1982 KZ550 LTD project

Purchased for $550 in Feb 2010

Below photo's are before any polishing, paint-stripping, bondo work, etc....













We did all mechanical stuff to her first.

- Front forks rebuilt
- Tank cleaned out and lined
- Carbs tuned and sunced with the 4/1 exhaust (seemed to run rough prior to sync, think the DA kid that had it prior didn't know this needed to be done when switching out the stock exhuast)
- New igniter (could barely get it to "fire" before)
- New plugs
- New fuel line
- New front and back breaks
- New Tach cable
- New rear ball bearings and spacer (Again, apparently the DA kid who had it before dropped the bearing support spacer out when changing the rear tire and the rear axle seized up on me! Thank goodness I was just practicing my new riding skills on the back roads near the house!)
- Fresh oil
- Fixed the leaky front break master cyclinder

Geezus, I think that's it....now she runs like a top!!!

Im at work, so more pictures of her progression coming later!

I think the LTDs make great streetfighters. A little more chrome than the standard (looks good with black paint), and the smaller rear wheel makes them nice and torky.
Mag wheels always make the bike look bad. Hubby's ride looks very nice... I'd like my 650 project to come out that good.

OK.....more progress.....

Rust removal......



After stripping paint, sanded down to bare, but before bondo



Primed up and ready for her flat red rattle can paint job



Ok, so here in Georgia we have this horrible crap called "pollen" well, I guess it's everywhere, but when I lived in Arizona, I NEVER saw crap like that! Anywho...after about the second coat, the pollen kicked into overdrive, so I "built" my husband a "redneck paint booth" in the garage with lots of plastic and lots of red duct tape (hey, whatever gets the job done right!?) ha!ha!




Last night we put my "striping" on, and here she is today







Next....barend mirrors, custom seat, re-work rearend/new tail light, and do something with those ugly rusted out headers!!!! any suggestions on the rearend re-work and or what to do to with the headers are welcomed and appreciated!

You did a bang up job in a short amount of time! She looks reeeeal clean now, and you took care of the important basics and safety related items first.....like you have done this before.....Good luck with the headers, but it looks like a late model stainless/aluminum silencer mounted on there, right?

silencer ??? Beats me...I've been trying to figure that out...there is no label or imprint or anything on it it that I can see....Not sure what the 4/1 is? However, I do know it's loud and mean sounding which is why, for now, I have decided to keep it rather than put on the stock chrome 4/2 pipes I bought for her....

Any ideas how to figure out exactly what it is? As far as the cosmetics, I will prob either wrap with heat tape or spray with heat/engine paint....

Rae

Nice work!

Looks like a completely different bike.
Is the striping painted on? Or is it a decal?
Cool personal touch.

Any idea how long the PO was riding it with the 4-1 and without proper jetting? It would suck to find out it had been run too lean/hot for a long time and had heat damage.

Jon

Thank Jonny! Hubby did the brunt of the work, bless him!
I just made sure the fridge was stocked with cold beer while he was working on it! ha!ha! :lol:

"striping" is a decal, still trying to decide what to do with side panels....

Not sure on the whole carb jetting issue, it's much better since we had them synced, but wondering if you're right, and some possible perm damage was done....Im still learning to ride on the back roads, so I haven't gotten her up over about 45mph yet, but hubby is saying when you lay into her, feels like some possible "missing" at higher speeds...but the mechanic didn't say anything about that???

Your mechanic probably didn't ride the bike under load (wfo) and didn't detect the miss. Don't worry about the silencer, I was only making an observation: it looks good! With your headers, I wouldn't switch back to the 4:2. Keep the 4:1, as long as there is no serious rusting of the header tubes, just blast them clean and spray em with high temp paint. They'll look good as new

Started on the headers tonight!!! Holy crap, talk about RUSTY!!! WoW! After getting them off and the sanding and rust stripper they almost look homemade!?! Several weld spots on each of 'em? I have no idea what kind of exhaust system it is, there is nothing we can see or find to distinguish it......