KZ1000A1 Spare Parts Project

Personally I would not powdercoat  the disk carriers because its right next to the disk which you are going to clean with acetone or brake cleaner. I find it better to avoid scenarios where the finish can easily be damaged. if you're going to paint/powder use something solvent resistant. I have painted several KZ disk carriers with Gun Kote and baked at 375F.

Without knowing the alloy that the disk carrier is its nearly impossible to know how it will react. The carriers on the stock disks appear to be die cast which means they are probably a 3XXX series alloy -  maybe a 4XXX series. Many of these alloys are not considered heat treatable. However, lets assume it is a heat treated alloy (I highly doubt Kawasaki was doing any heat treating back then) If you look at artificial aging table in the article DOHC posted, most of the times associated with hardening are 5-18 hours. I doubt an hour would do much, if anything, to alter the temper. That low of temp is not even close to hot enough to anneal any alloy of aluminum. At the extreme end of possibilities baking at 375f for an hour might take it to the next level of temper..ie T6 to T7 (depending on alloy)



 

Thanks guys, but I've already taken the discs out of the box for the powder coaters. I'll just paint them with some of the 2k paint I used on the 750 engine. It's pretty durable and can deal with a good amount of heat.

Makes sense, don't for get to mask or scrape the area that sits against the wheel so you don't get disc run-out 

Took the brake discs off to get blasted today - don't have my blasting cabinet anymore, will get one when I build a small workshop behind the carport but I'm pretty sure both my current builds will be finished before then. 
Picked up a tank and covers yesterday and after seeing how the green looked on the restomod I put them on this build where they belong. There are a few scratches and the tail has a couple of small air bubbles under the stripes, but nothing major. If I get to keep the bike I'll leave them as they are - the bike will be ridden so there's no point in obsessing over perfect paint. If I have to sell it I'll probably paint a set in diamond sky blue. The wife hasn't commented on the number of bikes for a while so I might be OK

 

 

 


A few imperfections on the tank that have unfortunately been sprayed over with clear:

 

Pretty much finished the electrics on the restomod - need to get the welder out before I can get the last couple of things done. In the meantime I decided a change of focus would be good. 

I got the clocks back from being serviced. Look pretty good and the damping fluid and bearings have been renewed so the needles should be pretty stable. I repaired one of the M6 threads in the block so I could bolt the head down. Got that done and got the exhaust on as well. Need new camshaft bearings so will have to wait a bit before I get the engine finished. In the meantime I guess I'll start on the wiring - it's not like that's all I've been doing for the last month... 

      

  

  


The exhaust is too close to the swingarm on the left side. I figure the hanger on the frame is probably bent (given the state of the frame when I got it). It's not too bad though, so I'll just bend the bracket for the left muffler just enough so the axle bolt clears the muffler. 

  

Looking really good Callum, could you move one of the spacer washers to the other side (that would move the not back a bit ?)

wrote:

...could you move one of the spacer washers to the other side (that would move the not back a bit ?)

I could take the washer off, but it won't fit on the other side. Unfortunately the lower shock bolt would still have clearance issues, as would the end of the axle. I may just make some thin spacers for the exhaust brackets.

For starters the axle is in wrong. The nut needs to be on the brake side. You only need one washer outside of the adjuster. Also the adjusters have built in spacers that might close up your gap. I’ll look up the spacer sequence and get back. 

Here is the spacer sequence 

 

I only have one washer outside the chain adjuster, it's just a bit sturdy. The manual has the nut on the sprocket side. I did consider swapping it around anyway, but it won't make any difference as I'll still have clearance issues with the lower shock mount.

 

See it now, the chain adjuster has swung down and hidden by the arm, giving the appearance of additional washers. As for the axle, I pulled up the same parts breakdown and noticed the orientation. So I went to the manual and in all of the assembly photos they show the nut on the right side. That’s how I assemble all my bikes. I did then search the internet for pictures and it looks like majority showing the nut on the right side, But there are some with the nut on the left. Might be a discussion for another post, like which side does the size/date code lettering of a rim go on when lacing new spokes.

I always put all axle nuts on the left. Keeps the right hand side pretty for photos when the bikes on the side stand