1982 GPz 750 First Bike

So I introduced myself in the new members thread I'll cut right to the good stuff. This is my first bike. I'm going to make mistakes, I'm going to have fun, and I'm going to learn! Let it commence!

1982 KZ750R1 GPz (is that the correct full name?) I picked this up for $560.

On it's way home!




It has 2 new tires, plugs, and cleaned carbs. All the lights work (although the lenses on the front turn signals and rear brake light are cracked.)



Anyone who has lived in or near Atlanta will appreciate my license plate.




The first thing I did was try to figure out why it wasn't running. The guy I bought it from said the coil was bad as he wasn't getting a spark on 1 and 4. I jumped in head first and started to take the bike apart. I was intent on verifying the carbs had been cleaned and checking to make sure the rest of the bike was mechanically sound. So here I pulled a good bit of it apart.














After CLOSE inspection I realized that the coils weren't bad, the plug wires were. So I cut the wires about a 1/2" back on both sides and re-attached them. The bike fired up!

I have a video of the FIRST start that I need to upload to youtube. It's not great but to actually get the bike running just by cleaning out the gas-tank and cutting the wires back was a THRILL!!


Then I noticed the gas dripping down the left side of the gas tank... :sick:


To Be Continued. . .

I took gas tank off and isolated the culprit or so I thought...



After taking the tank to Southern Motorsports Coalition in Winder I found it had quite a few little brothers and a couple cousins.

Had to blow the tank out for awhile to make sure it didn't have fumes left in it.



Wire brush to strip the paint...





Thanks to Charlie Fisher for taking care of the problem!




It took two days to get the holes fixed. Found a couple small ones that got missed on the first pass with the welds.

I started on the arduous task of sanding off the UNGODLY amount of paint that the "previous - previous" owner applied via rattle-can to the tank, body panels, and even the frame / engine. I don't know what drove that person to decide he would take it upon himself to use the entire supply of spray paint in the Southeast to coat this motorcycle... he didn't sand or prep areas.... anyway... MOAR PICTURES!

This is what I have so far, tonight I am going to spend some time with my Girlfriend, I did employ her skills at sanding to help me get the side panels cleaned up enough to paint. However she now requires some undivided attention.

Next up will be cleaning up the wiring and verifying the gauge cluster works as I have a bad feeling the tach isn't functioning, so I'm sure I'm in for some 1 on 1 time with the wiring harness.

i to am from atlanta......i did see the post on craigs list. great buy......now enjoy.

Good score! Beats my purchase price of $650 for my 1982 GPz750.

Looks good for a $560 bike,picking mine up for $500,pretty sure it won't run quite so easy :whistle:

Yeah it was a really good deal and I'm stoked. I live in Suwanee (about 20 min northeast of atlanta) and my bike is in winder (about 25m northeast of Suwanee) in my Pops' garage. I've got my gas tank at my apartment (girlfriend is cool enough with letting me store it inside) so I haven't had a chance to work on it since Monday, it's driving me bonkers. I just want to get her painted and back together!

Just ordered some exhaust valve cover block off plates so I can finish eliminating the excess crap hanging off the motor.

Trying to decide if I want to pull the engine apart and paint it.

GA Joe wrote: Yeah it was a really good deal and I'm stoked. I live in Suwanee (about 20 min northeast of atlanta) and my bike is in winder (about 25m northeast of Suwanee) in my Pops' garage. I've got my gas tank at my apartment (girlfriend is cool enough with letting me store it inside) so I haven't had a chance to work on it since Monday, it's driving me bonkers. I just want to get her painted and back together!

If she lets you store the entire motorcycle in your apartment, then you should marry her...that's what I did and it worked out.

Mcdroid wrote: If she lets you store the entire motorcycle in your apartment, then you should marry her...that's what I did and it worked out.

LOL! If I upgraded us to a 2 bedroom and moved to the bottom floor that MAY work out, however at the moment I don't have an elevator and taking my bike up 4 flights of stairs isn't really a possibility!

Actually looking to buy a house with an enclosed garage.