'78 KZ1000 makeover

trianglelaguna wrote: a carbon fiber tail tray would make a nice stocking stuffer....sell em like hot cakes

Gotcha covered bro

no no i mean to sell em...folks are cheap but if the part is sweet it sells ...moriwaki points covers...ect...i was thinking of all the folks around the world with that nice stock outside colors and trick, or trick one offs that retain that cavity still...you tell the guy looking at the bike ...hey wanna see the original tool kit...dont mention the tray...then pull out the owners manual to show him and the carbon fiber shows...sell em like hot cakes...little finish to all those bikes done already....

I like this pic. Remember my idea about cutting up the frame to fit your carbon battery box? You're halfway there! :lol: Just put one of those tubes on a hinge or something :ohmy:
Just kidding.

Thanks Nelson I was disappointed I couldn't use the carbon battery box, but the aluminum one turned out well enough that I don't have a problem with it. Now I have a cool carbon fiber bot to put crap in :laugh: Like I need another box to put crap in :whistle:

Are you gonna order some hybrid fabric and start experimenting? I saw some sweet Neon green kevlar/carbon weave that didn't look too far off kawasaki green. The price was stupidly high though, I'd have to research a better supplier. Something to think about though

Wow, nice build man. I spent the last three days reading every post in all 58 pages. I was hoping i would see a finished bike when i get to the end so I just kept reading. Now I'm here and the story is not finished but still being told. It's a double edged sword. Nice work man. I will continue to follow.

Thanks Karmasevo! Welcome to KZR! I was hoping to be finished too, but too many irons in the fire At the moment, the only thing holding me back from painting the frame is welding in mounts for the passenger pegs. I briefly considered painting the subframe anyway and adding the peg mounts later, but my wife wouldn't forgive me if I did :whistle: I really need to get crackin' on that and cleaning up most of my welds to prep for paint. If you haven't already, you'll find lots more reading on the swingarm installation in a separate chassis forum thread I started, as well as a couple of threads on the bodywork construction in the paint and body forum. I can dig up the links if you need. Again, welcome to the club

Adam

Adam,

Thanks for the welcome. I will dig up the other threads. I have read three full builds now with you and Testarossa's build being two of them. Sending you a PM about something else so I don't hijack your thread.

I'm flattered, but there are much better, and more complete project threads available to learn from, written by members far more talented than myself, testarossa's being one of them. At least you get some closure reading his thread :laugh:

Ugh, has it been 3 months since my last post??? :blush: I squeeked out a bit of progress this weekend. Detail work really, but time consuming and a little tedious which is why I think I was procrastinating :pinch:

Once upon a time I had to modify the rear motormount gussets above the swingarm. While figuring out the easiest way to repair the destruction, I had left off with some gaps on either side of the gussets like so:



These little "gaps" are much too big to fill in with welding wire/rod, but are small and asymetrical enough to be a big PITA to grind out each individual puzzle piece. But today I did just that!



You will notice the tig rod I tacked to the center of each piece. Thats for me to hold it in place while I tack it to the frame like so:



Then tacked to the frame:



And finally, fully welded:



Its nice to get that out of the way! After this post I'm going to go out and finish welding the top subframe mounts, and the main frame will be complete, and ready for weld clean up and paint prep. The subframe is nearly complete as well, still needing passenger peg mounts, and possibly a bracket for the tail light. I have some late model ZX10 passenger pegs, but after some studying, I don't think they will flow right asthetically, so I got some GSXR1000 pegs and see what I can make of that. I'll post pics of each so you all can see and offer input as well.

Glad to see you're back at it!

Thanks DD, I'm glad to be picking up the pieces as well. I need my bike back for more reasons than one.

Finished welding up the top subframe mounts, and snapped a few pics. Damn, I think these are the prettiest welds I've done on the whole bike!!! :woohoo:
Of course, thats not saying much considering the company we keep on this forum, and the master fabricators that put my work to shame :whistle:

The top left side outer:



The top right side inner:



Now that those are welded up and the swingarm/upper rear motor mount gussets are repaired, I can start grinding and sanding to clean it all up! Now I'm waiting on the new passener pegs to get the mounts figured out. Baby steps.....slow and steads wins the race. I need to jump back into this one.

You cant bitch about those welds, they look good!