You know how there is always that old Honda in a barn or shed somewhere that you here stories about, but it always eludes you. Your friend tells you about it, but can not produce pics. Finally you buy something else, but this old Honda in a shed still sticks in the back of your mind. You keep wondering if it is a true story or a hoax. You can never clear it from your mind and you continue to wonder about it. Well, that is my scenario which has been playing out for 3 years now. I heard about this CB750K3 from a friend and it was owned by his brother some 4 hours away. For one reason or another I could not get any movement or pics of the bike. Then I lost close contact with the friend, but would occasionally bug him about it. Then 3 years later I get an E mail from my friend with pics of the K3 on a trailer saying, "look what I got." I guess his brother asked him to take it out of his garage for some room. The brother had some offers on the bike, but he did not want to see it riding around his hometown. My friend showed him some pics of what I try to do with these bikes bringing them back to OEM and he was all for it. So Monday all went well...meaning I brought the K3 home. Has a build date of 10/72 with last license sticker of 1987. One owner candy bucchus olive with 5,310 miles, tool kit, owners manual, title and original sales receipt of $1,579. Purchased May 31, 1973. Spent time cleaning it up last night and the paint is awesome with no fading. Tank decals are great. No dents. Side covers are perfect with good paint, no scratches, no cracks. Will need to add one orange diamond under the left side cover badge. This is the cleanest tank interior I have ever seen with no rust. Carb bowls have some stinky gas and are dirty so I will go through the carbs. Front brake and caliper will need to be rebuilt. The MAC exhaust is in very good condition and I may sell it to put some $$$ towards the 341's, but that will be next year. Seat is very good with no tears and no rust on the pan. Put a battery in and all electrical works good. Motor is free and starter is fine. Here are some pics just how I found it...minus the padded sissy bar I took off for the trip home. The guy has the center stand to send me yet. He is also going to look for the exhaust flanges and interior flanges he took off. I hope he can find those. The owner knew I would not pay a lot since restore is so costly with the exhaust, so he gave it to me for $700. I was glad to see the chrome will clean up good and there are no fender dents. Rims look good and it still has the OEM tires on which I will replace. I will know more once I get a chance to get into the motor with compression, etc. This will be my winter project and I plan to keep it stock. So finally a good ending to the phantom K3 that would not leave the recesses of my mind. It will be good to see this bike hit the sunshine again.
