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Another 81 GPZ. Losing the fat. 21 Jun 2008 09:38 #221350

  • loudhvx
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Next was the seat pan. It's 1/8" aluminum bent by hand on wooden forms. The rear bend was done without anything special, but the side edges were tougher. The trick on the side bends is on the underside. Before I bent it, I took a 1/4" thick grinding wheel and cut a groove along the bend line on the underside. I cut about 1/32" deep. This forced the bend to be straight, and it also controlled the bend nicely so there are actually 2 bends right next to each other if you look very carefully in person. This gave a very nice machine-bent look to it.

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Another 81 GPZ. Losing the fat. 21 Jun 2008 09:43 #221351

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Other angles with the headlights.







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Another 81 GPZ. Losing the fat. 21 Jun 2008 12:17 #221380

  • JohNLA
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What a great write up and very cool looking tail.B)
I know you plan on painting it but I must say the transparency is pretty wicked looking.:woohoo:

Any recomendations on what plastic to use for replacing the winshield? I have a heat gun so it is on my list of things to try.
s49.photobucket.com/albums/f255/JohNLA_photo/1983%20GPZ%20550/
83 GPZ 550 Stock with 3600 miles_83s.
83 GPZ 550 4-1,pods,Mikuni 36,000 + miles

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Another 81 GPZ. Losing the fat. 21 Jun 2008 13:56 #221394

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Wow Lou, where do you live?? Im movin next door! Great lookin, cant wait to see the results!
Lou, I was told you would be the guy to ask, would you have a spare throttle assembly laying around? I have kz550a3, missing the starter button. Was wondering if you even had a spare start BUTTON, or horn button?

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Another 81 GPZ. Losing the fat. 21 Jun 2008 16:06 #221409

  • Saki Jockey
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Your rear tire look larger than stock, are you running oversize, if so what size?

Ps. If you've got any more of those front Metzlers hanging around...
Rob A.
550 A4
GTA,
Ontario, Canada

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Another 81 GPZ. Losing the fat. 21 Jun 2008 18:10 #221414

  • The Gringo
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I used to use plexiglass a lot back when I made tack boxes for horse equipment. Something I did that you might consider for this project is to reverse paint the plexiglass. What I did was to paint the backside of the panels with auto paint. It works pretty slick because you can be a total hack with a spray gun and it will still look good. It is like having 1/8" of clearcoat on your paintjob. Just lightly wetsand the plexi to give the paint something to grab onto.
Andy
Akron, Ohio
80 Z-1 Classic-Sold
84 GPZ1100
79 KZ 1000 LTD
78 KZ 1000 A2
77 KZ 1000 LTD-Sold
76 KZ 900 The definition of a barn find
76 KZ 900-Sold gone to Denmark
KZ 750 times 3, KZ 650 times 8 Sold 1 down to 7
KZ 550 times 2 80 440LTD-Sold
81 CSR 305-Sold 81 Yamaha XS650 Special

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Another 81 GPZ. Losing the fat. 22 Jun 2008 02:51 #221456

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violentvintagecycles wrote:

Wow Lou, where do you live?? Im movin next door! Great lookin, cant wait to see the results!
Lou, I was told you would be the guy to ask, would you have a spare throttle assembly laying around? I have kz550a3, missing the starter button. Was wondering if you even had a spare start BUTTON, or horn button?


I still have a spare button I made on this old thread:[url=
kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...&catid=4#176638]Home made starter button[/url]

That thread has links on where to buy rplacement starter buttons too. Is it only the start button that is broken on the assembly? Then I would just rplace the button. If you want I could sell you the one I made, but I'm sure the other ones available are better.

oh, and Chicago.

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Another 81 GPZ. Losing the fat. 22 Jun 2008 02:56 #221458

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JohNLA wrote:

What a great write up and very cool looking tail.B)
I know you plan on painting it but I must say the transparency is pretty wicked looking.:woohoo:

Any recomendations on what plastic to use for replacing the winshield? I have a heat gun so it is on my list of things to try.


Definitely polycarbonate AKA Lexan. Don't use acrylic. It will shatter if it gets hit with a rock. The Lexan will only scratch. Try your local home center, they should have sheets of the stuff in the windows and doors section. Plan on experimenting to get the knack. I bought acrylic to practice on since it's cheaper, but the final product should be Lexan. Also, I recommend mocking everything up in cardboard first.

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Another 81 GPZ. Losing the fat. 22 Jun 2008 03:02 #221460

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Saki Jockey wrote:

Your rear tire look larger than stock, are you running oversize, if so what size?

Ps. If you've got any more of those front Metzlers hanging around...


I'll give you the front Metzler, heck I'll give you two of them, but they are old, worn, and starting to get tiny cracks. I am going to get a new Dunlop GT501 front before I do any serious riding.

I think the rear is close to stock but it looks bigger for some reason in the photos. It's probably the camera angle plus the wheels are painted black which creates an illusion.
I think it's supposed to take a 120-90-18". But I have other gpz550's with 130-80-18". The wider 130 slips less on acceleration, but is less stable than the narrow 120 in turns. I haven't decided which I like better, but the 130 does look cooler.

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Another 81 GPZ. Losing the fat. 22 Jun 2008 03:12 #221461

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The Gringo wrote:

I used to use plexiglass a lot back when I made tack boxes for horse equipment. Something I did that you might consider for this project is to reverse paint the plexiglass. What I did was to paint the backside of the panels with auto paint. It works pretty slick because you can be a total hack with a spray gun and it will still look good. It is like having 1/8" of clearcoat on your paintjob. Just lightly wetsand the plexi to give the paint something to grab onto.


Yeah I played with that idea on an acrylic test piece. It looked very cool. I didn't even sand the acrylic and I could not scratch the paint off. I purposely shattered the acrylic to see if any paint would flake off. Not a single flake of paint came off. The paint was about 1 week old at the time. I wonder if would have flaked off after hardening for a few years.

I haven't painted the Lexan yet, but that backside idea is out of the question. The Lexan, being much softer, scuffed a lot during the fabrication. It actually has a light imprint of wood from the bender, so it has to be sanded. I'm going to leave it clear for awhile just for the novelty. I'm thinking of putting a green fluorecscent lighting tube in the tail to light it up.

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Another 81 GPZ. Losing the fat. 22 Jun 2008 03:14 #221462

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Here's a shot showing the brake reservoir bracket.

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Another 81 GPZ. Losing the fat. 22 Jun 2008 03:17 #221463

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Here's a shot with the tail and seat assembled, but not painted yet.
(Kz400 in the background. Will post a thread on that later.)

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