Frankie- 76/78 750B3

I have no idea why but I am obsessed with old twins now.  Back in May 22, I found a FREE 78 750B3 engine on Marketplace.  My original plan was to find a frame and make a trike or chopper out of it.  Well, I found a frame, a complete 76 B1 (locked engine) that's seen better days.  WELL, the trike ideas went out the window and i decided to make another bobberish KZ.  Then in June, I found out I was deploying for 6 months so it took a back burner until now.  The past 6 months, I've been buying parts and waiting to come home and start building again.  So here she is, in all her rusty glory.

And so it begins !!   interested to see where you go with it, the updated running gear is a good start 

I sent out the cylinder head saturday to have the valves done (I don't have the tools to remove the valve springs and one was stuck open).  Hopefully it will be done by the weekend.  I was also cruizing around Facebook Marketplace last night and found ANOTHER kz750B frame (this one has a title!) that I might snag this weekend.  Good lord, am I becoming a horder?  LOL I really need a bigger garage.

Here is an over due update on Frankie.

I came across ANOTHER 750 Twin for $300 WITH A CLEAN title in Ohio, and scooped it up last month.  The frame had been cut a little and all the tabs for the seat and side covers were removed.  Here she is.

I stared to swap parts back and forth between this one and the junk yard frame.  Oh, the Ninja wheels wouldn't work like I though so I'm sticking with these spoke wheels (they are in MUCH better shape).  I found this old harley solo seat at a vintage swap meet for $10 and it fits pretty well.  

The Drag bars felt good but not perfect so I grabbed these 4in dog-bones out of my for sale pile and LOVE how they feel.
 

I haven't done a compression test on this engine BUT it does have compression and the starter is pulling 12V.  I didn't want the 750 to look exactly like my 440, so I ditched the ducktail fender for an older sportster fender.


Decided to make my own license plate & tail light mount and EXTREMELY happy with the result! I even filled in (welded) a bunch of holes on the fender that I wasn't going to use.

AND THEN.............I got bored.  REALLY bored. So out came the gas tank and some rattlecans.  I had a bunch of Yellow and some black and played around for a day.  By the end of the day, this is what I came up with and I'm pretty happy (even though I'm not a yellow fan).  I need to clear coat it but I'm waiting to get some metal flake to add.
 

I think this is gonna be fun to watch !   

Scotty

Well it's been a while since I've posted any kind of update so here goes. I moved home to Ohio 2 months ago with hopes to have some extra time to start working on Frankie again. Well, not so much really. Ive had a few hours to myself to poke at her yesterday and today and I've come to the realization that I'm gonna completely rewire her, similarly to what I did on my 440. Do I really want to, no but the oe-spaghetti-mess and new switches aren't really gonna work the way I'm thinking. So hopefully in the next few days I'll have some pictures.

Here's the only pictures I have. I had to strip the tank because the black paint and clear coat didn't like each other and started to lift. I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

Cool design. Do you have plans to tie the rear of the frame rails back together?

Like where its going.

Those open tubes in the rear would be a good spot to stuff some turn signal bulbs.

Thanks for the kind words guys.  I do plan on closing up the rails but not 100% sure how right now.  I have some micro LED turn signals that I'm using but they are just a little too big to mount in the rails.  In the next few hours, I'll be pulling out the harness and snapping a few pictures.  

Found an old strut mount in my scrap metal bin and the screw holes were the exact same size as my new idiot lights (6mm).  Plus, there was just enough room for the start button and a mounting bolt. I like the simple look with the drag specialties mini speedo and tach. Just have to relocate the key switch.