Getting ideas

Hey all, been a while. But I'm finally in a place where I can go rescue my dads old bike. So the end of next month I'll be making the 1300 mile round trip. For it.

SO,
This leads me to the questions I have been pondering since the last time we talked.

I have already chose to do the tail section off a 1000. The box tail light needs to go and this allows me to up grade to the LED lights and make it more my taste.

I have seen where some have done the forks and down tubes for the GXR.
Why? What are the being its of this?

Also
Swing arms. Trying to decide if it is better to change it out or to streach it or to leave well enough alone ?

In the end I want it to be low,and mean looking.
Will be changed to have a 4-1 headder of some type.

I know the color will be red he always wanted candie apple red on it so I figure I'll do this as a nod to him.
But the faring must go! Lol can't do those things.

Also due to it being out side for so long any ideas of things to reall watch out for would be great.
Plan to get it here and clean it real good and tear it down and see about replacing berrings and races. And rebuild shocks and tubes. Or change if needed.

Tires are toast at this point so I know they are being replaced. But would like a wider rear tire on it.

Also where do y'all find coil packs etc? Are they still made for the 80 KZ 750's?

Any pit falls y'all have had you can warn me about would be help full.

Thanks again and happy to be back

Welcome to the madness. First, I'd recommend getting the engine to run before tearing it down, so that you will have a better idea of what needs to be done. See if the engine turns over easily. If so, proceed with basic maintenance as per the genuine factory shop manual, which you will need. After it has run a bit, you can do a compression test and if indicated, a leak down test. This will give you a pretty good idea concerning the health of the engine and whether or not a full rebuild is necessary. You will likely need to do at least a partial tear down to replace old gasket and seals.
People change suspension (front and rear, including wheels and brakes) in order to take advantage of the huge improvements in ride, handling, braking and tires.
A good source of many parts, and the JIS screwdrivers you will need for those screw that look deceptively like Phillips, is Z1Enterprises -
www.z1enterprises.com/
you may also check -
americanclassix.com/home.html
easternbeaver.com/index.html
www.oldbikebarn.com/
www.oldkawman.com/
www.allballsracing.com/index.php/forkconversion

There are many others, includeing fleabay and Kraigslist.

If you are starting with a GPz, please carefully save all the parts you take off. The GPz has some unique parts that are sometimes hard to find and are valuable to owners and restorers. Also keep in mind that any permanent change (chopping up the frame and such) will likely diminish the bike's value. If you plan to keep it forever, that is a non-issue.

When I first came to this forum I had the same ideas with my Dads bike. Swingarm, big tire, forks, yadda yadda yadda. THANKFULLY, someone here talked some sense in to me and I wound up restoring it, only doing small, bolt-on mods like shocks and a windscreen, etc. Think long and hard before you take a hacksaw to that bike.

1980 shop manual download

mbsween.bike-night.com/kz750l3/manual.html

In the beginning of this thread the OP said he wanted to "rescue" his Dad's bike; I had high hopes. After reading the list of modifications he is planning I think the word "rescue" is inappropriate. Too bad. I hope he will read Kidkawie's posting and reconsider butchering the bike. Ed

If my kid did that, I'd sick my gremlins on the bike. :evil:
Steve

Wow!, sorry work overnights so responses might be diffrent time zones etc.

Yes I said Rescue, meant it.

I asked about why they did the swing arm changes etc. dose not mean I am going to.
Just wondering why.

I have always had Harley's and they ride completely diffrent and over the years I have rode this one many times before he put that god awful darting on it. After he did he stopped riding it also and said he wished he never did.

Not looking to chop this up , destroy it etc. I have been around classic cars and bikes for years this is just the first one I have built.
On the bike side that's not H D.

Wider back tire, sure as wide as I can get on it now. I know there are diehards on both sides of the fence. Stay stock!! Chopp it !!
But the reality is I want to make it a good Dailly bike something I can enjoy and still runs good etc.

It is not a Rex. The icon I use as a aviator is actually the bike.

So in all its glory. But he and I had talked about diffrent things he liked the 1000 tail section the fiberglass duck bill more then the blocky one that is there now.
So if I can bolt it on I will if I have to do a whole frame mod most likely I won't.
The biggest thing now is to get it back to running and looking good again.
The org. Color I believe was Black in this but could be wrong trying to remember when u was 10 and this was still a newer bike on the market.
But I know he wanted candy apple red and the body shop screwed the color up and refused to fix it. So he hated what it become.
So I'll make sure I paint it what he wanted.
But it and pegs, handle bars , headlight will prolly be the biggest change at first