Thanks guys! I'm the 2nd owner.. it took some doing to get it all back to life, but i got a good deal on it, and got pretty lucky with parts (except upper HM300s).
It sat under a leaky part of someone's garage for about 27 years after the first owner had given up on a scary wobble. He said the bike had it from new, and the dealer probably tried almost nothing, so all it ever did was get worse. He parked it at 10k miles when it got too dangerous to ride.
Turns out, when the dealer-installed fairing was put on & mounted to the tree top clamp bolts, the accessories guy must've lost the spacer washer and cranked down on the bolt, creating a crack that eventually became a break. You couldn't see the break under that hideous fairing.
Anyway, the leaky garage rotted the front fender, submerged and rotted thru the bottoms of the rims. The tank innards were really rough, but serviceable. The paint, plastics and rubber were remarkably well preserved, I think due to the fact that while it was in the garage, it was very near a water heater tank and the clothes dryer, so even the worst cold NJ had to offer was never totally acting on it.
Needless to say, I'm very happy to have it, and have been pretty much pulling everything apart one piece at a time and going over eveything. Lots of steel wool and elbow grease, and now a lot of tuning. I'm amazed how fast it is.
Sooooo.. about those jiggling jewels.. anyone?
oh.. here's a pic of another resto-vivor I found a few years back with a similar story of neglect and dormancy.
