'78 KZ1000 makeover

Nice job Adam.

Thank you guys Josh is right, I need to focus on the project(s) I have in front of me first :whistle: To be honest, it was easier and took less time than I thought!

Josh, I have a nibbler, and it makes more of a mess than anything....every punch makes a tiny 1/16" metal crescent, and they go flying EVERYWHERE. That, and its difficult to get a clean, straight line. To make a perfect sheetmetal butt joint I needed precision, hence the jig saw cut. I suppose I could have used the plasma cutter, but thats like bringing a bazooka to a knife fight, and I still wouldn't have gotten the accuracy freehand with the torch I get with the saw. Having a small lathe, a plasma and a tig welder is definitely sweet, but I still do alot of my fab work with a hammer, bench vise, bench grider, files and jig/hacksaws.

Little bodywork tip: after applying a coat of body filler, when you go back to sand it you always start by sanding down the edges back to the underlying panel. Like so:


I didn't have 36 grit on a 6" disk, and I damn sure didn't feel like doing it by hand (it was a late night with a fair amount of tequila....) so I used a 4" grinder. Not pretty, but it got the job done. Then I moved to 180 grit on a DA. Normaly I would have used 36 grit to rough it down, then applied a thinned out skim coat and switched to 80 grit then 180, but again, I didn't have any 80 grit 6" disks either. Its slower, but it sands the same. I still need to bring it down a little more, but this is where I left it before I left for a SB party.


Enjoy!

Looking good!

Nice job Adam. Looks great

looks good adam.


but you know i have to play a little devils advocate dont'cha :evil: .

did you pressure test your tank after you welded the top back up ? :huh:

i would hate for a pinhole leak to blow your paint and body work off down the road :sick: .

leon

I've been waiting all weekend for you to bring that up Leon! The answer is no, I did not leak test my weld. This tank is going to get a satin black paint, so no expensive paint job to ruin. I'm not sure how I would reliably seal the filler to do a good leak gets anyway .....

soooo,

you set a trap :ohmy: ,

and then i fell right in .

nice adam,really nice :pinch: :lol: .

i got some ideas about pressure testing,if you need some :whistle: .

leon

holy crap. new to the site thanks to a fellow KZ650 owner. anyway, i am only about 15 pages in to this build. incredible so far. also, im in north OC. if you need/want help or just a hand for anything hit me up.

Welcome to the site dcmspikes, and thanks for the kind words. I'm sure you already know the end of the thread is a tad disappointing, since my bike isn't back together again. I would most definitely appreciate some assistance, and to share a cold one or three in the garage. I've been working out of town 5-6 days a week the last month, so I have had zero time to work on my bike, let alone any of my many other side projects (I brought my dash master plug with me to work on last week, but never got a chance Les & Leon). Once I'm back home I'd love some help and motivation to get this Frankenstein together!

Adam

531blackbanshee wrote: did you pressure test your tank after you welded the top back up ? :huh:

i would hate for a pinhole leak to blow your paint and body work off down the road :sick: .

leon

I was gonna ask the same thing. I had a similar problem myself years ago. I was not happy to discover a pinhole after painting :sick:

Great work - as usual!

Hello my fellow KZR brethren! I'm back from working out of town again, and its time we made a little progress on this languishing project. The critical path item I needed most is the counter sprocket. I had purchased an off the shelf 7/8" offset sprocket from PMFR quite a while ago, but it turned out to be woefully too short. I re-measured the required offset, and it looks like I need a 1.239" offset sprocket. I talked to D&G this morning, told him what I needed and paid him for a custom sprocket, so now I wait for it. In the mean time I also ordered a new regulator/rectifier unit from Oregon since I axed my stock rectifier from my custom reproduction electrical panel. I'll make some threaded aluminum bosses to weld to the battery tray to mount the new reg/rec on the right side and finish the mounts for the electrical panel on the left side. I also need to make a small bracket for the rear brake reservoir, and a handful of small tabs along the bottom of the subframe for a shield to keep crap from getting tossed up around the battery tray and tail section. That's it for now. I need to talk to the queen and clear another capital expenditure for the small amount of stuff I need to assemble the engine. Details details details! Its nice to be back though