Topic: Project Ginger Racer! 1975 CB750K COMPLETED!

[Mayor08]

Bankerdanny- Dupage Honda/Yamaha it's not the closest to home but certainly great people to deal with.  The wife bought her scooter there and treated her very well.

70CB750- I used Duplicolor glass black on the frame and other parts Duplicolor engine paint on the engine.  I always preheat the the spray cans in hot water as recommended by the architect in his build.

[Mayor08]

Where does the time go?  I haven't got a clue but work has been swallowing most of it!  The weather here in Chicagoland has been less than desirable for riding with the exception of Mother's Day weekend so I guess I'm not missing much.

I finally took the speed apart last night


But haven't pulled the needle off just yet I squirted the shaft that holds the needle with WD40 hoping it will penetrate and help me remove it.  I'm going to heat it with a hair dryer first but not sure what else I should do before attempting to remove the needle...?...


On a positive note I did receive my new muffler


My painter is backed up with work so I won't see my tank/bucket/side covers until June.  I'm not in a hurry I have my Triumph to ride until I get the Ginger Racer back on the rode but it will be a GREAT feeling to role on the throttle again!  Since the accident I've taken the approach of making the bike the way I want it with the advantage of hind sight!  More to come I'll update once I get the needle off (or don't) of the speedo.

[D.WHO]

Very cool build! I'm hoping to do something similar with my '75 550, probably looking at many of the same problems too.    I tried to read your thread as thoroughly as possible, but I missed where you got the seat and rear-sets. 

[seanbarney41]

Hey Mayor08, that muffler looks like just what I need...do you mind if I ask where you got it?

[maduncle]

Hey Mayor08, that muffler looks like just what I need...do you mind if I ask where you got it?

+1, I am on the lookout for a reverse cone shorty too.

[Flying J]

Dime city sells one

[maduncle]

Dime city sells one

Shortest I have seen in the Dime City exhaust list is 17" and this one looks more like 12", more in proportion for what I am after.

So um - yes please Mayor08 where did you get this particular muffler?

[Mayor08]

Thanks for the kind words I still haven't moved forward with the gauges just no time lately and tonight I'm headed to the Sox game with comp tickets!  Hopefully Friday and this weekend I'll make some progress.  When I do I'll put up plenty of pics I'm in the home stretch now just need to finish the gauges, repaint & reinstall the engine then mount my painted parts whenever they're ready.

D.WHO-
  I got the seat off of ebay from an Asian seller it was damaged when a Lexus hit me back in September so I had it recovered by a local guy.  He used marine vinyl and orange stitching on my request only rode it once before I disassembled the bike.  The rear sets I purchased from Fast From The Past they were easy to install and easy to order individual replacement parts after the accident.

seanbarney41-
   I got the 12" exhaust from Lossa Engineering Cycle X also offers one but for more money and with a clamp.  I paid $115 for this exhaust which I can't wait to get on the bike!  I had purchased one off of a seller on the site but it fell apart in almost no time.  I didn't contact him about it and won't bad mouth him what I bought just didn't work out.

[maduncle]

I am right on to Lossa Engineering for a muffler - thanks!

[Mayor08]

Well I'm happy to say I have made progress on my gauges.

Getting them apart wasn't the hard part but if I ever do this again I'll cut the ring with the dremel as I understand the advantage of doing it that way. 

I used a hair dryer to heat up the needle before using the 2 spoons method to remove it.


Once that was done the 2 screws backed out without a problem.


I did the speedo first and quickly found out that the cut outs for the trip and mileage weren't matching up and I could see the old background so I decided to paint it black.




I recommend doing the tach first to get a feel for the application process- the most difficult part was removing the decals from the front and back paper.



The faces are mounted back in place and the housings have been painted and baked next I'll assemble the inner and outer housing and use black silicone to seal them together as the gaskets fell apart upon disassembly. 

More to come....

[zzpete]

  Looks great Mr. Mayor. The bikes going to come back better than ever!!!

[Roach Carver]

If there is paper on the front of your dcal, that normaly stays on until you apply them to the whatever you are sticking it to. then you take the application tape/paper off.

[Mayor08]

ZZPete-  thanks for the encouragement!

Roach Carver- the instructions with the decal set I bought stated to remove the front, then the back, then apply not sure why but it worked.

[maduncle]

Yep - it sure did work.

They look great - where did you get your decals?

[Mayor08]

maduncle- I got them on ebay for $20 they came with 4 small felt washer for the 2 screws that hold on each face plate they have a few designs this is the one I liked best.  There are a lot of sellers on ebay with gauge decals as well as forum members in the Services Offered section.  Like I said previously I had to paint the speedo face plate black as the cut outs were not exact for my year but overall I don't think you can really tell.

I may add the chrome rings that some people have used to help secure the black housing to the silver backplate right now it is just held in place with black silicone.  You have to really look to be able to even notice it and most people would not even if they do but SOHC4 fans might.

Next up: repainting the engine.  I was really dreading doing this again but it's best to bite the bullet and just do it while I still have 2-3 weeks until my painted parts come back.  The oil leak really made a mess and I'll be happier in the end if I do it right.

[Mayor08]

I've been making progress ...



2+ coats of aluminum

Followed by some black



It was MUCH easier the first time around when I knew I was replacing all of the philips head screws with allen heads this time I had to put tape over EVERY single one of them.  I I ever have to do this again (I hope not) I'll seriously consider selling some stuff on ebay so I can buy new allen bolts!!

Gratuitous shiny rim pics

[Roach Carver]

I ve got those conti go's on my bike. very nice tires!

[rwhiskey]

Mayor where did you get those spoke nipples? Cool touch to the wheel! Looking at Falcon Motorcycles makes me want to add more copper or brass pieces to my bike build. Nice work!

[maduncle]

Mayor where did you get those spoke nipples? Cool touch to the wheel! Looking at Falcon Motorcycles makes me want to add more copper or brass pieces to my bike build. Nice work!

Yes, more copper - more brass!

I too would be keen to know where you got those spoke nipples from, or the spokes themselves (if they came that way - I don't know much about spokes).

I plan to rebuild some wheels soon and they would look mighty fine with the copper and brass parts on my bike.

[Mayor08]

Roach Carver-
I really like the Conti's too I only put a thousand miles on them before the Lexus hit me but I prefer them to the Lasertech tires that came on my 08 Bonneville.

rwhiskey- I got the spokes from partsnmore and they come with nipples that color.  They're not copper or brass I can't think what they are it escapes me but they do look sharp.

Tomorrow the motor goes back in the frame my pal finally has time to help me.  My painter will hopefully finish my parts next week and I can have the bike back on the road before the 4th of July. 

[Roach Carver]

those parts and more spokes are yellow zinc. the pic may change the color a bit. fair warning, dog pee will tarnish the spokes and nipples. Thanks Leonard.

[JJONES450]

Nice bike, how tough was it to get the speedo, and tach apart?

[Mayor08]

JJONES450-

It was a little difficult to take them apart the hardest part was the crimped ring that holds the upper housing and the lower housing together.  I decided to follow this tutorial http://www.salocal.com/sohc/tech/speedo/spedo1.htm which is a great resource but since I wanted to repaint the black cups I was not able to remove the ring from the black cups without cutting it.  I would recommend cutting the ring with a dremel tool and using JB weld to join the ring during reassembly.  Once you pry up the ring AND cut it- it is impossible to get the ring back into a good shape that is presentable.  I ended up going another route- I used black silicone caulk to join the outer and inner housing that secures the glass in place then had the idea to use the silicone to bond the upper and lower housings together.  I think it worked out well and is very strong.  When removing the the speedo needle be sure to use some WD40 on the needle post to ease removal and a hair dryer to help expand the metal.  Finally, use the 2 spoons method to remove the needle I tried a fork on an old speedo as a test run for disassemble and broke the neddle off of the post.  I didn't use WD40 or a hair dryer and the result was failure. 

Hope this helps I did a lot of searching after the failure on the forum for tips on speedo/tach rebuilding and was able to do mine without a hitch.
 

[JJONES450]

Mayor, Thanks for the insight.

[Mayor08]

I haven't updated this in a while because I still had not put the motor into the frame.  You know who your true friends are when it comes to hefting one of these heavy bastards!  It went a little easier this time around except when the weld broke on my lift handle and sent the motor tumbling to the ground.  Luckily(?) I have thick rubber mats on the garage floor and they took the brunt of the impact however the spacer for the rear motor mount broke off.  I had an eyebolt sticking through here so I could suspend it from the ceiling and this is what caused the break.  Here's the lucky part, there was enough meat on the motor that I deciding to mix up some JB weld and tighten down the rear bolt and lock it in.  I think it will be fine if not I'll have someone weld it at a later date.

Here's where we stand as of last night.



This seat is just sitting there for the photos




I talked to the painter last night and everything will be done and ready to ship back by Sunday so I could have the bike back on the road by the following weekend!  He's gone far beyond what I ever expected so it should be exciting to see everything back together.

My goal is to ride up to Rockerbox with it as this is what I did a year ago with the initial build.  I think it is only fitting to have the first real ride of the post accident rebuild to be at this awesome event.