'78 KZ1000 makeover

I'm subscribed to this thread and enjoy all of the updates. You do some great work. I'd love to do a SSSA one of these days - that will be awesome! Once you get all the details worked out it will be easy for us! :laugh: Yes, it takes a lot of time but you're doing well. My MKII rebuild took me over 3 years and didn't involve anywhere near that much fabrication.

As far as being an ispiration - you and several others on this site are great inspirations. I have a stock '78 1000 that I'm trying to keep stock but reading these threads makes want to tear into it and start hacking things up! I just want to do a few things but that's how it all starts - I know better! Maybe I'll pick up a beater someday that I won't mind cutting up.

Keep up the good work!

porchev914 wrote:

Photobucket test[img][IMG]http://i782.photobucket.com/albums/yy108/adambomb77/downloadfile-3.jpg[/img][/img]

Just copy and paste the img code from photobucket without clicking the IMG button in the KZR window. photobucket does this for you. If you look at the code it is img'ed twice.
Hope this helps you with all these kick ass pics of your build. It makes it very easy to post multiple images in one post

Thanks kawickrice, I'll give it a shot later. I had set up the photobucket account to allow me to post pics from my phone, since kzr disables direct uploads.
Thanks 79MKII, I'M glad I can help the collective community a little. I had a salesman at a bike shop ask me what I rode. I told him what I had and what I was doing. The first thing out of his mouth was "what would posses you to do something like that?" My response was "because I can, and because few guys even try to" some people just don't understand

Alright, I was screwing around, trying to think of ways to connect the subframe when I decided to use the rod ends I had laying around. The only problem with them is that they are 1/2" shank and 1/2" eye. I didn't feel like buying new smaller rod ends, but I also didn't like the idea of a giant 1/2" subframe bolt hanging around on the side of the bike...it just doesn't fit with the theme, ya know? So I thought hey, I'll chuck the bolt in the lathe, gun drill it, hollow out the head and drill the head for safety wire. I figured that would make it nicer to look at :silly: I bought 1/2 stainless bolts and proceeded to torch my 1/4" M42 drill bit :blink:

But not before I was able to drill out one bolt with it, then start drilling out the head with a 1/2" bit. I started to torch that bit too and stopped.

Ok Adam, I'm sure that we can get a good hole in those bolts. When you first said gun drill I got scared because when I think of a gun drill I think 0.094" diameter hole that is 5" long. 1.5" deep shouldn't be too much trouble. That drill bit is a cobalt drill which is about as good as you can get from the hardware store. The thing about cobalt is that they are tough, but you don't want to spin too fast. That looks like exactly what happened. Corners of the drill are wiped out which is a classic sign of too much surface footage (rpm.)

As best I cant tell f593c bolts are either 304 or 18-8 stainless. General purpose stuff. One quick check is to see if the bolts are magnetic. No I'm not crazy, there is magnetic stainless. It's called martensitic, look up 410 or 420 if you don't believe me. Now if it is the magnetic stainless then it can be heat treated to be quite hard. In that case I would take my spindle speed recomendations and cut them in half.

Now, assuming that we are dealing with 304 or 18-8 we want to stay under 50 surface feet. This means 750 rpm for the 1/4" drill and 375 rpm for the 1/2" drill. Actually on an engine lathe, my gut feeling would be to run about 400 rpm for the 1/4" and probably 250ish for the 1/2". It's important to know that regular stainless is not particularly hard, but it is very tough and it doesn't like to break into small chips easily. Those long, stringy chips are not great for your drill. They prevent the flow of coolant and concentrate heat at the cutting area. Not good.

Before you even start drilling holes, lets take a turning tool and skim the face of that bolt. Not a heavy cut, just enough to clean up that surface that you are drilling into, and most importantly, make sure that it is nice and square. You don't want to try and start a deep hole into an angled surface if you can avoid it.

Next, get yourself a #4 center drill. Start the hole with that, and if you go just deep enough it will give you a nice chamfer at the top of the hole. If you drill 0.297" down with the center drill, it will give you a 0.015" chamfer at the top of your 1/4" hole.

Now, start the hole with the shortest drill possible. If you can get a screw machine drill that is 1/4", then thats the best bet. The flutes on a 1/4" screw machine drill are just shy of 1.5" long, so if you are careful, then you can finish the hole with that. Just for reference, the drills that you usually get at the hardware store are jobber drills and they are the next size longer than a screw machine drill.

So, lets recap. Start the hole with a #4 center drill. Drill as deep as possible with the screw machine drill. If necessary, finish the hole with a jobber drill. Personally I would get that last 0.100" or so with the short drill, but you just have to push the drill a short distance, then pull out and clear chips, and repeat. The secret is that once the flutes are buried, they load up with chips fast. You don't want them to load up, BAAADDD! Only after I drilled the 1/4" hole, would I start the 1/2" counerbore. As for coolant, you are probably fine, just drill a little, pull out, clear chips, re-apply coolant, and repeat until you reach the bottom. This isn't a 2x4 and you aren't going to get the hole all the way down in one shot. At least not with a twist drill.

Hope this helps.

testarossa wrote:

porchev914 wrote:

With one of the adapters modified and the tubing cut to length on one end, you can see what I was aiming for

I'll cut and miter the top of the tube to properly mate with the subframe and weld it together. I will also draw up and cut out brackets for the rod ends to fit into and weld those to the frame. Once the bottom tubes are done, I'll cut the top tubes off and make brackets there as well. With the subframe off I will be able to complete the welds on the shock mount braces too. With that done, it'll be a matter of cleaning things up and painting it. Then I can turn my attention to the engine and front end. There is the sticky issue of the GPz getting in the way though..... :S

Man are you becoming a motorcycle surgeon or something? It seems like all your pictures lately are gloved hands. What gives? Afraid to get a little grease under those nails? Haha just kidding.

Nice idea, but my simple mind needs a long shot to visualize what the whole thing looks like. BTW did you ever find a front wheel?

purple nitrile gloves are cool!

do they make em in mens sizes too

Thanks Josh. I'll take a magnet to the bolts later..... I generally see a weak attraction with 304ss, so I'll check. The bits I'm using are machine bits with the shorter flutes. They are a Snap On set I picked up cheap at an estate sale I've followed pretty much all your advice the first time around EXCEPT the spindle speed, and I'm sure the speed is what damaged the bits. It's a pita to change the speed, but it sure beats chewing up expensive drill bits!
And yeah 9am53, purple nitrile IS cool :laugh:

actually, mine are XXL. You can be a man who comes in with nasty hands and has the woman say "don't touch me! get your hands off the couch!" or you could wear gloves, ignore brake fluid, ignore any and all solvents, never wash your hands and always have them clean...seems like a no brainer Not to mention when you are painting you never have to worry about leaving a greasy fingerpring and getting fish eyes...

Alright! I got a little progress in on the frame tonight. After sanding out my acetone "oops" on the maier right sidecover and primering that and the patch, I took a look at my subframe and what size brackets I'd need to make for the rod ends to bolt to. I then drew it up on card stock, cut it out as a template and cut it out of steel. Very simple little triangles is all. I took the tube I had already fitted with a rod end and bolted a bracket on each side, held it up and decided where I wanted it and tacked it into place:

I tacked up the rear of the tube as well so I could stand back and look at it. I need to cope the tube and bring it up a bit.

I slapped the tail back on and took a shot looking back for a better perspective.....

I'd ask you guys what you think, but the truth is, I don't really care :laugh: I like it!

Looking at the top pic, I think I need to shorten the triangles a little and bring the rod end closer to the frame....

It should look real nice and clean with that SSSA. I like it too - even though you don't care!