1981 Kawasaki GPZ1100B1 winter restoration project

All sandblasted, degreased and masked.
Ready for paint.

Today I painted the motor and frame.

Nice work Steve!

Thanks Rob,

Looks like you are making good head way on a great bike to love. I don't do "restoration" I believe in preservation, showing the wear and tear from use....period correct after market parts are a plus along with rare Kawasaki Accessories.

Keep us updated.

Very nice Taildrag.

I'm thinking of replacing the old rough looking rear shocks with a nice quality shock.
Any recommendations?

Steve

Coast Steve wrote: Very nice Taildrag.

I'm thinking of replacing the old rough looking rear shocks with a nice quality shock.
Any recommendations?

Steve

The US distributor/importer for Ikon {Koni} shocks is a member of this site, he has member discounts and is a great guy to deal with, Ikon {Koni} are very good shocks and fully rebuildable..

www.kzrider.com/forum/14-vendor-forum/60...scounts?limitstart=0

I've had my Hagon shocks for 10 years and they still work and look like new. I really like them a lot! Here's wher to get them if you decide on them: davequinnmotorcycles.com/cgi-bin/webc.cg...GON_TWIN_SHOCKS.html Ed

Taildrag, I forgot to mention my bike was just too rough to "preserve" if it was better, I would have just done that.
And it was my original plan. Just too much rust and the wrong paint colors everywhere made me do a proper resto job instead.

Anyway, your shocks look super, I called them today and talk about super helpful.
They had just the shocks for me, but with the Canadian dollar VRS the US dollar it gets a bit expensive.
Then the duties and taxes all add up.
I spent the morning cleaning up my stock ones instead and got them painted and polished.

I think they look fine now, so I will keep it original.
Now I just need to figure out how to get the spring compressed without a spring compressor.

I used my wicked strong bar clamps to compress the hell out of the shock and then wrapped wire on the springs.
But they are all painted up nice now, so that will scratch em all up.

In between pouring epoxy on a wood table I'm building today, (my real job)
I managed to check out my new signals from Japan (actually Thailand I found out) , assemble my rear shocks (with all fingers still attached) And clean all 4 footpegs, bolts, and washers. Mounting them in these nice fancy powdercoated muffler brackets.

I have the instrument cluster cleaned up and looking much better.

Also got my shocks back together without loosing too much paint or finger parts.
But the day was really spent sanding wood for my job.
Still it's nice to take a break on this bike project.

A few parts came in today and this weekend I get to install them.

Found out I was sent the wrong steering head bearings though.

I thought my new mirrors looked upside down but I guess that's the look.

Although the right side one doesn't seem to thread into the master cylinder. both the mirrors are left hand regular thread.