I'm new to the forum and am starting down the road of rescuing my dad's 1970 CB750. He bought the bike new while on tour in Vietnam (Navy), actually he ordered two CB750's (one Blue/Green and the other Candy Orange) because the price was so good. In the end he only took delivery of the Blue/Green because the dealer later contacted him saying he couldn't offer the Orange one at the same great deal, so my dad canceled the order on the Orange bike even though it was his preferred color.
He had a friend pick up the bike delivered to California in the summer of 1970 while he was still on tour. The VIN plate has a build date listed as 6/1970.
He rode the bike for many years and put just over 36,000 miles on it before he stopped ridding it in 1984. I was 8 years old at the time. It was the first motorcycle I ever rode on and even now I remember that ride.
During those years of riding he added his own "improvements" to the bike and repainted it Black.
From 1984 on it sat on the side of his house, never started or cared for. At one point he tried starting it and noticed it wouln't kick over. It was siezed up somehow. That led to it sitting some more. In 2009 he asked me if I would like it. Of course I said sure even though my dream had always been his 1967 Corvette that he also bought new just before joing the service. But the Corvette was not to be had yet. So the Honda was mine.
When I got it home I put it in my garage and there it sat for another year untouched. After all I had baby boy who was 1 at the time and working on a seized up, corroded motorcycle was far from a priority for me.
One night in 2011 I had a friend over to watch a F1 race and we had a few beers. Well let's just say we got motivated and ageed that night that we should pull the engine out of the Honda. I still don't remember the details of how we did it but it came out with no damage. The engine was put on a cart and there it sat for another year.
In 2012 I now had a 5 year old son that was curious about how engines worked so I thought it would be a great opportunity to pull the engine apart. I learned quickly that dealing with a seized engine wasn't nearly as fun or educational for a 5 yr old. Progress was so slow both my son and I found other things to entertain us and the bike sat again.
Now all that brings us to now. In February of this year, 2015, I got a total wild hair hair up my ass to get this project going. And like my wife says when I decide to do a project I go at it and drain our bank accounts. So there my wife was rolling her eyes and I started reasearching the history, cost of parts and tricks of the trade. (So acetone and ATF is a great penetrating oil? Who would have thought)
Now I am into the tear down and really excited about what the final product will look like. I am no master mechanic so I will have a lot of learning to do along the way. I already bought Mark Price's book on bringing them back from the dead and it is giving me a lot of confidence about what that next bolt holds on or under that cover.
I will be documenting the project here so bare with me. Sorry if this was a long introduction but I thought for documentation purposes it would belong. The goal I set for myself was initially aggressive to be done with this project. I thought if I could take my son on ride with it when he is 8, the same age I was when I first rode on it than that would be neat. So I have a little over one year to make that happen. We will see.
