Retroactive KZ750E Project Thread

Next was Kleenstrip Metal Prep as sold by Home Depot to eat off some of the rust.

Phosphate sauce doing it's thing. About 90% of the rust is gone. After a good water rinse my leaf blower was used for drying.

A wire wheel was next followed by coal slag blasting. The blasting was focused in the areas where there was old remnant paint and rust, and to rough up the metal for paint. In the past I used to use "play sand" for blasting, but a friend pointed out that the silica was bad for the lungs so coal slag was used hereafter.

Transtar epoxy primer followed by Nason urethene...

Wheels, brake calipers, and handlebars were done in Gun Kote for the extra durable protection.

These parts were supposed to be "satin black" but there isn't much satin that I can see. They weren't bad to the point that I was going to redo them though.

Some photos of the first set of Keihin's that were done. I ran these for a while and then did an even better set that are on the bike now.






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I love what you did with your KZ750E. I followed your build for a long time. Congrats on making BOTM!!!! I built a KZ750E back in the early 80's. I used many of the same parts you did. The GPz feetpegs, and the oil cooler were the same exact parts that I used on my E model. Your build brought back more than a few memories.

I road raced mine in a few WERA endurance races back then. I parked it when the Honda Interceptor came out in '83. After that it became my primary streetbike. Gold wheels were my trademark back then as you can see in the one photo.

Hand controls were heavily weathered so bought a couple better units for parts off ebay. Took them all apart and cleaned/greased in innards. Fixed a broken wire here and there too. Good fun and nice change of pace compared to all the painting and messy work.

Petcock was next...

Bead blasted the body and replated the steel parts. Fortunately, Kawasaki still sells the internal guts for these things.

And speaking of plated parts...

Used a "copy cad" zinc plating kit from Caswell's Plating. I've got a power supply now instead of using a battery for power but you get the idea...

Working on the gauges. Condensation behind the glass and corrosion on the outside bezel. Gently pried off the sealing ring and took the units apart. Going to bead blast the housing and repaint next.

Also cleaned up and clear coated the fork sliders and footpeg brackets. Bead blasted off the corrosion and rubbed them down with gray scotchbrite before shooting the clear.

Forks got new seals, Sonic springs, Racetech emulators, and of course new oil.

"Clocks" (for you UK guys) turned out nice.