What do I have?

Gentlemen, New member, first post.


I have a 1977 KZ650C, vin no. KZ650C-015614, Last summer I had the bike tuned up at Johnny's Vintage Motorcycles here in Wadsworth, Ohio. What I'm looking for is someone to restore it for me.

Is there anyone around me that does this and a ballpark price?

the bike runs great, but needs minor things taken care of like slight rust, oxidized motor, new gauge cluster.

whats the best way to tackle this, oh and I dont have endless cash..lol

thanks

soak

Welcome to KZR.

You should try to do most of the restoring yourself. Otherwise be prepared to pay a fair bit of money. Get yourself a manual and some tools, rags and a bit of elbow grease.
It may take you some time, but you'll get to know evey square inch of your bike, and get the satisfaction of doing it yourself.
Any problems you have, ask away here for more info.
Do try the search area here as well as in the Archives as there's years of info from the former site.

Give us some pictures as she sits now as well, so we can all see what your starting with.

Soak:

Good advice from Rob. If it wasn't for people like us taking care of and restoring older bikes, there would be far fewer of them than there actually are...most of the KZR crowd couldn't afford to pay someone to restore a bike :laugh: Buy a quality manual and a small set of metric tools (most maintenance items can be handled with a minimal set of tools). But wait! Maybe you do have a reasonable bag of money!?! There are actually several businesses that will transform/resurrect an older bike...but it is pricey.

Often, a huge part of the restoration is just cleaning/polishing. You can repaint the tank and body parts yourself, unless you're planning on trailering it to bike shows. Then you should find a pro.
Once the tank and body parts have been removed, then it's pretty easy to clean and spot paint the frame.
Gages are tricky, because you have to open them up get at the painted dial and back side of the glass (where all the gunk collects).
A company call Z-Resto does good work, but may be pricey.
Here's their link:
z1enterprises.com/reference/ZResto_home.aspx

If your chrome has spotty rust, try NevrDul. Comes in a silver can. Works wonders.
Good luck.

just pick a spot and start cleaning:P while you are doing it you can tighten loose bolts and things like that as you go.if you get bored,take it out and ride it then come back and clean and fix some more,the biggest thing to work on is any safety issues first:tires,brakes,lights and stuff like that then you can work on cosmetic issues as you go. goodluck,happy wrenching!