82 KZ750/GPZ-R1 project

Aloha guys. My previous post has disappeared from the site, so here we go again. But the Bike now has mix of all sort of parts, so I'm not sure if it can called 82 KZ750 any more. Soon, I just need to call this baby KZ750 without the year. Oh, and I know some parts are not of 82 GPz, but I just needed have it there so I can either have the bike standing or to mock up for whatever parts I need to fit to see the clearance and such.

Today, I worked on the body pieces to have it sit so it can dry while I work on my other bike or this bike but something else. Here are some pictures. Enjoy (maybe not..............)!

The bike. I still need to strip it down and take the frame to paint. It has surface rust all over. Probably need sandblasting before the paint. BTW, that disk on the frame are from my ZX7. No, I'm replacing that disk, but that's not for my KZ.

I score this really nice tail piece from evilbay for really cheap. I think it was something like $30. Only thing was..................

These holes on the side of the tail. Look like previous owner had surface mount turn signals here.

Other side..............Sanding was done by me. Had some leftover glue, besides need to paint the piece anyway.

My Left side cover with broken mounting tab. These side covers are original pieces that came with the bike. I don't remember why I took the emblems off. I know at one point, I was trying to copy ELR, so maybe that's why.

Right side cover. Mounting tabs are OK, but have some crack I need to fix.

Fixing the holes with fiberglass backing. Haven't fill the holes yet. Just drying the pieces for now.

Side covers. While I was covering the crack, resin started to harden all of a sudden. Still, somehow, it's holding up, so I'll see how this will hold. I haven't reinforce the broken tab on the left side yet.

My next "things to do list" for this bike will be work on the fuel tank. Need to get rid of the inside rust.

Also working on my ZX7, so update may be far and few in between. But I'll try my best to take pictures and upload it here!

Damn! I forgot I had this post! I made some progress on the bike since but I forgot about this post, so I didn't take any pictures! From now on, aside from questions, I will post pictures of my progress whenever possible. Some of the stuff has been posted on other forum as question, so I will skip those that has been posted to save the reading.

Next few pictures has been done while ago but for everyone's record, I will post few pictures so maybe you can reference it for something like purchasing a equipment or send it out for service.

For a starter, I own air compressor. I can remember exact spec as some pf the paint has faded. It's a old Sears/Craftman model and I think it was like 2 HP or something close. for daily average use, it's more than adequate, but anything other than occasional use, this is on the small/minimum size side of it. I also have small tabletop blasting unit. I recommend this highly if you have space and for HOBBY use. Since I have two motorcycle that I wanted to restore, I bought this and it's been in use almost every time I go out ands work on the bike. On the side note, I use this cabinet with above mentioned compressor, it's just enough to do the work. I'm sure it's over taxing the compressor as about minute of use, compressor start to kick in to supply the air. But it's a great tool if you can own one. BTW, I don't think anybody here will do this but just in case, DON'T USE THIS INDOOR! It looks like it's a sealed unit, but blasting media will leak from just about everywhere. This is the blasting cabinet I have. www.amazon.com/OEMTOOLS-24815-Bench-Abra...2Caps%2C281&sr=8-144 . They've changed color as the one I have is red, and I bought this four years ago at about 90 USD. Boy this COVID is spiking the price of everything. BTW, media I use are Glass Beads/120 grit and Aluminum Oxide/ 120 grit. I have use both on the aluminum parts, but it's either Aluminum Oxide grit is small enough or my compressor is not strong enough, it does not hurt the parts I'm blasting.

Work of the blaster. Once you use this, you won't be sanding by hands anymore. Faster and cleaner. These are before.

After.

And don't worry. After blasting, I thoroughly clean the parts using water, solvent, brake cleaner and sometimes car engine cleaning brush (the one's that looks like to clean your rifle barrel). Like many of you, I also work on car engine (I like domestic V-8, BTW. I have 86' Monte Carlo SS) so I have different size brushes. Anyway, sandblaster will be your new good friend after you get one.

Continued from my previous post.

And I know many of you will not approve this, but I blasted my pistons, just to see what effect will have if I blasted it. I heard horror stories from everybody who doesn't even have the blaster, so just wanted to see what it'll do to the pistons.

Before. Guess it's not too bad. These are original pistons.

After but before cleaning with solvent. I cleaned these several times. I also have small, I think it was 5 gallon cleaning bin.Unlike the blaster. I have this cleaning bin under the house, so I can't check right now.

As you can see, glass beads did pretty good job, specially in the ring grooves. Pistons have been back in the engine since. Rings are new OEM unit. Believe it or not, Cylinder had little wear on it, so I just replaced with standard size ring. Pistons were also good. 

Lastly, I'm not recommend you do this. It was my choice, so I'm not responsible for any damage if you decided to do this. I just wanted to show the result.

Continue from my last post.

This is the compressor spec. If you have the money, get a bigger one. This is just enough for my needs.

Last one for the day. I took these pictures to see what will be the difference between 630 and 530 chain. But I do not have my original 630 chain, so I couldn't weight it, so decided to weight in the rear sprocket. These are the result. I was expecting little more difference.BTW, I did use the Metric unit so you can just subtract from what is showing on the window.

630 Sprocket. This is original unit came with the bike. 1135 grams.

530 Sprocket. I chose stock gearing. 960 grams.

Couldn't find front sprocket, I may have thrown that away thinking I need new one anyway. If I do find it, I'll weight those in too.

Enough posting for today.........................

OK guys. Doctor finally release me from Workmen's Comp, so from next week, my updates will be few and far in between. Next on my menu is to install the bearings on the wheels and get those tires on. hopefully, going back to work will raise my budget and get that thing fire up soon!

But in the mean time, I did some work yesterday so here we go.

Before I started, found 530 front sprocket. Time to weight that in. 245 grams, not bad. BUT! That's about 1/2 pounds! Sound pretty heavy, doesn't it? Still can't find 630 front sprocket. If I do find it, I'll weight that in and post it here.

Rear disk about to get blasted. Purpose of this blast was to clean up the disk little bit but more importantly, I wanted to paint the middle of the disk silver to match the front disk. I got both from evilbay because mine are too far gone. 

Also took these for your references. For 750's, both front and rear is same diameter, but rear is thicker. So when you go out and trying to locate a disk, be careful. Very hard to see, but front disk on top, rear is just under it.

Sorry for the bad picture. My cell phone camera focused on the OEM logo, not the disk, but you can see the difference in thickness. Same with previous one, front disk on top.

30 seconds in the blaster. Just wanted to show you guys what it can do in short time. Media I'm using for this is Alum. Oxide/120 grit.

15 minutes of blasting. Whole process took about little less than hour to do. What took most is compressor cycling to get the pressure up. So I had to stop here and there.

BTW, if anybody working or planning to work on the brake and come across what Kawasaki called Spring, Pad (Part # 92081-1229), take care of this piece(s). It's about 16 USD a piece (at Partzilla) and it's not copper or brass. Because of the color, I thought it was brass or something (Please don't say anything. Been this old, I should've known) and blasted that thing because it was really dirty, I guess I took off whatever coating or plating by blasting it.

Saga continues.....................

I was able to continue with my work and installed those wheel bearings and put both disk rotors on. Installing the bearing is pretty straight forward process, so I didn't take any picture of this process, so just the finished product. However, I used All Balls bearing set and these are sealed unit, so I put them in the freezer the night before to shrink the bearing. Also left the wheel in the hot sun for about two hours before the installation, so these went in pretty easily.

After the bearing, went on the rotors. And for the rear, installed both the rotor and sprocket. I'm sending these to have the tires install and get them to balance the first chance I get. Probably this week, but we'll see. Going back to work for the first time in four month, and because of my injury, I couldn't move that much, so I may be too tired (I'm old.....................) to do anything by the time weekend comes.

Finished front wheel. Can't wait to see the tire on these rim. Missing are the valve stem, which are OEM Kawasaki.

Wheel sleeve that was missing and I got it from one of the member here. Thanks JR (John) !! My wheels are completed now!

Almost finish rear wheel. Missing is rotor. I took it before I install it.

Next will be, as I mentioned, put those tires on. These are what I got. I didn't want to spend too much on tires as I still do not know when this will be done and spend fortune on tires only to change it out again. It still costed me pretty pennies though. I do not qualify for free shipping. Price you pay to live in paradise.

Once I get those tires on, put it on the bike and sit it on the ground, I will try work on my seat rail, which needs to be lower just the tiny bit (1/2" or so?).

Nice work on the GPz!


A friend has an '82 750 I'm hoping to buy one day.

BTW, I forgot to mention in my post and many of you may have been wondering why, that most of my parts has been painted, not necessarily color match. Some of the plated parts are also painted. Purpose of this is to avoid corrosion as much as possible. Later down the line, I probably get it to either painted or plated to color match, as closest possible, to stock. We just don't have good plater here.

wrote:

Nice work on the GPz!

A friend has an '82 750 I'm hoping to buy one day.

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Thanks. Right now, I'm on the process to get back the front fairing back. For some reason, when I got this back in mid-80's it did not have the cowl. But as I mentioned before, I got it from military dude so he may have crashed it or dropped it and replaced the whole front.  As of now, hardest thing to find is the windshield. Everything else, I was able to locate it.

Budget is another problem. So my goal now is to get that bike up and running. Cosmetic and correct parts is second in line for now. I do have stock carb all cleaned and ready to bolt on, but who knows. I may have to get aftermarket carb so saving every pennies for that and for other stuff as well.
 

Aloha guys. I'm back to work as of July 12 from my Workmen's Comp and been at work kept me from working on the bike. My leg still hurt little bit but at least I'm back to work, so I can start buying those needed parts. But because my company screwed up on my time card ( I wasn't able to punch in or out) for two weeks, I'm still waiting on my pay check. Also, if I need to send out any work to any shop, need to do it on weekend and pick up on following week, so definitely slowing down my progress.

Anyway, I was able to get the tires on the wheel and weather was nice today, so time to work on the bike. Didn't do much as my left leg still hurts depending on what I do. So took my time doing anything. So for today, just put the front and rear wheels back on.

Patient. Putting that swing arm on was somewhat of a pain due to swing arm has been powder coated. My guess are that it was just thick enough to go in smoothly. I had to sand the side of the swing arm to take off the coating. I still had hard time but went in OK and once it's in, move smoothly. I also added the grease fitting on the arm.

Wheel is back in! Look nice with new tire.

Started to look like motorcycle now.

Time to install the fork brace back in so I can put the front wheel back on.

Remember this guys? This brace is from the 80's. I believe it was from ATK, but I could be mistaken. It has been blasted, so no sticker. It was painted silver but I probably will take it off later down the line and polish it.

Too many pictures. Continue to next post.

Front wheel back in! Just wanted to see what the bike look like, so put the handlebar back on. This bike will be mostly for my son who never rode a bike before, so no clip-on ( I can't find them anyway!) or rear-set ( can't find this either), but I still have my original top bracket, so once I get it back from my son, I'll probably put those back on. Of course, I need to buy them first.

Again, just wanted to see what it'll look like with ZRX shock which I got from TexasKZ (thanks!). I took off the handlebar to put the cover back on, but I should've kept it on for the picture. I was too lazy..................I also have Zephyr oil cooler (with line but not on the cooler) for now. I need to fabricate some kind of bracket, so taking measurement as we speak. Still missing is the engine, which is sitting in my living room.

Next on my menu is to fix the seat rail, which sit little too high for me to lock the seat. Yeah, I'm ready to swallow my tear to heat up the frame, which have fresh (well, not so fresh but newly painted while back) coat of paint. depending on how bad, I may send the frame again, this time to get powder coated.