The Shady KZ1000 Restomod

Hi, My name is Souleymane and I live in Canada (Gatineau - Ottawa area)

I started working on cars in 2014 in my parent's driveway. Had a 2001 Subaru Impreza coupé and a 1991 Toyota MR2. Life was great until my father decided he was done with me colonizing his driveway. He gave me an ultimatum that I ignored so he got my MR2 towed behind my back and I had to give up my Subaru a couple of years later. We're on good terms now. Life is too short for grudges.

  Although I never lost my passion for wrenching, I stopped doing it. I was mad. I wanted my own piece of land with my own garage so that no one could tell me anything about my toys. I guess the saying is true, Men never grow up, their toys do.I looked for myself for a long time, different jobs, different programs in school, different failed businesses. Lots of lessons learned and experience gained. I finally had a breakthrough in 2019 with my real estate career, I also started a property management company two years later. I enjoy what I do but it comes with a great deal of stress and not a lot of free time.I needed a project this year. It was long overdue. I had just started getting into motorcycles, at 30. Early mid-life crisis ? Perhaps. After watching Great Teacher Onizuka for the 10th time in my life I decided a KZ would be the perfect bike for me. But not any KZ, A broken KZ so that I could fix it in my garage. So my impulsive self pulled the trigger on a 900$ 1981 Kawasaki KZ 1000 sold by two shady gentlemen. I was able to get the price down to 800$ which I now realize was way too much considering all the problems the bike has and the fact that it has no registration... I know I'm crazy and impulsive sometimes. It can be a good thing but also a bad one.I checked the Carfax report as well as the police database and it is not stolen so I should be able to register it once it is restored. If not I'm fucked but at least I got to wrench on something and that was the point!

Here is an image of the bike the day I fell in love with it :

 

Hopefully you can see this, it's my first time posting a project on a forum.

Got the bike in the backyard temporarily:

 

Visible damage so far :

• bent handlebars
• brake calipers dangling off the brake line
• dented fuel tank
• headlight dangling off the wires
• Ignition assembly dangling
• gauge wires, you gessed it, dangling... 

And to top it all off, a broken spark plug that someone tried fixing with clear caulking 

I was able to get the spark plug out without damaging the threads! 

 

I noticed scoring on the cylinder wall where the spark plug repair attempt was made. The more I investigate the issues on the KZ, the more my dreams of riding it this summer are fading away. At least I am practicing with my driving school so there's that!

Compression time!

 

The results are:

1. 130 PSI
2. 140 PSI
3. 15 PSI (Broken plug one)
4. 65 PSI (I was surprised by this one)

with oil in the last two cylinders :

3. 180 PSI
4. 135 PSI

- More to come when I get time-


 

Welcome from the UK, looks like you got some work to do there (plenty of info and support here) I have been working on my 82 for a couple of years now 

Hi Wookie thanks for the welcome message! I believe I have stumbled upon your build and the way you modified your air box! Great stuff! I believe the bike is yellow right?

Cheers!

That's the one, the yellow is "high build" primer

Welcome Souleymane!
You are a brave man...but I admire you.  Welcome to KZRider.

Nice! I will keep a close eye on your build!

Thank you sir! There is a thin line between bravery and craziness, not always sure on which side of the line I fall onto. 

Welcome to the fun!