Topic: 76 cb750F

[beks82]

Well it took me a while to finally put up a post regarding the build I've been working on for the last two years.  I originally started with a basketcase 76 F1 that was missing the exhaust and someone along the way had sprayed bombed matte black. 
The original fuel tank had pin hole leaks and was rusted inside so that was cleaned and sealed.  The hardest part was polishing the aluminum that had surface marks and rust.  Once the forks were cleaned up the frame was painted black for the time being. 
The engine turned over when I had bought it and compression came out good, so instead of spending too much money on the internals yet, I replaced the cam chain and adjusted my valves after timing and carbs had been cleaned.

[beks82]

The engine was then degreased and cleaned with a wire brush for the time being and everything was buttoned back up to test if the bike would run.  Took about 4 kicks and it started right up.  At this point wasn't very sure about where I wanted to go with this bike as far as a build, but one thing I did not want to do was cut into the frame or ruin any of the stock parts that were usable. 
The seat was in surprising good shape, as was the luggage rack, the frame hadn't been cut yet.  After looking at many other posts I wanted to go ahead and make a cafe out of it. 
I had never worked extensively with fiberglass, except to repair fairings, so the idea of making my own sounded like a fun project...which I would come to regret many many many times.

I started off with buying a used tank off of a member of this forum.  It was K series tank that was in pretty poor condition.  I wanted to try my hand in the whole knee dent thing so it seemed like a good place to start.  After cleaning out the tank and somewhere along the way painting my engine I started to bang out the knee dents.

[beks82]

Making the seat was the hardest part.  I know many people had used foam to make a template, but after having tried it, failed twice.  Instead the approach I took was to use a lot of tape and pieces of closed cell foam to create the outline of the seat.  Then I covered the entire thing with aluminum tape and used that while it was on the bike as a mold. 
As for the knee dents, using a rubber mallet and then using fiberglass and bondo to clean up the shape seemed to work the best. 
After continuous priming and sanding and bondo to fill in all the pinholes left by my #$%*ty fiberglass job, I finally ended up sanding and installing onto the bike.  This is the point the bike is in today.  The future is going to require some sort of rearsets as well as new shocks.  Everything needs to be pulled and disassembled for powdercoat sometime in the future as well. 

[beks82]

I tried my hand at upholstering the seat....trying everything by yourself has its benefits and negatives....I found out that working with fiberglass was hard but not impossible.  As for reupholstering, I found out that God gave me nothing close to any workable skill with a sewing machine.  I am still looking for an exhaust that I could buy or hopefully fabricate as I have something in mind that is not available to buy...

[beks82]

I know this build thread is more or less a huge summary, but while sweating and cursing while working on a bike, taking a picture hardly seems to be very important.  I really respect those guys that can document their builds every step of the way.  I also wanted to mention exactly how influential the other builds on this forum were to me.  Not only for inspiration for creative designs, but also for motivation on those days when nothing seemed to be going right.  Any questions or comments would be appreciated.

[Cevan]

I just picked up the same bike.  Seems like a few '76 F1's on the board here. 

The tank looks like it came out great.  I think seat upholstering is one area I am likely to farm out.