Sandcast Frame Vin Plates

[kp]

Hi Lester, I believe you. We are a cautious lot and given you hadn't offered much in your post; well I spose we're all making sure somebody is not yanking our chain. Yes I did see that you had an engine number listed but I was asking more or less to discount that a die-cast motor hadn't been used. We do know there is a sandcast motor fitted to a 14xxx VIN frame so anything was possible with Honda in those days. I'm actually looking forward to your pictures and not just the frame VIN, but the whole bike generally. Please keep us posted. 

[hondasan]

This is an interesting one!

The plate does look aged as in from '69 (ie the anodized finished has faded to a brownish colour as they do), and I had guessed it had been off for frame re-paint. NOS replacement rivets are available, but do come bright rather than brass finish.

KP's comment about 12/69 suiting a 1016xxx is spot on in terms of what we would usually expect to see, but the French 1014xxx sandcast should have taught us never to say never! The comment about it being held over for re-work in the factory seems to hold water?

Interesting comment (for me) was also the reference to it being a right side horn frame, definitely not the norm at that VIN.

Seems it is another of those fascinating examples that keep turning up. Look forward to seeing the frame / engine stampings.

Cheers - Chris R.

[corsa65]

First up is a rather poor photo taken about over a year ago. I'm posting because it is the only photo that catches the vin plate on the unrestored frame, complete with overspray from the previous owner.
Frankly , at the time I had no idea that there were other vin plates or I would have documented it better.

[corsa65]

Now for the frame and engine numbers. If it stops raining , I'll take it outside for a better shot of the frame number tomorrow.

[corsa65]

current status

[kp]

Lester, Thanks for posting those pictures. There are some interesting but not surprising items on your bike. You have the early carb set as identified by the choke arm and I would be interested to know if the carb vent tubes are the 90 degree alloy type or the straight brass type. I assume these to be the stock carbs that came with the bike. So keep those items. I also note you have replaced the wiring harness however the original unrestored photo shows the early harness type. Please keep that original wiring harness as these are not easy to come by. Finally could you take a photo of the airbox (top section). I'm hoping it to be a 2 hole bracket type with or without frame indents. Also a photo of the inside of the cam cover would be of interest to me. You may have seen discussion of this in another thread but these pieces of information are of historic interest to the few anal types like myself (I'll let others speak for their themselves  re that comment;D )
Would be good if you could include your project within the restoration section of the BB as Mark and Wayne have. Interestingly your engine is 1 digit below one of my sandcast bikes. Unfortunately mine is nowhere near the stage of restoration your bike is at. Again, thanks for the pics and please keep them coming as you progress. KP

[1941wld]

Here is a picture of Jerry Ure's decals. He does not make these on a plate, they are decals. He sells on ebay if you would like one. He can change the vin number and date to match your bike. Good people!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HONDA-CB750-MODEL-HEADTUBE-TAG-FRAME-DECAL-REPRO-/150553473946?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item230dafb39a