Project: DarkFury

Hey Guys,
I'm new here and thought this would be a great place to start. A little about me: My name is Chris (duh) I'm 24, I'm a student at ITT-Tech studying Computer/Electronics Engineering. I was a European car mechanic for the five years after high school before i got laid off due to the economy. I'm used to dealing with mostly Porsche, BMW and Mercedes and all the rest of the European brands. Motorcycles are new to me, but high performance and high revving engines are not. Well anyways, here's my project:

I decided to name her DarkFury basically because i think it sounds bad ass...and she's going to be mostly black when I'm done.
It's an 82' KZ750-N1 (spectre) that i bought from a buddy i used to work with at Loomis (armored car company). I got it for a measly $300. He really didn't know what he was doing and was sick of it. when i bought it, it was not ridable or even running. Needless to say i got it home and had it running within about 2 hours. here are a few pictures after i pieced it together. It was pretty rough looking.




for some reason he thought it was a good idea to paint the tank and other parts with regular blue household spray paint. he even painted the header and exhaust. I can only imagine how much smoke was in his garage after he fired the thing up. haha.

The first thing i did was strip the tank. it was a mess. I think i counted about 5 different colors, including primer i assume.


And so started the transformation to Black.


I sanded and repainted the pipe. there was too much rust damage to try to shine it up so i coated it with some VHT high temp ceramic.



This was all done last summer/fall 2008. Sometime in the fall i suddenly experienced a lot of engine noise while riding through town. I limped it over to a buddies house where he graciously trucked it back to my house. First thing i did was remove the valve cover and it was obvious. the exhaust camshaft was sitting about 1/2" about the lifters. all but 2 of the cam bearing cap bolts had either snaped or were striped out of the head. I later discovered someone had heli-coiled ever single one of these thread holes. Luckily the only damage was in the head.
I found a new cylinder head on ebay for $75 shipped and slapped it on there. I got all of the valves adjusted to .003" -.004" (spec said .003" -.007") She fired right up on the first try and is now back in business. In the mean time i did a little more cosmetic work. The tank, side covers and fenders were all painted using automotive grade rattle can paint with a clear cote on top, wet sanded and buffed. But the stuff just sucks. It buffs out awesomely, but scratches and chips very easily and melts and any hint of gas. Im going to have my buddy re-paint those pieces since he has a paint booth at his place. Also, i plan on getting new tires, while those are off I'll see if i can get the rims powder coated. Also the gold suspension pieces will be painted gloss black.
But here is how the bike sits right now. I had some decals made and i like them a lot, so i think when i have my friend repaint it, I'll have him clear coat the new decals in.








I also installed an HID head light system, i was getting tired of not being able to see.


Here are my custom saddle bags i made out of Ammo cans. They are removable although not that quickly. but they are nice for trips. and they are water tight



Thats about everything i've done so far.
here's a list of things i want to do to it so far.

-lower profile LED turn signals
-manual cam chain tensioner
-LED tail light
-Somehow replace the gauges with digital ones (not sure what to use yet)
-Lower the rear
-lower the front (if possible, like i said, i'm new to bikes)
-New tires
-Paint work
-Custom seat (something thinner and more rounded)
-Yoshimura muffler
-K&N Pods

Thanks for looking guys
Please give suggestions and opinions if you have them. constructive criticism is always welcome too.

You can always tell when a bike gets happy. Sounds and looks like you got one. Hope she rewards ya with lots'o happy miles! I do like the Spectre's. Careful when lowering you don't get carried away and reduce the lean angle to where you're scraping shiny bits. GLuck!

Chris,
Try this for a starting place on Digital Instruments.

www.electrosport.com/street/speedometers-series-2700-2800.php

Keep posting pics, as you have the makings of a great story there.