1980 KZ440 LTD budget build

Hello, My brother had this bike sitting around and wasn't doing anything with it so I took it off his hands and decided I would try to make it my own. It was completely stock when I got it.. and is a long way from being done but I'll try to keep this updated, opinions, ideas, suggestions all welcome this is the first time I've ever done anything like this.

I think I am going to go for sort of a ratrod/cafe look.. I'm just kind of deciding things as I go.

here are some photos of the progress so far.



Tail section with a lot of the junk removed


tail section in the process of shortening


another angle


and again



trying to visualize a seat



made a seat pan, and decided to use some metal mesh stuff I had lying around to fill in the back section... mostly just for looks :silly:


alt view


and again


and again


So I am unsure what to do with the seat, I am either going to glue some neoprene foam directly to it and call it good, or maybe cut a board and have it upholstered and attach it somehow. the seat will be removable as I am going to retain the stock battery box, because that seems like the easy thing to do.

also I intend to do a single carb conversion.. any thoughts/ideas/opinions on this matter are welcome.

thanks for looking I'll try to update often.

trying to hide the gap under the seat

I see this was awhile ago, so I guess there's a chance you've already done it, but I found a pretty sweet way to work out the seat issue was to purchase an extra large one of those kneeling pad things found at garden stores (made of really dense foam), and use a knife to round the top edges over, then wrap the top in some poly padding and then wrap the whole thing in some leather or vinyl. Also, did you end up finishing the whole single-carb conversion? I'm getting ready to do one of those on my 82 KZ440 LTD, and looking for photos of completed ones for a good idea for mounting and location, as well as any tips for jet sizes (I know they need to be bigger, but if I were at least close on the first try, it would likely take less attempts to get it right.)

Golly; I wonder why he didn't post pics of the finished project?

650ed wrote: Golly; I wonder why he didn't post pics of the finished project?

+1