Introduction

Hi guys, allow me to introduce myself.
I'm Bert from Belgium and I've always been a bit of a Kawasaki enthousiast.
My first bike was a 1990 GT550 and I've always felt bad for selling it.
So now, years later I decided to buy myself another vintage Kawa, insert the 1982 GPZ750...
Unfortunately I'm gonna have my work cut out with this one, cause there's all sorts of things wrong with it.
But nevertheless it's a good base for a project that's been brewing in my mind for years now.

The plan is to start with getting the bike running and trying it out.
If I get everything as wanted, I'd like to take it a step further.
I hate caferacers because they ruin originality and they made classic motorcycles rare and expensive.
What I love is periodic-correct bikes with coressponding upgrades.
I have some friends in the classic endurance circuit and that's the way I wanna go...

The main idea is to get wider wheels and tyres with better brakes and also stiffening the frame up a little bit.
So I'm hoping someone here has tried changing the forks and swingarm for something better with minimal effort?
If anyone can point me to some topics on this matter, that'll be great!
I want a classic looking bike, so no USD forks and monoshocks.
I'm probably gonna have to weld some mounts to a modern swingarm to keep the stereo shocks, but that's ok...
Besides that I might put in a big-bore kit and I wanna paint the bike in KZ750L3 colors...
And the electrics could also do with an upgrade(maybe an m-unit) cause there's been messed about with it a lot!!!

I'm no mechanical marvel but i can manage my own.
And I have a lot of skilled friends plus hopefully the forum's help so I'm optimistic.
It will take time, but let's hope It' end up being as awewome as I'm imagining...
That was the introduction, so please let me know if there's anything I need to know about the bike or the project.

 

Welcome.
I like the color of your GPz currently.
Is the L3 colors the Black with red and orange stripes with 750 on the tail?
Looks nice too, but the green is too.

I'm biassed to the green.

Welcome! Your bike looks good! Look into replacing the Rectifier/Regulator to the Shindigen 722. If you need shocks, look into Ikon 7610's. Please keep us posted with your progress with pictures. Feel free to pick our minds if you run into problems. You mentioned Belgium. Lovely country and great highways.Some decades back when I was a young man stationed in Germany, A couple times I traveled through there to get to the ferry that took me to England and back.I had an '82 BMW R100RS at the time.   

Welcome, nice looking bike. Your plans you what you want to do with it are interesting. Keep the pictures coming

Welcome. I'm partial to the '82 GPz750 myself. Mine still has the stock swingarm but with new bushings and ZRX shocks. I would suggest the cartridge emulators in the front with appropriately sized springs. 

Nice bike   Enjoy it for a while you might find its not bad as is .

Welcome! 

That is a lovely machine! 
Keeping it "looking" like the classic original that it is, will preserve its value for sure, and will appeal to many more buyers in the future.

I wish you many hours of happy tinkering! (Take loads of photos with your phone and share them here!)

H.

Thanks for the reply's.
I am definately keeping it stock for now.
However, there's loads of issues to tackle before I can get it running.
Carb problems(big ones), rust, electrics are a mess, and so on...
New paint might be inevitable and the green isn't original anyway.
Also I want to change the handling, but keep it looking stock(for the untrained eye).

It'll take time but we'll see.
Maybe I do love it as it iss and keep changes minimal.
But I'll never sell this, so value is only what it means to me...