Introducing my kawa kz550 - my first project ever

Here is my KZ550 that I had been working on for the last few months. It rides like a dream now. Many thanks to Lou, Patton, MotorHead and many others on this forum who helped me through this journey and were patient enough to answer some of my stupidest questions. This was my very first project and I had virtually _no_ mechanical skills when I started; none whatsoever. But through a lot of patience and help from you folks, I now have a ride-able kawa since high-school. There are a few kinks to be ironed out (like the seat cover ) but I hope to get it all done soon!

congrats it looks good.

leon

Welcome to z-jungle

Damm....you cleaned that up nice, I would be very proud of it. Are you going to keep stock...its a gr8 example...would be a shame to chop it up. Just go slow and do it right...nothing worse than getting in a hurry. The chrome looks showroom...is it really that perfect? Well done!

Yes 4TheKZ1000, I plan to keep it stock. It's not all that perfect. The other side is not as pretty as this side because of battery acid leak on the chrome muffler (I'm guessing here). There is some damage to the paint too but I plan to touch it up a bit. But I'm unable to get the marks off the chrome though. So I'll have to see what I can do. And yes, I also have to change some chrome retainers on the headlight and the gauges, they all have major dents in them (hence they are not in the pic). Like I said, need to take out a few more kinds but it's perfectly ride-able. The key was to get the carbs perfectly tuned and that is all I had to do in the end to make this baby fly!

I'm digging the paint, great job!

The paint job is the one thing I will not take credit for on this bike. Though the design was my idea inspired for something similar that I came across online, I got a guy who fixes up antique cars to do the paint on it and he did a fab job.

Wow you really cleaned that up looks great.

Wow that really is a looker now. Nice job!

Thanks a lot for your help along the way Lou. And I'm sure I'll have more questions for you in the near future.

killer bike...great job

those 550's are one of the funnest bikes i've ever rode

really strong too ,never give you much trouble

Wow nice 550! I rarely ever see them online and never in such good condition. Take care of it!