Around Christmas 69 Gene Stoneking traded in his BSA for the first cb750 to be sold at grand motor sales Galesburg Illinois. He also bought a Honda minibike for his son Gary. Charlie Rice was a young tech there and he got the job of assembling it from the crate. He also assembled a 9,000 vin blue/green diecast which he still owns today. Gene took delivery in early January, he didn't live far and may have ridden it home. Gene kept it nice, when he put it away for the winter he sprayed WD40 on the chrome and rubbed blue coral wax on the paint. As time went by Gary grew up and occasionally rode it to high school. One day Gary and his friend took it apart to chrome the engine covers and misc other parts. His Dad was not impressed.  
 The bike ended up stored in a yard barn, Gary moved away, Gene passed away and Tom Campbell that had always serviced the bike bought it from Gene's wife. Tom left it as is, didn't title it or bother to get it running. He owned a cbx and Goldwing and ran a part time bike shop. Tom let me take pictures of it for reference so I could re-assemble my diecast 750 properly. Again time passed, Tom fell ill and passed away. I wanted the bike but couldn't bring myself to ask about it.
 One day there was an estate sale of Tom's shop so I armed myself with what I thought I'd need to buy it and apparently Tom never told anyone else it was special. The bidding was hot for a while but I outlasted them all. It looked awful because the WD40 had collected dirt that appeared to be pitts and corrosion. Under the wax and oil it was beautiful. It had tall handlebars and broken sidecovers so I robbed them from my diecast and got her running again. Charlie Rice, the guy that assembled it new cleaned the carbs at his shop, 40 years later.
 I returned the tall handlebars and red metallic grips To Gary last year.
  

 Is there a source for proper head gaskets for an early head? If I were to contact cometic about making some I'd assume I need the thickness and composition information. Not having one for comparison I wonder how close the rest of the gasket is besides the center bolt?

 I bought 6 bikes from a guy that was moving, while rolling one off the trailer I noticed the engine was a sandcast. It was in a 75 frame and has the 75 head and cylinder. (center bolt in place) Today I bought a proper head for it and have one waiting on the east coast for me to pick it up. I also have a (hopefully early) 1970 no number engine to get from the same guy.

 I have engine 2695 but it has a 75 top end. I just found a proper head and am still looking for a cylinder block and 9 hole clutch cover.

 I'm still going to make a faux 9 hole cover for the meantime.

 My #5980 sandcast engine has an amber colored irregular shaped plug in the crankcase just ahead of the front lower oil hose connection. I had assumed it was possibly epoxy over a sand hole but recently I saw a picture of another one like it. My K2 has nothing like it, I do have a 103xxxx diecast engine to check when I can dig it out. Is that normal or common?

 My 5511 sandcast is mostly original, it had incorrect handlebars and exhaust. I re-installed the original rear rolled rim ( I had to buy another of the po's bikes to get it) I sold a bike to buy a replacement exhaust system, and painted a set of Honda sidecovers so it looks pretty good. I'm trying to not restore anything that's original and usable.
 Anyway the question is the seat foam is dry and getting flat, what's best for the bike?  Add some new foam to the top of the padding, buy a repro seat for riding and set the slightly flat original on a shelf or buy the Yamiya red seat foam and install it under the original cover? The cover is in good condition and the Avon Skin so soft seems to have given it a new life.
 I'm leaning toward the Yamiya foam, that seems to be the best balance between originality and functionality.

 How important are these items to the value of a sandcast bike? I have the manual and tools except for the feeler gauge and correct point file. I was tempted to spend $130 for a tool set that appeared to be complete but didn't pull the trigger. A thousand for the recessed switch is out of my comfort zone but there is a price threshold that I would go for.

 Is there such a thing? For example, how to identify the difference between a sandcast dyno cover and a newer dyno cover. Or a proper sandcast bike's master cylinder vs a newer one.