New Z1 Project

I did a couple bolt-on mods to mine. As much as I want to brace the frame and put better brakes on, it aint happenin. My mods are pretty much ZRX shocks, wind screen, short stems for the mirrors, bars and pipe. I preserved, not restored, the rest of the bike. Replating/refinishing original parts when possible. I have a set of reproduction shocks I slap on for bike shows and what not. EVERY PART on your bike is worth some money, so don't throw anything out!

Very nice and complete....nice find

As I am evaluating the bike the paint is in poor shape but I hate to paint original body work. I see repro paint body sets advertised is any of it any good? Kind of leaning to going that rout and storing the original stuff.

Hi Surfdad49,
Have the paint evaluated by a good custom paint shop. It may be that only the clearcoat needs to be dealt with. The Z-1 / Z-1A paint process was fairly complex, requiring multiple differing coats (six IRRC) and masking to make the finished product.

On your green/yellow bike, the metalflake was underlying the yellow which was then masked for striping. Translucent blue was then oversprayed on the masked pieces which resulted in green but still allowing the metalflake in the yellow to show through. Then the white stripes were applied, then clearcoat.

Kawasaki used the same paint and process for the Z-1 and Z-1A model years, just different striping schemes. They had some problems precisely matching paint on tank, sidecovers and tailpiece, all of which may have been produced in different batches. It's wasn't unusual in the day to see subtle differences in shades and color saturation on the same new bikes in the showroom. Those problems pretty much disappeared in '75 when Mama Kaw went to single-color candy paint with opaque stripes for the Z-1B.

We restored a barn-find root beer/orange (aka Jaffa) '73 Z-1 ten yrs. or so ago that came to us with factory paint. We initially thought the clearcoat was unrecoverably cloudy but could tell the underlying color coats were in good condition overall. On the advice of a paint shop, we used the finest available rubbing compound followed by jewelers rouge and brought it back to excellent condition by gently removing the oxidization on the clearcoat. We spent three months. pretty much every day doing nothing but hand rubbing on the tank, sidecovers and tailpiece.

If the clearcoat is peeling it's beyond help. If that's the case a paint shop may be able to buff the clearcoat away , leaving the underlying paint sound. Might be worth a shot. It's only original once, and factory paint is a rarity these days.

If you choose to go the aftermarket paint set route, we've been happy with a green/yellow '73 Z-1 set we purchased from Z1Enterprises to put on a basket-case resto we completed last year.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

I think the paint is too far gone. See images.
I like Kawasaki's!
The Versys I drive daily to work and the KZ is being rewired, all the electrics are under the seat/tail, have oberon bar end led turn signals going on it. Thinking about amkint the %%0 a track day/vintage racer now that I have the Z1.

still learning the file limitations Here is an image of the tail showing the poor condition

I would leave the paint right like it is! Just my taste,

It will that way for a while. Going to work from the inside out with paint being the last thing I do.

It's your bike but you should consider restoring it and finding a run of the mill Kz 1000 to restomod (whatever). The green 74 is one of my favorites. I restored this bike a few years ago and sold to a collector in Chicago, only to buy it back a few years later.

I should better define my idea of a restomod. Since I don't have the original pipes,shocks and handlebars and I want to ride it I will upgrade the fork internals with emulators and progressive springs, new lower bars, better oil cooler and keep the vintage Kerker. I will upgrade the brakes with braided lines and maybe a second disk. Over time I would acquire the remaining original parts and set aside. I can then put the original stuff on to sell.

I'm with Peter, I'd ride it as-is. That's honest wear on an original bike. Clean it up, regrease everything and fit some nice shocks and emulators so it's enjoyable to ride.

As I am slowly learning about the bike I found something the second owner apparently never saw. The document tray contained a log outlining the first owners maintenance history up to 1985 and the original owners registration. The Kerker was installed Feb 75 six month after purchase. No idea when the 79 KZ carbs were installed.
Found this entry interesting.