1979 KZ650 Restoration

Great job man. shes looking great. Keep at it your on the home stretch.

Kawi // Twin wrote:

When you blasted your frame, did you actually use sand or did you use another media? I already bought a Harbor Freight media blaster and walnut shells for the engine, but did you use glass, sand, plastic other for the frame.

Watching your build-up with interest!

I used Black Diamond fine blasting media from Tractor Supply.

Be sure to post your project when you get it started, I would like to see how the walnut shells work.

My son helped me slip the engine in today. It went really good. We used pry bars in the mounting bosses for handles and put the floor jack underneath the bike so the engine would not drop onto the frame. Just in case I wrapped the frame with some old blue jean scraps. Once it was close I just had to lower the jack a little bit to line up the mounting holes.

Here the engine is in the chassis with out the floor jack and the blue jeans. This week swingarm, rear wheel, air box and carbs.

Really nice job !!...especially for low cost DIY.

Did the soda remove the actual corrosion and just leave the dark spots ? I'm going to be doing a motor that will be painted and I was trying to avoid disassembling it if possible. I was thinking that soda would be the best for my job, but if it doesnt remove paint and oxidation it may not be worthwhile.

mjg15 wrote:

Really nice job !!...especially for low cost DIY.

Did the soda remove the actual corrosion and just leave the dark spots ? I'm going to be doing a motor that will be painted and I was trying to avoid disassembling it if possible. I was thinking that soda would be the best for my job, but if it doesnt remove paint and oxidation it may not be worthwhile.

Thanks mjg15!

My experience with the soda was that it woked good on painted aluminum engine parts. I tested it on a GPZ oil pan. It was the original paint so you know the aluminum below would be good. It removed the paint and left a very nice aluminum finish.

On bare oxidized aluminum it did not work so well. I did some web searches on soda and some of the info I found said it was meant to be a paint stripper and not something that would be used to remove oxidation. My testing confirmed this.

Good luck with your project.

..sounds like I may have to use a combination then. I didnt want to use sand or glass near any gaskets. thanks for the info.

Life distractions have kept me from getting much done on the 650, but I finally do have an update. The swing arm, rear wheel and rear brake assembly are on the bike. I have also got the airbox and carburetors installed. The front fender has also been installed since the last posting. Here is a picture of where it is now.

Probably the best 40 bucks I have spent on the bike - new airbox boots. The airbox went on sooo nice!!! I do have to oil up that airbox again.

Nice job man. What are your plans for the body work?

I spent days on my engine cases and covers, for me a gallon of WD-40 and brass wire brush did most fot he work, followed by a rinse in MEK.

Tyler wrote:

Nice job man. What are your plans for the body work?

I spent days on my engine cases and covers, for me a gallon of WD-40 and brass wire brush did most fot he work, followed by a rinse in MEK.

Thanks Tyler. As you probably know the 1979 KZ650s came in red, green or black. This one was originally red, unfortunetly the paint was faded really bad. I am thinking I will go with red, but am not ruling out the green or black. The black would be the easiest by far but I am just not crazy about black on these bikes. I like the way the green bikes look the best, but I am trying to be a purist and keep this bike looking like it did from the factory.

If anyone has any suggestions on what to use for paint for either the original red or green, I would love to hear from you.

Very nice work so far! I always enjoy seeing one of these bikes brought back to life. Please continue with the updates.