Peavylotus' Rebuild of the KZ Cafe

Painted, going to sand, then coat again, then bake it in the oven, cool it sand it sand it, spray again and bake. I don't want this stuff to chip off and look shitty in a year.

Lapped the valves, installed the springs and let it sit with food colored water for about two hours with a very slight meniscus hanging over the chamber for three or so hours. This is the result, they held up just fine. Very happy with this.

After reading all your guys's opinions about these motorbikes I feel a certain pride in owning a KZ. So I am ditching any custom work to this thing except for the electrical. Throwing away my seat to buy a proper one cafe, re-installing some kz side covers and getting a duck tail. Also replacing the shocks with some improved ones. I still want the cafe style only because its sporty. I'm not a fan of the cruisers or drag style. You all have convinced me to keep it looking original. Without it looking like a KZ it's kind of just another yahoo's bike with no value. Also it would be cooler to feel apart of a group rather than be a de-branded lone wolf.

the look of old z1/kz's is timeless,never goes out of style.


imho, :huh:
leon

I believe it. Looking at other manufacturers they have small time period looks. I think the CB honda's are a good looking timeless bikes but stuff like the cam end caps being round for some reason I see that as a time stamp.

I don't know I think its the body work that gets me into it. I really like the duck tail and it seems like a desired fighter bike trait, even with newer bikes. Coming stock on the KZ's way back, much before my time (born in 1990), kinda shows they knew what was up in the styling department.

I'm glad I am rebuilding my engine is what this boils down to.

peavylotus wrote: Painted, going to sand, then coat again, then bake it in the oven, cool it sand it sand it, spray again and bake. I don't want this stuff to chip off and look shitty in a year.

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1 coat is more than adequate. if you build up a thick layer of paint it isn't going to make it adhere any better. Its all about the prep before paint. baking is a good idea though. check to make sure the paint your using doesn't have lead in it before you bake it in the oven you cook in.

Good looking out, I will do that. The surface was sandblasted and degreased but have some chips on the side of it so ill hit that up and chuck it in the oven...when the girlfriend is gone haha

Soooooo like omg...I got some mother f'n parts!

The cylinders and pistons arrived freshly bored to 1045 and balanced and they look great. Question though, is there an easy way to get the base gasket off there? can I dry it out with acetone or burn it off? its on there pretty damn good.


Here we have the larson steel cam sprockets, some pins, seals and a 3 inch shorter throttle if I remember right, output shaft washer and a couple little trinkets.


Last but certainly not least...I will need some help on this one most definitely. Picked up some six piston calipers from Bent Bike in Lynnwood. My original calipers had tons of water in them and rather than keeping them with rust in need of a rebuild I figured I would put the time and money towards a six piston upgrade. These are off a 1996 KX 750, has anyone made a bracket for these for thier project or know anything about fitting them?

Soooooo like omg...I got some mother f'n parts!

The cylinders and pistons arrived freshly bored to 1045 and balanced and they look great. Question though, is there an easy way to get the base gasket off there? can I dry it out with acetone or burn it off? its on there pretty damn good.


Here we have the larson steel cam sprockets, some pins, seals and a 3 inch shorter throttle if I remember right, output shaft washer and a couple little trinkets.


Last but certainly not least...I will need some help on this one most definitely. Picked up some six piston calipers from Bent Bike in Lynnwood. My original calipers had tons of water in them and rather than keeping them with rust in need of a rebuild I figured I would put the time and money towards a six piston upgrade. These are off a 1996 KX 750, has anyone made a bracket for these for thier project or know anything about fitting them?

Those calipers ought to stop you right quick!! First thing to do is see if they interfere with the spokes of your wheels by placing them over the rotors and checking clearance. Then I would swap the fork stanchions around to have the lugs facing rearwards to keep the calipers behind the forks, this is only my personal design opinion. A lot of early Japanese customizers used brackets like you want and there should be lots of photos to drool over. Basically you should think of it as placing the calipers where you want them in free space and then figuring out how to get them to stay there by connecting the dots (caliper mounts to fork lugs)....this is the best way I can explain it but it may not be accurate enough. I have to do this to my bike eventually and I will use some scrap 1/2" plexiglas sheet as a template as it is easy to see through, soft to machine, easy to add to and cheap so trial pieces won't cost a lot. Those fresh parts look good man.

Do you know what the correct bore of the master cylinder should be for those calipers? If not, you should check since it may be different than the bore of the current master cylinder. Ed

I kinda placed them on the bike in the air to see if they would fit but with my Disks at the machine shop (hopefully getting resurfaced...crossing fingers)I cant get a for sure picture of it.

But they seemed ok with spoke clearance. One the initial problems I have is how tight these are on the stock KZ disks. I was at Bent Bike carrying around a KZ disk to see if they would fit in the calipers, they did just fine but there is little wiggle room. I believe the disks on the ZX 750 were a bit skinnier than the big honkin KZ disks. Will this be an issue?