Project Dolores: Got the exhuast mounted. Then blew a tire. Then began teardown!

I posted the entire build for this bike over at dotheton.com as I was building it. It's still not done yet, but it may never be "done." She's a 1972 Honda CB750 that I bought in non-running but otherwise good condition for $500.00. At this point I have less than $1200 dollars in her including purchase. I did everything myself except for a little bit of mechanic work in the begining (Thanks Billie at Gulf Coast Choppers). The paint is rustoleum spray. The prep took forever! The tail section is made from an old outboard motor cowl that I found and a sheet of metal that I cut and bent. I made lots of parts for this bike and I've made a bunch more since then so she'll be getting torn down again soon!
When I got her:

A little further into her:

The boat motor seat:


Here's how she sits now:

Here are some parts that are about to go onto her.
A new tank with lots of "custom body work" by me, my hammer, bondo, and sandpaper!

A top triple clamp that I shaved down with a hacksaw and grinder...


And a sprocket cover that I've speed drilled and sand-blasted!

All of the motor covers that were polished from the factory are going to be blasted and clear coated. I'm eliminating my tach and fabricating a mount for my speedo. Other stuff too. Maybe after this I'll be done with her for a while.
I've currently got four projects and various motors scattered around my garage! The next bike has to be a big cruiser... that's what my wife tells me.

Looks kewl man. Like to see it complete.

Nice work.

Thanks guys. It's complete... Sorta. I finished it about six months ago only to start making more parts. I've been riding it the whole time I've been working on it. I ride it to work everyday. Right now the front brake is off the bike. I'm waiting on my braided brake lines to arrive in the mail. C'mon Postman! I put a few hundred miles on her a week though... front brake or not!

Very cool project. Keep the pics coming.

Okay, so I've torn my bike back down. My clutch cable broke, so like any completely sane individual, I decided to tear the whole bike back down! I've got new paint bought and I've installed a bunch of new stuff. Here are some pics.

Here's my new top triple clamp installed:

Here's a shot of where my speedo will be (I've got to make the bracket this weekend):

Here's a mockup of the new tank on the bike, also note that the clipon's have been painted. I'll be going with a different headlight bucket that I've got laying around as well.

Here are the new colors. The blue will go above the body line with the platinum going below. I'll also be doing a black pin stripe between the colors. These are duplicolor paints as opposed to the rustoleum paint I used before. I'll also be going with a 2K clear coat to make it resistant to gas.

Alos my front brake is rebuilt and ready to go back on the bike. I'll also be using cables from a cb360 as they are shorter and will fit better with my clipon bars. I'm hoping to have her done by july 8 for a mods and rockers meet in Fairhope. She may show up wearing primer though, as I don't know if I have enough time to do the paint correctly. I'm very excited about this as I think the bike will be done for a while. I have other projects that require my time and it will be nice to have time to work on them.

And here's a shot my buddy took of me riding my bike the day before the clutch cable broke. I call it "Monkey and Football!"

I'll post up more as soon as I get more done.

Looking seriously good there. Are you going to show it at the bike show on the 31st?

glad to see you posting again, just remember what I told you about the shop

Yeah, she'll be at the show at Champs!
I would be posting more, but I work for the city of gulf shores and they've got me running 24-7 with this oil spill. Seems like I just don't have any time for the fun stuff anymore.
And thanks Nick, I'll take ya up on that sometime dude.

Cool bike! I like where you are going with the new tank.

Bike looks good .

So I made a bracket for my guage to mount to. I'm removing my tach and only using the stock speedo. I had some 1/8 aluminum laying around, so I made a cardboard template:


Then I cut the shape out of aluminum using a jigsaw with a metal blade.

Then I bent up the bracket and put it on for a test fit. It attaches to the front end via the bolts that snug the clipon handlebars to the fork tubes. Once I put it on I realized that it needed some modification.

Once I did a good bit of trimming on the bracket I gave it another try on the bike.

This is where I like it. The next thing is going to be removing the bracket and grinding it all down smooth. After that I'll run a skim coat of bondo to take out the imperfections in the aluminum, then paint and final mounting. What do ya think?
Also I ran over to Wilmer this week to pick up something from Twisted Noodle...

I'll start a project thread with this one as soon as I get started. I'm thinking of buying a new(to me) frame for it.
Lots more to come as I'm about to throw my rebuild into high gear to get it done for the show at Champs.

thats what I'm talking about

Looks fantastic. Think it will be ready for the show? Hope it is.

I can't wait to see what you do to it.

Thanks Twisted! I appreciate the hell out of it dude!
Hayweed: She'll be there with her new clothes on! There might be some odds and ends I won't get to... Looking at the pics right now I just saw that I'm going to have to do some work on the speedo housing... and repaint the pipe wrap... And repaint my caliper...
But really it's just the bodywork and paint holding me back right now. I've got my shorter cables ordered and I just have to put my nose to the grindstone and get that tank ready to spray.

tanks are quick and easy

Not my tank! All the custom bodywork and dent repair has left quite a lot of finish sanding and fine tuning. It'll be perfect before I paint it. Hopefully this week sometime I'll be able to get started laying color and buttoning up details. Hopefully she'll be ready for the Champs show, but if not I'll still throw something together to get her up there.

Hey Nick: What class would my bike fall into? Also if you want to come by my "parts house" and discuss the Goldwing, feel free.

You should be in the project class if you dont get it all done. And if you do, you will hafta be in the custom class.

Custom... like with the choppers and stuff?

There are several different custom classes. You would probly be in the "manufactured custom" class.
http://samcs.mmorpgheroes.com/events-f2/bike-show-flyer-fo-july-31-at-champs-t275.htm

you can be in the full custom or street performance, thats where I was going to put all the street fighters so I guess the kafes can go there to

Excellent grouping. Cafe racers and street-fighters are very closely related. I just did some work on the bike and I'll post up some progress pics in a bit.

So this afternoon I did a little work on some loose ends. First I removed my bracket and busted out the file and grinder. After I got all of the edges uniform and smoothed I sanded and cleaned it. Then I skimmed a coat of bondo over it and sanded that smooth using various grits of sandpaper ranging from 120 to 1200. After cleaning the piece again with denatured alcohol I sprayed appliance epoxy gloss black paint over it. I let it hang outside for about an hour before I baked the paint at 200 degrees for 30 minutes to help cure it. Once the bracket had cooled back down to room temperature I gingerly installed it (I'm impatient) and luckily didn't booger anything up in the process. Once that was done I decided to mask off and spray the guage bezel. It had rusted a little in some small places. I prepped it similarly to the bracket and sprayed it with Rustoleum Spray-On Bedliner in black. Once I removed the tape from the guage I (gingerly again) eased the guage into its home in the bracket. Here are a couple of pics of the finished product. It really blends back in and that's what I was going for. I want the shaved triple clamp to be the standout piece.


Also I have decided to use the headlight bucket that is already on the bike in order to save time. The bucket is sprayed in the same bedliner as the guage bezel so it'll tie it all together. I am going to make a set of headlight ears to snug the bucket towards the forks more, but that won't take long as it's a design I've made a couple of times before. After that I'll be done with the front end and only have paint and bodywork, installing my rebuilt front brake, and repainting my pipe wrap left. It's coming together pretty smoothly right now.

Coming along nicely.