My 75 GT750 "Saved from the Boneyard" project

[speedblock]

I feel it's time to start sharing some of the details of my GT750 project. I started this in November 2010 and as I write this I am probably about 70% complete. Over the next few months I'll be adding to this thread, posting my success and failures as I try to bring this bike back from the brink of disaster.

A little background - I've got a few semi vintage bikes and I ride them all, none are "trailer queens" nor ever will be. Like many of you I'm just a motorcycle nut that loves almost anything on 2 wheels. Last summer a friend got me infected with Water Buffalo fever, as he bought and restored a '76. I figured I had room in the shop for one more so I started a search.

I had set a spending limit of $2000 (from the sale of another bike) to spend and my original intent was to find something along the lines of a decent rider that i could enjoy without spending too much more money or time on. I looked for months and found nothing. I'm in NY near the CT border, and at the time there was nothing to be found as far as a big GT was concerned. I looked at a couple Kawasaki H1 and H2's, a few RD's, even a Titan, but couldn't find a GT750 to save my life. If any of the others I saw was decent, I might have broke down and bought one of them instead, but they were all overpriced junk so I kept looking for the elusive Buffalo.

I finally found a somewhat local guy who had a couple bikes. One was too far gone to even consider, but one looked like it had a little hope. He didn't want much for it, and he threw in a bunch of parts as well. I knew the moment I saw it I was in for a bigger project than I was originally looking for, but I broke down and brought it home. The first 2 pics are of the bike as I saw it in his shop.

Here's my starting point - about as rough as any bike I ever restored.

gt7502.jpg

The other side...

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As you can see it's a 75, but with a 73 tank, 72/73 pipes, the wrong headlight, some heat damage, and god only knows what else wrong. The motor turned free and had decent compression, but the bike had been sitting probably 20 years.

I paid $400 and along with the bike got a few decent NOS parts. I figured at the worse I was getting a frame with a title, a maybe decent motor, and a couple hundred bucks in parts so I bought it. I thought over the winter I'd strip it down, maybe rebuild the motor, and keep my eye out for another one in better shape. Unfortunately, that was not to be.

I'll be adding to this thread at least once a week as time permits to show my progress. I'm hoping by the end of the summer the bike is done; we'll have to see how that goes.

- Chris

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Here's the stripped down frame back in my home shop. At the time I wasn't sure where I was going with this project.

gt7504.jpg

Here's a shot to show just how bad the frame was. Lots of surface rust, this bike had spent some considerable time stored outdoors. I was originally going to sandblast and paint the frame, but this was early December and I wasn't able to sandblast (I do that outdoors) and even if I could, it was way to cold for painting (I don't have a booth).

gt7503.jpg

To keep things rolling, I started calling local powder coaters.

More to come !

[Suzsmokeyallan]

Chris I feel your pain, I've had a few lovely projects in that condition already to deal with. Thats a good idea to strip it to the bone and begin from scratch.
Once the frame is done you will feel a lot better about your initial progress.

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Not the greatest of shots, but here's the frame after I got it back from powder coating.

framepc.jpg

After calling all the local guys I settled on Hudson Valley Powdercoating. I brought them the frame, swingarm and centerstand and those parts were a filthy mess - it was the dead of winter and I really didn't have the space to get them cleaned up right. I wiped everything down the best I could, but it was still a big mess. I half expected the guys at the shop to send me packing. Instead, they were super nice and not the least bit concerned. They sandblasted everything and did a primer and then satin black powdercoat - all for $375. I was super impressed when I picked up the parts, they did a great job and I'll definitely use them again.

[Suzsmokeyallan]

Thats great news then, you've got it coated and so now step one is complete.

[speedblock]

To be clear - I started this project last winter. I am several steps ahead of what my posts show so far. I took photos at most steps, I just didn't have time to post it all as I was doing it. More to come !

[H2RICK]

Good on you, Chris.
Be consoled by the fact that a LOT skankier bikes than that have been restored enough to be nice daily riders....or even to pristine condition if rarity had warranted the expenditures in time and money.

The story I like best is of a DKW found in New Guinea, of all places!!!
IIRC, the worst part on the bike was the gas tank that had one side of it badly rusted. The new owner/restorer decided to give it the "acid treatment".....
and the bad half of the tank completely disappeared !!!
He eventually found a guy to hand-hammer him a replacement "half" of the tank, weld it all together and give him a very nice looking complete tank.
Most restorers are never faced with anything that tough.

[speedblock]

Thanks guys for the encouragement!!

With the frame in decent shape I tore down the motor. I'm sure most of you have the same habit I have when you get a "new" bike that "ran when parked" - you try to start it and see if it runs. While mine was still together I did the normal routine of a little oil in the cylinders, some new spark plugs and a battery, cleaned the carbs and tried to get her to run. It eventually fired up, but screamed like a banshee with the throttle closed. Obviously a big air leak somewhere. One SRIS line was broken, but this seemed like a bigger leak than that. I was fooling around with it one night when the alternator bolt came smashing through the engine side cover (one of my first posts here), so I decided to tear it all the way down. Good thing I did.

To my surprise my cylinders popped right off - no puller required. The center piston looks unfired as you can see in the picture below:

3.jpg

I was hoping this was a good sign - maybe the motor had been apart not long before the bike was retired. The bores were a little rusty from sitting around outside. It's on the first overbore. Time to split the cases and check the crank.

The first sign was not positive - the center seal was a mess:

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When I went to lift out the crank, one end came up way too far with the center bearing still in place. A little wiggling around showed that the center bearing was actually in pieces. I removed the crank to find the remains in the lower case.

4.jpg

Not a huge surprise, but an expensive one. I picked up new seals, bearings, and lower rod bearings from Paul Miller and shipped the whole lot off to Bill Bune to be rebuilt.

My cases were broken where the chain was thrown at some point. Not a big deal, but this far into this I didn't want to reassemble with broken cases. My friend Dave gave me a spare set of 75 cases he had that were in nice shape. I figured I'd get them cleaned up and ready to go for when the crank came back from BB.

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Here's a couple shots of the cases. The first is my donor cases from my Friend Dave - really in good condition and almost usable as is:

m1.jpg

Of course with the cases I borrowed Dave's soda blaster to clean them up. It worked so well I went out and got my own (Harbor Freight - $80 on sale w/the 20% coupon) and well worth it. A couple coats of Eastwood's Aluminum engine paint with hardener and we're ready to go.

m2.jpg

Not a concourse restoration, but not meant to be either.

m3.jpg

All these clean parts lying around are great encouragement !

[Suzsmokeyallan]

I'm hoping my recent acquisition does not bring me to that level of grief so quickly. However who really knows until you try to fire it up and test the waters.
Its a good thing you caught it now in the early stages of work and not later.

[speedblock]

Some more stuff I did over the winter. Here's my top clamp as it came off the bike:

a.jpg

After a trip through the blast cabinet:

b.jpg

And after powder coating and curing in my Ronco oven. I tried using this oven for small parts but it took forever to get hot enough. I have since upgraded to a used kitchen range.

c.jpg

[speedblock]

Sorry about the big pictures in that last post - I forgot to resize them.

Here's my steering stem after a trip through the lathe to accommodate the All Balls roller bearings. As a side note - all the grease on the wheel bearings and the neck bearings on this bike looked like animal fat (which it might have been made from) when I tore it down. A disgusting, hard, chunky mess that had certainly been in there 20+ years or more. Anyone reading this who is new to old bikes take this to heart - get in there and check / replace those old bearings and get some modern grease on them at least.

d (600 x 450).jpg

My fork lowers before disassembly - what an ugly mess.

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And the lowers after cleaning them up a bit. Again, not show quality, but basically the look I am after.

f (600 x 448).jpg

[two-stroke-brit]

your going great chris.
i want a bead blaster cabinet.
but have no room for it.
i still want it though.
i can get a lend of a buddys sometimes but its never when you want it.
keep posting.
cheers mark

[speedblock]

Making some progress - thought I'd share a few more pics.

The bike came with some period Showa shocks. They seemed to be fine mechanically, but were of course as ugly as sin. Rusty, oily, you name it, they had it.

140a.jpg

I disassembled them using a couple hose clamps and my vice. Once apart, I knew I could clean them up.

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After a whole bunch of media blasting, cleaning and powder coating. I did the springs with Eastwood's single stage chrome, I really like the look of it and am using it in a couple other places on the bike.

- Chris

189a.jpg

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My fork tubes were too far gone for me to use. Typical pitting under the headlight ears, but also some in the travel area. I couldn't stand the thought of putting it together and having to look at that pitting and ruining my new seals, dealing with leaks, etc. I looked for decent used replacements but the ones I found were as bad as mine and ridiculously priced! I bit the bullet and got a new set from Frank's Forks - they were about $290 shipped to me but they're very nicely made and beautiful!

Here's the old ones....

fork_ng.jpg

Both the wheels I got with the bike were garbage. I picked up a nice front on eBay for $25 shipped to me - basically free. A couple of the spokes were rusty, and of course snapped when I put a spoke wrench to them, even after soaking. I got a new set from Paul Miller and set about relacing the front wheel.

Cutting out the rusted broken spokes...

spokes.jpg

And my newly laced wheel with the nice new forks.

wheeldone.jpg