1974 KZ400 Cafe Racer Build

1977-Z1-A1-LTD wrote: I'm definitely digging the build. I wish I had the skill, knowledge and patience to pull off a well done custom. Keep up the good work!

Thank you very much. I really appreciate that.

Sub'd.

I made an aluminum brake rod for my custom '76 HD, rear disk....ripped it off the caliper carrier.

Kidkawie wrote: Sub'd.

I made an aluminum brake rod for my custom '76 HD, rear disk....ripped it off the caliper carrier.

I hear ya.. I've decided to go with stainless steel for the brake rod. After giving it some thought, I know that there's no need to risk a catastrophic failure just to save a few ounces of weight by using aluminum. Round rod, like the other fella mentioned would have been nice, but there's not quite enough clearance for it on this bike. I'm sure I can find a nice piece of 304 lying around here somewhere.

Thanks for subscribing.

I almost forgot... The knee pockets are done and fit me perfectly! As the kids would say "I'm super stoked!" Now I can strip the tank and get some epoxy primer on it. Then a little bit of filler, primer/surfacer, and so on... By the way, on the subject of paint and bodywork, we've only ever used PPG, but I'm taking a long look at the Summit Racing line of paints. I guess I'll go peruse the paint and bodywork section of the forum and see what I can find. Most of the reviews I've read on Google have been positive and the pics of finished projects I've seen looked great, and it's a heckuva lot cheaper than PPG.

Nice work on that tank!

PPG is PPG and costs what it cost because its damn good stuff. Not that you need to spend the $$$ though. There are some really nice paint jobs some KZ members have done with rattle cans covered with 2 part clear.

Tyler wrote: Nice work on that tank!

PPG is PPG and costs what it cost because its damn good stuff. Not that you need to spend the $$$ though. There are some really nice paint jobs some KZ members have done with rattle cans covered with 2 part clear.

Thanks. The knee pockets only took about 20-25 minutes per side, and that was with me really baby tapping it. I hadn't done a tank this small before and I was concerned about kinking it. I also bought a 2" teardrop instead of using the 2.5" and 2.75" we already had, again, due to the small area between the factory bends. I know on a lot of bikes it's just for looks, but for me, even a small bike like this needs the knee pockets. I was thinking I might be able to get away without them, but my legs were splayed waaayyy out with the tank in stock form.

For sure PPG is great stuff. We've painted a lot of cars, bikes, etc with it over the years and never had a single problem. If I can get a real nice finish with the Summit system while saving $500 +/-, I'm all for it. We've also used Duplicolor, Krylon, etc rattle cans with good results. One paint we really love is the Krylon high temp matte black (has a picture of a grille on the can). Great stuff!

This is really coming along. Makes me wish my KZ400 was in a little worse shape so I would have an excuse to café it.
Nice work!

ThatGPzGuy wrote: This is really coming along. Nice work!

Thank you very much. I'm having a lot of fun doing it.

The plan of attack for this weekend is to get the rear set plates cut, drilled, and welded on, which won't take long at all since I've already set and marked the locations for them (I spent about an hour sitting on the bike, positioning and repositioning jack stands to simulate the peg locations and finally got it perfect.)

Then fab, cut and weld the custom center section of the exhaust (I set the front pipes more inboard than stock for a cleaner look, so I now have to bring the exhaust back outboard and under the rear sets with 2 perfectly placed and hopefully elegant curves, then just under the rear sets, then curve it up at a 22.5* angle right after the rear sets, then the 12" stainless steel shorty mufflers go on. I was going to run simple straight pipes out the back on the bottom, but that's loud, annoying and not as esthetically pleasing as tastefully up-swept SS mufflers.

Then, if there's time this weekend, comes the custom 3-position upper shock mounts and the rear frame hoop. This'll take a good bit of time because I haven't yet made the templates, which I can't completely accurately do until we're ready to cut out the stock shock mounts. The plan for the shock mounts is for the center hole to be in the precise location of the stock mount, but since I'm using 1/2" shorter shocks, it will be lower than stock ride height. The hole forward of the center hole will further lower the bike and give the shock a softer initial feel, but it will be more progressive the further it travels. The rearward/upper-most hole will be a more "stand up" shock position, raising the bike to just a tick under stock ride height and giving the rear a stiffer feel. Even though the bike will probably never see a track with me on it, one of the goals of the build is to make it track-worthy, or at least "track-capable". lol

Anyway, it'll all make sense when I post the next set of photos. Stay tuned!

Stainless is a good choice for a brake rod. You can buy pretty much whatever you want from McMaster Carr. They're in Dayton, NJ. I'm in NJ too and get shipments the next day.

If you want to do a budget paint job, you can use Duplicolor followed by SprayMax 2k clear coat. Search around and you'll find alot of info on it. I sprayed my Z1 tank 5 years ago and it still looks perfect. No chipping, peeling or lift from gas. I have a whole spraygun setup but it's easier for me using that method unless I need a custom color.

i114.photobucket.com/albums/n248/Jeekinz/Z1/IMG_8965.jpg

Kidkawie wrote: Stainless is a good choice for a brake rod. You can buy pretty much whatever you want from McMaster Carr. They're in Dayton, NJ. I'm in NJ too and get shipments the next day.

If you want to do a budget paint job, you can use Duplicolor followed by SprayMax 2k clear coat. Search around and you'll find alot of info on it. I sprayed my Z1 tank 5 years ago and it still looks perfect. No chipping, peeling or lift from gas. I have a whole spraygun setup but it's easier for me using that method unless I need a custom color.

i114.photobucket.com/albums/n248/Jeekinz/Z1/IMG_8965.jpg

Thanks! We've been buying from McMaster for years. We always say "Whenever no one else has it, McMaster probably does". That's where I got those big honkin' 18-2 stainless steel 5/8" shoulder bolts and lock nuts for the upper shock mounts. The few other places I found that had the correct dimension shoulder bolts that I needed only had them in regular steel, but McMaster came through as always. And yes, the next day service, being in NJ, is awesome!

As for the paint, I'm not looking for a "budget job", but I want to try something different than PPG and save a few buckaroos in the process. We have a Binks M1-G gun that's old, but has laid down some fabulous finishes. I'm planning custom colors for the body work, and Summit's paints are cheap enough that I can experiment by mixing my own colors, doing spray outs and seeing what I like best. Although Duplicolor does have a few rattle can colors that I do really like.

Hi again, everyone. I’m happy to report that a lot of progress was made on the bike over the weekend. After practically wearing out the tape measure, and our brains, hubs and I got the exhaust fabricated and welded together (The welds still need to be ground down and take the pipes to the chromer), we made the plates for the rear sets and welded them on, made the triangles for the rear seats, designed, laid out and fabricated the upper shock mounts, pulled the motor and the rear end, got the hoop welded on and rough cut the seat/tail section to fit the hoop. Everything is in a very rough state right now. We still need to finish building and welding together the 2nd shock mount, weld them on and then grind everything smooth.
Photos explained:
1. Rear sets triangular mounts on the drill press.
2. Frame plates for the rear sets on the drill press.
3. Back ends of the exhaust peeking out. Just enough room for 12” stainless steel shorty mufflers. Since I wanted the exhaust tucked in up front, it took some custom bends and creative curves to turn them back out to clear the center stand, swing arm and shocks, while giving them the up-sweep that I wanted at the back.
4. Rear sets mounted and the pedal held in position with tape. Still have to mill out the inner triangle of the aluminum.
5. Front ¾ view of the right side exhaust.
6. The right side pipe has to simply turn out just a smidge (1/16” tops) where it goes into the head, just so it clears the center stand spring and even it up with the left side.
7. Front ¾ view of the left side exhaust.
8. Rolled the bike outside to see it in the morning light.
9. I think it’s starting to look good. 
10. Then out came the motor & off came the rear wheel.
11. Before cutting out the rear shock mounts completely, we ground off the welded shoulder bolt and ground the metal smooth so we could plan out and do a dry run for the new upper shock mounts.
12. We copied the sweep of the shock on to the clean bare metal.
13. The center mark along the sweep indicates the stock shock position. The other two “+” are where the fore and aft shock positions will be on the new plate. Both positions will lower the bike 1/4", but both will also give the bike a different feel for different road/track conditions.
14. The chinzy sheet metal stock shock mount “bracket”, if you can even call it that, was then cut out.
15. There’s the first of 4 of the new upper shock mount plates. Two 3/16” steel plates, with 5/8” ID steel spacers acting as bolt guides and strengtheners, sandwiched between the two 3/16" plates.
16. The first shock mount bracket is nearly complete. Just had to weld in the spacer for the center bolt.
17. Another view of the new shock mount. The brackets will be sooooo much stronger than the stock brackets, yet weigh exactly the same (11 oz.) since the new ones are much smaller and have 3 big bolt holes through them.
18. Both shock mounts removed, and the hoop is finally in.
19. Hubs holding the rear shock bracket in place. Crooked I might add! (lol)

Also, I’ve done a few spray outs and picked my brand and colors. I’m tempted to show what I came up with, but I’m going to wait til the paint is actually on the bike.

Hi again, everyone. I'm back with some more update photos. As of tomorrow, I’ll have owned the bike for a whole 3 weeks. lol The project is progressing nicely and I’m thrilled with all of the improvements we’re making to the bike. This is one of our more in-depth bike projects and it’s amazing to see that we already have a combined 192 hours of labor, research, planning, fab, etc into it.

Photos explained:
1. Aluminum rear sets mounts milled out and cleaned up
2. Decided I didn’t like the fit or the profile of the fiberglass seat I had bought, so I decided to fab my own aluminum seat and tail
3. Etch primed the bare metal on the tank
4. Filler in the knee pockets
5. Removed the brake light switch bracket from the motor mount bracket for relocation to a different spot on the frame to work with the rear sets
6. Found a little rust/thin metal forward of the gas cap. While I was at it, decided to remove the stock cap and replace the metal and install a flush mount, Harley-style pop-up gas cap (on its way. Hopefully I’ll have it installed by the end of next weekend.)
7. Rough fitment of the aluminum seat/tail and starting to build the framework for the tail
8. Backbone of the tail section tacked in
9. “Ribs” of the tail section tacked in. I’m already liking this tail profile 1000x better than the ready-made fiberglass tail.
10. Cardboard template for the sheet aluminum tail pieces
11. Adjustable upper shock mounts tacked in
12. Left side shock mount
13. Hubs thought the cut piece of aluminum for the tail piece looked like a Sumo wrestler’s belt/trunks or whatever you call it, so he had to try it on and I had to get a pic
14. Aluminum tail section all tacked together. It’s exactly the fit and shape I wanted!