1976 Kz 900 A4

Marty. Thank you. Yes I’m going with the original paint in the root beer brown. Seems like every 900 A you see is green.

I do the same, and have all my smaller parts cleaned and blasted first, that way I can inspect, powder coat won’t fix flaws. Typically I cover the “not to coat” areas in blue painters tape and when dropping off to the coater I go over the details with them. I miss this one. Aslo missed excluding the brake pedal frame mount from powder coating. I’m not looking forward to cleaning that off. I used scotch bright type wheels for a dremel. They worked good not to aggressive which is what I wanted. I needed to remove enough mills to get the pad to fit but still keep it covered to protect it from rust. I cleaned up the corners with a very fine file. I noticed the pads were not very consistent so I filed them slightly to turn up surfaces.

You're getting there Matt, always in the details ya know. Happy New Year BTW and everybody else! Maybe the new year will give a reprieve from the hiatus i'm sure everyone has been affected by, unless you're Steve. I don't think he ever leaves the shed, maybe for a ride or two. Anybody know someone can duplicate the dated rubber bands for the brake lines??

That’s a top level of restoration. I’d expect nothing less from you though

I don't remember the dated rubber bands but the hoses themselves should have a date code on them. I have a friend who restored S/N 1006 and he went so far as to find proper date coded hoses.

I don't think they used the "quick glance" rubberbands on the early models? I have a tupperware container of old hoses for just that, correct dates inked on the rubber hose. Like You mentioned on a correct low vin with no or little driving time an old correct dated hose is a super nice touch! I've had whole upper and lower brake lines barrel plated just to maintain the Nichirin Japan fittings and doesn't seem to affect the rubber at all but you do lose the clarity of the date code. But i restore for looks AND tooling around on so i have my own supply of fittings and 1/8" brake line to cut to proper length and index fittings. Then all i have to do is take them to the machine and have them crimped.

Slow but progress

Spent most of my day after the front end taking care of the ignition, locks and related hardware.

Making sure everything is clean, oiled, NOS, re-plated, or restored is tough, but when I see good progress and a beautiful machine taking shape it’s more than worth it.

One real PITA is finding the stuff I’ve bought and stashed for the last year or so.

Looking groovy Matt!! Like putting a kit together after all the tidbits, and a lot of hard work, are done. Is that an oem 5/8 Tokico Master cylinder? I know they had the smooth reservoir.

Really nice! You're doing a great job!

You should have two ties on each side of the bars. The one on the right side looks long for some reason.

hardrockminer wrote: Really nice! You're doing a great job!

You should have two ties on each side of the bars. The one on the right side looks long for some reason.

Awesome input. Those are just what I had but looked to ratty to be permanent. I ordered NOS from Partzilla. They say 5 short and 4 long. So 4 shorties on the bars to tame the hand control wires?

asphalt900 wrote: Looking groovy Matt!! Like putting a kit together after all the tidbits, and a lot of hard work, are done. Is that an oem 5/8 Tokico Master cylinder? I know they had the smooth reservoir.

It is an OEM 5/8” MC. Not sure what you mean by “smooth reservoir”

EDIT, this was the reservoir on the bike for single disc, it has vertical ribs

The bigger MC makes the brakes feel soft...I think that's what he's referring to. I have dual disc on one of my Zeds and it's nice and soft but lots of braking power.

Yes, short ones on the handles. The fifth one may be to tie off the rear brake harness on the right frame member but I'm not positive. Th e photo shows how I did mine on my blue Zed.