Sandcast for sale (Ohio)

[billyb]

Just a feeler:
I recently bought VIN CB7501005302 which has engine CB750E-1005015.  Its been in a heated garage in Ohio since 1987 and was just pulled out and serviced at the local Honda dealer of all places.  Has bad paint job and ugly fairing, but complete and mostly original otherwise and runs/rides well (all things considered).  Not much rust.  Has complete nice set of HM300 pipes installed and a spare set of HM300 or other (1 unstamped, 1 newer stamp) pipes.  The 4 HM300s on the bike are in nice shape.  Others have some issues.

Has original front fender, handlebar switchgear, instruments, airbox, wrinkle tank, tool kit...  Basically all but the horn, seat cover (recovered a long time ago with some sort of aftermarket cover, but stock pan/foam), headlight, and fork ears seem to be original.  And I guess the pipes (HM300s).  I have the title from mid 70s when it changed hands - its had 2 owners before me.  35K miles.

Anyways, I plan to find a headlight and fork ears, freshen up a lot (tires, brake rebuild, fork seals, petcock) - all the typical things that go bad from sitting.  And I have a professional painter who is chomping at the bit to put it back to its original Candy Blue Green.  I also may refinish some of the aluminum bits (engine covers, fork sliders) as they have some mild corrosion.  At that point I'm planning to sell it to fund a Guzzi project.

Before I start the work I thought I'd float it here to see if anyone wants it as-is so you can have the fun of doing the work yourself and do it to your standards.  I know you'll all want pics but before I go to the trouble I'd like to say that I'm hoping to get at least $6500 from it as-is.  Once the above (fairly minor) work is done it'll be a relatively nice and mostly correct Sandcast so you know what its worth then.  If I end up doing the work I'm hoping to have it ready for a Mid-Ohio Vintage Daze delivery.  Long pole in the tent right now is locating a good painter headlight bucket/ears.

Thanks a bunch,
Billy

[kp]

Billy,
I suggest you load some photos up on, say, Photobucket so all can have a look. That way you only have to post the link on here and save sending photos to everyone who asks. Obviously can't say if the price is good without seeing some pictures, but seems a fair price from what you describe. Cheers KP

[Steve Swan]

A man after my own heart...........  A Guzzi project ?   

[donzie]

BILLY
SEND PICTURES TO SSHER40362@AOL.COM
"HAVE CASH WILL TRAVEL"

[billyb]

Ha ha yes, a Guzzi project.  A neighbor of mine at my last house (ok, 2 houses ago) roadraced "back in the day", and he got hold of one of the bikes in the very first shipment of original Lemans to the US (there were 4 bikes - 2 went to Leoni for his team, my neighbor got 1, and he didn't know who got the other).  He raced it for 2 years and then it sat a while and then he returned it to street duty and now its sat, under a carport of all places, for about 20 years.  Imagine my horror to see that 1976 Lemans sitting under a carport next to a CB400 Hawk and 550 Seca (no offense), rotting away, every time I'd jog by his house.  He finally said he'd sell it to me (I've been asking for 10 years).  And this sandy came up at a good price so I figured I'd turn some profit off the Honda and lessen the pain of the Lemans restore. 

This way 2 wonderful classic bikes get restored!

I'm going to clean the Honda up a little, strip the totally 70s fairing off it, and snap some pics so any prospective buyers can see what they are dealing with.  It'll be a few days I imagine (sorry).  Other than the repaint on it currently, it really looks to have been fairly unmolested.  Good news is the tires I ordered for it showed up today so future rides on it may not be as perilous, especially once the OEM Honda stuff I bought for it (caliper seal, MC rebuild kit, fork seals, etc) also show up and I can have a front brake and suspension that actually dampens a bit...  Don't worry I've only spent $250 on parts so far so the price isn't going up just yet

I did a mild restoration on a very nice K1 750 a couple years ago and I really did enjoy riding that bike.  But the sandcast is worth more to other people than it would be to me so it needs to go!

[billyb]

Quick update on the bike - I stripped off the fairing and cleaned it up pretty well.  Its in pretty nice shape.  Good thing I checked this website to read up on these or the recessed key would have thrown me for a loop!  Weird with that piece of plastic on the key.  Anyways, it seems to have all of the correct parts other than the seat cover, HM300 pipes (but is it possible it came with HM300s or did all sandcasts have no stamps?), headlight ears (though it did have the original headlight and turn signals on/in the fairing) and the original horn is missing. 

It wouldn't idle as well as I'd like so I went ahead and decided to make sure the carbs were clean and synch them.  Well when I pulled the airbox off it cracked in several places.  So I ordered a repro (LPM) since I didn't see being able to save the original. 

Anyways I've decided to go ahead and do the paint on it and very mild restore (it really doesn't need much to be a nice looking rider) and have some fun with it before selling it.  The Guzzi can wait a while longer.  I do hope to have it ready to sell at Mid Ohio vintage days at the end of July.  I'll update this list when its ready.

Thanks again for everyone who contributes to this list.  Its great to have a resource like this, especially for a sandcast newbie like myself!