OK so my painter is done with the tank.  he painted the stripe and the black pinstripes - all paint on the tank, no decals/stickers at all.  It looks wonderful.  I was amazed.  He used the Reproduction Decals as templates and paint from vintagehondapaint.com (botht he candy blue green and the gold - the black pinstripes are just gloss black).  So anyways, a good painter can do the stripes and they look great and there is no step under the clear.

If I knew how to upload an image I would.  But I'm obviously too stupid to figure that out.  At any rate, it just looks like a NOS tank - really nice.  You'll see it on ebay soon.  This has been a fun project and I've learned a lot about early CB750s.

Thanks KP - I looked on ebay and all I found was some generic-looking chrome trim that I can probably get at my local auto parts shop.  I'll check out Yamiya and the Cooper stuff - good pointers.

Actually if someone could measure the height of their OE trim that will help me find a good match.  Thanks.

Update - I really wanted to have the stripes painted so I bought the gold paint from Don Dirtbiker who I bought the rest of the paint kit from.  anyways, I bought the Reproduction decals to be used as templates and my painter said he can buy some stuff that's made specifically to mask off pinstripes so they are even and he feels like he can do it by hand.  We will see!

Thanks for the pointer guys.  I had looked at yamiya previously.  If my math is correct (and I sure hope its not), the Yamiya stuff is about $615 for a cover and foam, plus shipping from the Motherland.  I hardly even paid that for the whole bike so I think I'll pass on that one.

Just kidding on what I paid 

On the el-cheapo Z1 cover, did it at least fit right and look decent if not perfect?  To be honest I don't like the straps anyways, I always end up sitting on them and they aren't real comfortable.  Really I was debating just finding a nice king/queen seat and tossing the original in the trash pile....    Ha ha - got you again!

Thanks,
Cheapskate

Yes thanks a bunch for the info.  I ordered the decals from Reproduction.  My painter said he could do it by hand but it doesn't seem worth it - this will be a rider not a show bike. 

So let me get this straight - Honda didn't use decals?  I can see the gold being paint, but even the pinstripes are hand painted?  That seems pretty unusual to have someone hand pinstriping a production run. 

I have the same concerns about the clearcoat lifting the decals - I've had problems with that in the past.  It seems to vary based on the material/adhesive used for the decal, and the brand of clear that's used.  My painter was using PPG paints for a while and it was a problem with some decals.  He's now using a different brand of paint (forget the name - not House of Kolor) so I may just order an extra decal from Reproductiondecals as a tester on another part first.  My painter could use enough clear and do the sanding to ensure there's no 'step' over the decal.

Do the Vic World bikes have hand-laid pinstriping (no tape/decal)?  I never saw mention of a paint code for the gold color anywhere when I looked at paint code conversations.

Several sellers of these decals around.  I may be painting a blue green sandcast soon and want to know the best quality decals to do it right.  I'm guessing NOS are not an option...

thanks!

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