1982 CB750F SS

[Waco750F]

Still in-work but progress has been made on Solstice, the winter project.  Waiting to get the seat/tail cone covered. I've been able to keep some costs down; made the tail cone from fiberglass (never worked with fiberglass and florist arrangement foam); stripped a lot of weight off (roughly 40-lbs); made a new bracket with gauges and N, HB, OP LEDs; stock bars with bar end mirrors. And the Yoshimura-style pipe was ceramic coated Bright Silver by a Cerakot applicator.  Will be installing an 18-in. wheel (hopefully) with Battleax BT45 100/80-18; Dunlop 120/90-18 will stay until I can replace that with Battleax as well.

Couple of pictures for those interested.

[shinyribs]

Nice work! I've been curious for a while now if Cerakote would hold up to exhaust temps. Glad to see someone to the plunge.

[Waco750F]

They have two methods: air dry or baked.  Air dry is supposed to withstand 200-300 degrees higher temp than baked-on. I went the air dry method and it had to cure 5-days after it dried at their shop. Very thin layer (don't know how many mils) but it has applications to piston domes/skirts, etc..

Thanks for the compliment!

[JapaneseHighlander]

Dude! I love that seat, got anymore pics? I just got a cb750c custom, and the seat is really bland!

[Waco750F]

Finished officially today; took the CB out for shakedown rides yesterday (several of them) and everything went well.  Had to re-pin two wires that I had wrenched around when installing the seat; glad I put a connector back there to tidy it up a bit and to take the seat and lights off as one assembly.  LED license plate lights and cat eye lens for brake/tail lights.  I'll think better the next time I French-in a license plate!

The Yoshimura-style 4-into-1 pipe sounds pretty sweet but the baffle keeps the raspiness down.  I got muffler support structure (foot pegs) off a CB900F and cut a majority of the structure off then polished the aluminum.  I'll either clear coat the aluminum or become fond of polishing aluminum.

The fairing had a "lip" that would butt up against the headlight; removed about 3/4" of that lip with the dremel and got a better fit.  Auto door edge trim appears to provide some vibe dampening between the headlight and the fairing.  Really got to use some skills of repurposing parts; the brackets that came with the fairing got cut much shorter and painted; cleaned the area up a bit.

The 18" Comstar of the CM400 worked out great and I got to keep both disks!  Had to have a couple of spacers machined to line the wheel up and had a spacer machined to get the left caliper to bolt-up to the fork.  I decided to go with a Kenda 761 110/80-18 tire on the front; I was looking for an aggressive-looking tire but had seen a couple of other café bikes with them and apparently the wet road performance is good.  I didn't ride the bike much before the transformation but the shorter wheel and tire seems to help it turn-in better in cornering.  Rear tire next, 120/90-18.

Chrome gauges, white dial faces with blue LED backlighting is almost too bright at night.  But the bracket and Christmas tree lights for HB, N, and OP work well; all wired to connectors inside the headlight bucket.

The upholsterer is a magician!  There were flaws in my fiberglass tail cone (first one I ever built) being not square or one corner higher than the other; unless he had told me, I don't have the critical eye to notice it when I ride.  I used 50-pence coins to secure the back of the seat to the frame; well nuts work well when you don't want to use a common lock nut.

Glad I can share my success with you.

[Waco750F]

These are the early, just-getting-started pictures.  Donor seat, cardboard matting material to draw the shape, florist foam blocks glued with spray adhesive, a wire brush to rough-out the shape, sand paper for final sand.  Masking tape the shape, spray Pam non-stick cleaner on the tape for a release agent, and start laying fiberglass on it.  There are some youtube videos out there that helped.  I watched a couple of those before I jumped-in.

I have more pics on my phone that the upholsterer took for me; I'll add them later.

[crestview750f]

So, I've moved to Florida and changed my login name. Still continuing to improve the bike, which is running great! I'll be dropping-in some stock 900F cams soon and will report back with dyno results if possible. Ride safe, always!

[TOOLS1]

Let me guess, you now live in "Crestview".
TOOLS

[crestview750f]

Ding! Ding! Ding! Winner!

[crestview750f]

I've seen a few folks asking about the CB900 cam drop-in ROI. I've located a Dynojet dyno in Milton and will get some data before and after cam swap. Although I've not yet decided to do piston swap with 10.25 CR, should I do that, I'll also provide the dyno sheet. Coupla weeks before we do the cam swap. I'm curiously interested in how we will degree the cams.

[crestview750f]

Major setback today: found a Dynajet dyno nearby and ran the bike on it.  Rich, rich, rich.  So rich, in fact, the numbers are not worth mentioning in the same sentence as the stock 75 hp.  Must have gone too big on the main jets and too high on the needle (WOT AFR was not even on the scale of 10).  Will go back to the stock jets, drop the needles, and see how things look after the cam swap.

'Nother couple of weeks for another dyno run.