Finding UNOBTAINIUM......(warning, long post)

You guys that do restorations or resurrections will appreciate this....the rest of you might be able to relate it to some other facet of your life...

I am fortunate enough to own a 1975 Kawasaki H2C 750 two stroke triple and a 1974 H2B. For those that do not know, the ‘75 H2C was by far the rarest of all the H2’s with only 5000 produced. The 74 had higher production numbers but unfortunately doesn’t share all its parts with the later model.

I had a conundrum. My 75’s front fender has a bit of wear from the 11K miles on the bike. It doesn’t have any dents or dings but the chrome has worn somewhat. On the other hand my 74s front fender has two very small dings on the rear portion but the chrome is still brilliant and looks nearly new.

Also, my headlight rim on my 75 had the same wear on the chrome. No damage, just wear. Here’s where my problems began. The front fender is the same for both models but the headlight rim is matched to not only the bucket but also the actual headlight. They all have “Stanley #001-1047” stamped into them on my bike. Basically, it’s a 3 piece matched set and to keep it "correct", you need to replace with only the correct #. Oh cr*p, this isn’t going to be fun!

I didn’t want to put a damaged fender from the 74 on the 75. That would make no sense. And the headlight rim is different on the two models so I would have to find a new rim and a new fender.

For the past couple of years I’ve been searching for both a replacement front fender and a headlight rim (Stanley # 001-1047). I don’t have any reproduction parts on either bike and didn’t want to start installing any so a repro was out. I wanted a NOS front fender and rim. As most of you had guessed by now, I quickly learned that the factory name for the fender was #35004-085 and the street name for that part was “unobtainium”. About the same for the rim although there are 10’s of rims out there, none had the Stanley number that I was searching for. Na Da, Doesn’t exist, don’t bother asking, give up or make your own were some of the responses I received when I inquired at the most eclectic places on the face of this Earth. I’d be willing to wager that in just the past couple of years I’ve written close to 100 letters trying to find these two parts.

I spent a long time searching & refusing to give up. I just a feeling in my heart that somewhere out there was a new front fender and headlight rim.

Last week, Tuesday to be exact, God looked down and said BAZAM or whatever he says when he allows the impossible to become possible….and my eye spied a listing on fleabay for “Honda-Kawasaki NOS fender”, right below it was a listing for yet ANOTHER headlight rim(I had been writing to every headlight rim post without success). I right-clicked on each to open them in separate tabs.

I opened the headlight rim first and staring back at me from the picture of the back of the sealed beam was “Stanley 001-1047” I couldn’t believe it, could it even be possible? I quickly opened the pictures to the larger size and sure enough, it was the right # and the chrome rim looked perfect!! I couldn’t have hit the “buy it now” button for $29.50 any faster. After all, I had been practicing for this moment for a couple of years!! After buying the rim and being as happy as I thought I could be, I opened the fender post. Honda-Kawasaki NOS front fender…..AGAIN, I nearly stroked out when looking back at me was the underside of what I knew to be a #35004-085 H2 front fender. It has very specifically shaped underside bracing that cannot be mistaken for anything else. The seller had no information and only stated that he thought it might be from an old Honda or Kawasaki and had taken the pic with a tape measure roughly showing the hole spacing. I bolted to the basement, nearly tore my front fender off my 74 and ran back upstairs….NO DOUBT, this was IT! Again, it had a Buy It Now and I nearly punched the key through the keyboard!!

I paid for both items and waited…one day, two days, three days…..then last Thur. the rim showed up….Wow, nearly perfect and worlds better then mine and sure enough both the rim and the sealed beam were stamped with the correct number.

On Friday I came home to see a large box on the front porch. I was actually nervous as I very carefully opened the box. Before removing the fender from the box I ran downstairs to get my fender to compare it to. Then I gently removing it from the box and removed the bubble wrap it was covered in. ABSOLUTELY perfect match and the “couple of shelf marks” the seller had stated there were, turned out to be nothing more then long dried finger prints that removed with 5 seconds of rubbing. A perfect NOS fender.

Amazingly, I found both items in the same week and you can be sure that I'm VERY thankful!!

It’s kind of funny because last night I went on to fleabay and out of habit, nearly clicked on a headlight rim posting….I was going to check to see if his rim had Stanley # 001………old habits die hard.


jeff

 

Great story! Love to see pics when it's together

 

Sounds like you got a lot of passion put into these rides. Would definitely like to see some pics. Well done!