1978 KZ1000-A2 "Barn find"

Went to the paint shop yesterday to see what they could come up with. It took them all day, bug they came up with a paint that is damn near indistinguishable from factory. They pulled some blue out a GM paint I believe. Paint Cade's attached for anyone looking for a starting point on Luminous Green.

Will hopefully be ready to paint this thing in a week of so.

Help!

I noticed both the speedo and tach were very loose, so I opened up the speedo and discovered a broken stud. Is this replaceable by me? I really don't want to send it to Z-Resto at this time.


EDIT: Okay, I panicked, but it's all good now. I took a deep breath, searched this forum, and quickly found a link to WiredGeorge's write-up. This may be a blessing in disguise, as the paint on the inside wasn't done right for some reason and it was visible from above. Seemed as if something wasn't seated properly.

Kaylinator wrote: What should I use for fluid in the forks? Service manual calls for SAE 10W-20, but I'm leaning more towards Bel-Ray fork oil. In that case, I'm not sure what weight I should go for. Keep in mind I've been 140lbs since I was sixteen.

I use a 15 wt anti foaming fork oil. Several brands available. Bel-ray, Maxima.

I had the same issue with the tach, the previous owner broke the stud of and striped the other. I was lucky enough to find a member here that had an extra bottom shell and I replaced it. You can buy a junk donner gauge for the back shell. You’ve done the hard part in getting it apart. Evilbay sells the new crimping rings.

Don’t understand your question about the inner color of the upper shell? That light blue is correct

It's the correct color, yes, but painted poorly by the factory somehow. You can def in that photo that there's a black ring near the top where it shouldn't be. Hard to really describe or see in the photo, but that blue/green is inconsistent all the way around, so you end up seeing only some of it when assembled, making it appear like something isn't seated correctly.

I prefer flat or semigloss black for the stock upper housing. Not original, but it looks better imho. Never cared for the green.

My only reference is comparing the 900 and early 1000 gauges to a 650. The 900/1000 are black inside between the bezel and face.


Here is a 650 you see teal green between bezel and face

The teal in these ones are much more mild. Really only seen when the lights are on.

Mikaw wrote: My only reference is comparing the 900 and early 1000 gauges to a 650. The 900/1000 are black inside between the bezel and face.

The original 1977 KZ650 gauges were also black around the edge. They changed to teal in 1978. Below is a picture of my original KZ650 speedometer that I took several years ago. Ed

So I looked all over town for a color match for the gauge interior. Rust-Oleum Turquoise was a dead ringer for the color, but can only be found in gloss. Now I have a decision to make. Given it isn't really seen, I could just leave it at gloss and I'd probably be happy with it. This would probably have the added benefit of reflecting more light at the gauges. My other option it to clear coat it afterwards with a matte clear to dull it out. Decisions, decisions.

I have had good looking results with semigloss clear in rattle cans. Just make sure you are well beyond the max cure time on the color coats first.

I must be missing something here, maybe I can’t see the defect your talking about in the pictures. My gauges light up teal also... yours seem correct