Tank restoration advice KZ1000A/ KZ900

Tank progress!!




Moving in the right direction even though for the moment it looks worse than it did in green. He says not removing all the paint would cause problems getting the right finish and risk bubbling with the new paint - I'm glad to see he's taking the job seriously.

More Progress!! Decals going on Wednesday and then the final clearcoat. Based on the reflection of the workshop in the the tank paint I can't wait to see the finished article.

Nice progress Hawk. Makes a guy feel kinda good when you're nearing various milestones in a project. Either of the 2 gold striping styles atop that black wld look awesome and be quite popular off the production line. No matter which striping style a person chooses...

or...
The rounded swooping design (of the A2's?) was designed to resemble the profile shape of an airplane wing. They both have a way of making a bike look like it's hauling ass even when it's parked on it's side or center stand! Vroom-vroom!!!...........................Mike

Black paint is looking good! A few dos and don'ts.......make sure cap gasket is good condition, tank opening should be trimmed to bare metal, and do not fill to brim to prevent rust.....gas will expand out in the sun and leak out the vent. I have seen a couple of my lacquer paint jobs destroyed from overfilling.

When these are finished, I will have hit the point where every thing is done, other than I'm sure there will continued tinkering required to keep everything as it should be. I'm glad I went for getting everything painted, because although she looked really good already, we've upped the standard with this tank and I don't think I'd ever have been happy with it overall if I'd taken a short cut on it.

Rockranch I'm going with the 77 style A1 gold stripes for the tank, I'm not looking for being all original on this one, but I'm going for a sort of factory look, something they might have made, while incorporating the things that appealed to me back in the day. I'm hoping when it's done, it's going to have the appeal to me, that has me going out in garage just to look at it

Paintworkz thanks for the tips, I told my friend who's doing the work not to paint the opening of the tank, or the thread for the petcock, he should be following the lines of the original paint as that's how they were. I will check my seal however, I think it's good, but I don't want gas on that tank, in fact I may be too scared to even ride the bike after this

Yeah sometimes we just have to go with our gut feelings and what makes us feel good in the end, and not always wondering if we shld've done a certain something or not. I knew which style U preferred and that is awesome. Black is arguably the most versatile color and goes with almost any contrast imaginable. And when black paint jobs have the mirror-like finishes that yours has, that puts the whole look, over the top...good pick! ..................................Mike

Vroom-vroom!

redhawk4 wrote: More Progress!! Decals going on Wednesday and then the final clearcoat. Based on the reflection of the workshop in the the tank paint I can't wait to see the finished article.

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I need sunglasses to look at them thar shinny parts,
Pete

Rockranch wrote: Yeah sometimes we just have to go with our gut feelings and what makes us feel good in the end, and not always wondering if we shld've done a certain something or not. I knew which style U preferred and that is awesome. Black is arguably the most versatile color and goes with almost any contrast imaginable. And when black paint jobs have the mirror-like finishes that yours has, that puts the whole look, over the top...good pick! ..................................Mike

Vroom-vroom!

I think the decal bit is like anything else, at some point in your life a vehicle just appeals to you in such a way you never forget it. Then they bring out another model and often you hate it, some grow on you over time, others don't. That's how it is for me with the A1 decals versus the A2, if the first big K to attract my attention had been the A2 model, I'd have loved it, but coming from the Z1/KZ1000A1 that had caught my imagination the decals just don't do it for me.

I'm going to get my KZ650B1 painted next, that's a very original bike so now I have to decide whether to use a stock color and factory graphics on that, it was originally green, or do my own thing on that too. I've had doing the Z1 B candy red in mind for some time, but now find the thought of doing the original color scheme appealing for originality, but I'm just not that keen on the Green or Red colors they had from the factory. Decisions It was good in a way that I went with black on the KZ1000 because it was already black and originally I was just going to paint the tank, later I realized I could have gone with another color as I went to getting all the parts painted, but that would have been another dilemma. Based on how much I liked the bike as it was in black, I think I'm going to love the end result.

Well here's a really poor photo of the bike with the bodywork back on, unfortunately 6" of snow today already, on top of what we already had, so no chance of doing a tasteful outdoor one with some scenery which would have given better lighting and backdrop than my untidy garage. I still don't have the gas cap on or the petcock fitted, still waiting for everything to really dry and toughen up some before attempting the filler cap and sticking things all over the tank to protect it. Sharp eyes will spot the change to Z1000 with some OEM badges obtained recently.

Schweet!

NICE RH! Good choice! That design is quite appealing and wld be quite popular as a production design. I've been talking to Count's Kustoms in Vegas about doing the paint for my 1327 build. Hoping to hear this week if Ryan wants to do it and his estimate. I'm going to tour their shop/showroom in March so wld be a good time to chat in person. We'll see. Nice build you have going there and keep up the awesome work!..............................................Mike

Vroom-vroom!!!

Hi to everyone, have been very busy for a while - don't ask but had to get a picture for my insurance company the other day so I thought an update was in order of my just about finished project. I got it licensed etc. so have been riding it this summer. Thanks again to all who helped by contributing to my posts and the forum in general. Next up my KZ650B1, tank etc. repainted and ready to put everything back together. Also acquired a 68 BSA Victor, if I'm allowed to mention that on a Kawasaki forum, so plenty to keep me occupied over the winter.




One day I'll get a picture with a nice background, getting a picture never seems to cross my mind when I'm actually out and about.