Katit's 1978 KZ650 project

Should look well with nicely built wheels

Some updates. Picked up parts from vapor blast. I asked him where he felt like coating was applied. He said front hub?? He didn't feel like forks had clear on them (but I can tell there was). So now I still have dilemma on what to do with hubs. On forks, I used 3m pad to bring back factory-like shine and going to clear coat them.

Chrome is ready for pickup.

Only one order still pending (from partzilla) and I will have all parts needed to get roller done.

And.. 95F here in STL and AC does not work still (ordered new unit, looks like compressor locked up)


 

I don't think the hubs were painted or coated.  I had no evidence of it when I stripped mine of the home made paint job.  Z1 had a black painted hub but that's the only one I can recall off the top of my head.  As for forks...I always thought they were bare and that's how I did mine for my Z1 but I've been told by several people they were coated.  I have a set of 650 forks in the shop...will check them closely today.

wrote:

I don't think the hubs were painted or coated.  I had no evidence of it when I stripped mine of the home made paint job.  Z1 had a black painted hub but that's the only one I can recall off the top of my head.  As for forks...I always thought they were bare and that's how I did mine for my Z1 but I've been told by several people they were coated.  I have a set of 650 forks in the shop...will check them closely today.

Let me know what you find out. I searched around and can't get definite understanding. On many newer bikes those hubs come anodized. Some paint on inside only where it's hard to clean. Some say aluminum doesn't take paint well (especially if I want to clear it - I can't etch prime)

I have some basic choices:
1. For forks I am going to clear coat it with 2K clear, this is "done"
2. For hubs I can either leave them as is or paint (at least some surfaces) with Cerakote like engine. Also this cerakote paint lays nice and looks good, it is still going to scratch, it's thin. And in order to get results I will have to re-blast surfaces with something coarser than vapor blast.

Primed and painted bottoms of fenders, there was some rust and pitting, when they do chrome - they don't do back, interesting. So I had to seal those. Clear coated forks (after giving them factory texture). Clear coated hub insides only. Decided to leave outside as is - plain alum. Maybe polish? But blah...

PS. Paint. Black paint I got from ebay is JUNK. I don't know, I have 2 guns. I can do clear. I can do primer. But this paint thin, etc, but it just doesn't lay. Dries in the air.
I checked frame with my palm and I don't know. I might just get some spray can, scuff it and spray it with a can to get decent texture. It's not me, it's paint..

 

Still no AC in garage! Needed new unit, ordered same model but it is different so wasn't plug and play Need more work to get it running.

But, Parts clean, can work in living room. Front wheel assembled. New OE bearings, new DID rim, new spokes. Of course I messed up first time, but got it right (2 pics showing right/wrong)
Next step will be truing.

 

looking good 

Did you have the rim re-plated? Looks nice. Now the hard part, truing the rim.

wrote:

Did you have the rim re-plated? Looks nice. Now the hard part, truing the rim.

No, I just bought new rims. I needed new spokes, figured I will have lot of trouble truing them if there is any issue with old ones. Plus, chroming would probably cost just as much or more than new ones. 

Studying all I can, will see how truing goes. I have a stand. And I bought torque spoke wrench(on picture). So, got all right tools, just need to do my part.

First rim trued. 0.3 mm in both directions. I call it good, especially in comparison to manual calling for 2/3mm.

Torqued all spokes to somewhere in a middle of specified range (forgot what that number is in Clymer)

 

Good work sir 

Yeah. Those rims (DID) have 2 things. 1 - they have welded seam, factory ones don't have that seam. When measuring runout at seam it is about 0.2mm. Not a big deal, not visible, but anyways. 
2 - There is some trapped junk inside rolled rim. And you can hear it when spinning. Not a huge deal but still.. I guess for the price what can I expect?