keep the paint out. I left all the hoses on, to keep paint from getting in, and then applied about 10 coats of Dupont Caliber Paint.

When they were nice and dry, I had a little bit of overspray on the floatbowls, so I used a brass brush on them with a dremel, then gave them a once-over with a buffing wheel.

[Helo229]

I took the bike for a short ride today (felt so good to see the odometer turn the first mile), and I'm having a few small problems..

- Whenever I start the bike, it will only turn over on 1 or 2 cylinders until it heats up. I'm not too concerned about this though, as I have pods and no exhaust. I'm assuming whenever I get it re-jetted this problem will go away. Anyone running a similar set-up have any ideas, I remember a while ago reading a post where the guy was in the neighborhood of 124 mains - also, would pilots have to be changed as well?

- The front brake will stick after I apply pressure, but once the caliper frees itself, I have to pump it twice to get pressure again. I'm going to bleed it out tomorrow when I get a chance, and definitely before I take it out again. I'm hoping that it's just a bleeding issue, but I have a bad feeling that it may need a rebuild.

- Front end feels a little unstable, but I'm not overly concerned about this, as I don't have a fork brace installed, the brake was sticking, and when I had the forks apart I accidentally spilled about a pint of fluid out of just one fork, which might have messed the balance up.

[strangedaze39]

Great looking bike! I like the rear spoke disc brake a lot! Also really dig the front end and gauges. I've thought about picking some of them up but not sure if I want to ditch the stock ones yet. Quick question, how did you wire the idiot lights? If I rigged those gauges up to my bike, I would want to do that but I'm not sure how to work around the old idiot light panel.

Keep up the good work can't wait to see it all shiny.

[Flying J]

I had a similar brake problem. My brakes would stay applied. Its an easy fix and may not need a rebuild. Pull The calipers off. Use the brake pressure to pop out the pistons. Pull the rubber seal and scrape all the crap that has built up under them. This fixed my problem.

[Helo229]

Great looking bike! I like the rear spoke disc brake a lot! Also really dig the front end and gauges. I've thought about picking some of them up but not sure if I want to ditch the stock ones yet. Quick question, how did you wire the idiot lights? If I rigged those gauges up to my bike, I would want to do that but I'm not sure how to work around the old idiot light panel.

Keep up the good work can't wait to see it all shiny.

Wiring in the new idiot lights was easy - they should come with a diagram showing what color off the guages are what. From that, just look up a wiring diagram for your particular model bike and find out what color the stock wires are. Assuming you have a CB750 from around the same time as mine (76) I could let you know what wires go where. The only tricky parts were A) you have to remember to use a diode coming off each turn signal lead going into the idiot light (otherwise, whenever you turned on a signal it would complete the circuit for the opposite signal, turning them into 4-ways) and B) the grounds for the Oil/Neutral lights are grounded in reverse (the sending units are grounded, and they have constant +12v, only turning on when they receive -12v ground from the sensor)

An even easier way of figuring out what's what if you don't feel like looking up the diagram is to just take apart the old idiot light case and trace all the wires back to the lamps. Since the wires were color coated to match the ones on the harness, it should be more or less plug and play.

Just edited this real quick, to let you know that the idiot lights are mounted inside the speedo incase you didn't already know. Also, if you're looking to spruce up the front like I did, get some of the heating hose sleeves meant to slide over hoses to give them a steel-braided look. I thought I would try it out and it looks pretty good imho. The big, steel-braided like you see by my triple tree is actually my wiring harness.

[Helo229]

I had a similar brake problem. My brakes would stay applied. Its an easy fix and may not need a rebuild. Pull The calipers off. Use the brake pressure to pop out the pistons. Pull the rubber seal and scrape all the crap that has built up under them. This fixed my problem.

I did a search for that on the forums and found that was what most people did. To my knowledge my front caliper is OEM from the factory though, so I might swap out the rubbers and seals just to be safe. After all the effort and money I sunk into this project by skimping and saving on brake parts when the ones on it might be 32 years old.