Topic: Terry's Kawasaki ZZR1100 "Bring it back to life" project.

[34barab]

Yeah mate, any paint would be fine, but that stuff would be better again.

Thank you.  Did not mean to interrupt.  Carry on and have a nice holiday.

[spotty]

Despite the seasonably unpleasant weather I managed to get some work done on the Z's plastic outer skin today
I was sensible enough to utilise the air conditioned  interior of the house due to Mrs spotty being in Thailand
In the dim and distant past I repaired all the broken bits of fairing from the inside which has left them nice and strong but the outside looks about as smooth as a broken Easter egg
I've managed to flatten out the larger ridges left by the cracking  but every panel has scratches and chips
Looks like much more work to go

[spotty]

Popped over to uncle Terry's place this afternoon, picked up the Jet kit he found and about 30 litres of unwanted ( substandard ?) Ginger piss, one of which I am currently consuming, and most refreshing it is on another excessively sunny Melbourne afternoon
I shall read the attached instructions for the Jet kit later ( I know...who reads instructions) and see under what circumstances it is advised to use said kit
The bike still has a stock exhaust and will have a hi flo air filter so I may not need to use it yet, wait until a noisy pipe comes my way ( or take a trip back to the 70/80's and hammer a great big metal spike through the baffles, well it worked on my xs250, it did a hundred miles an hour after that .....once, then it seized a little bit)

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, "Seized a little bit"? How does an engine seize, just a little bit? Anyway, I hope you enjoy that Ginger Beer mate, it wasn't as fizzy as I would have liked, but it's got plenty of alcohol therein, so is probably more Ginger Wine than Beer, but as long as you enjoy it, that's the main thing. I'm hoping my latest brew is both fizzy and alcoholic, like me............

[spotty]

Got thru a few ginga's last night and a fine night's sleep was had
The poor little xs250 seized a little bit in that it ground to a halt out on the western hwy after being pushed harder than perhaps someone more mechanically sympathetic might have done, we sat on the side of the hwy and contemplated our relative situations ( mine - 40km walk to a train station , bike - get kicked onto its side and left outside Bacchus Marsh )
We both decided that in the interests of strained international relations we'd give it another go
Happily the bike started, we set off and made it to Daylesford but the bike just didn't seem to have it's heart in it anymore
Later that weekend an arsehole who had followed our group up for the weekend dumped his bike off an ambankment, walked back to the pub and asked if he could borrow my bike to take his equally arseholeish mate back to rescue his bike
We didn't see either of them again that night and I personally considered the loss of the bike as a small price to pay for his absence
Turned out next morning he'd dumped my bike in exactly the same place, on top of his own bike....fcukwit
The owner of the pub was kind enough to take a trailer up and pick up the bikes until I could get back from Melbourne with my own transport
We left the fcukwits there and never saw them again, they were arrested later that week for raping an 80yo lady in the street
By the time we found out about this I had both bikes home, went to the cops to ask what to do with his, they said keep it, he won't be needing it for a long time
I gave it away as soon as I could find a home for it , it was a 400/4 , dark blue with stock pipes
So all in all quite an eventful weekend

[Terry in Australia]

Fark! That was a story and a half Spotty! OK, well as long as you're enjoying that ginger brew and getting a good night's sleep, that's a good thing. It's the only alcohol that my gastric surgeon is happy for me to have, as it's good for the guts, apparently. I consider it medicine.......

[spotty]

bid placed on a s/h tank out of italy, lets hope no-one else bids ( its been listed for months and no interest so it should be good )

shall try and get some time in the carport with the body work this weekend ( or let my mind wander in the direction of ....hmmmm, streetfighter it ? )

[Terry in Australia]

Well streetfighters are lovely, of course, but trying to hang on to a pair of trailbike bars at 200 MPH will be youtube-worthy, so let me know when yku're gonna do it so I can follow at a safe distance with my Go-Pro.......

[spotty]

i do like a challenge

[Terry in Australia]

Speaking of challenges, my latest brew of home made "Ginger Slut" is magnificent Spotty, so don't expect too many more cases of "Not Quite Right" alcohol heading your way mate, I've finally worked out how to make it to my taste, so I'll be tasting it, a lot...........

[spotty]

Well done

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks mate, I learned an important lesson, keep it simple and it actually tastes better. I reduced the ingredients to the very basics, and suddenly, it tastes as good as the $8 per bottle stuff.

[spotty]

just got notification from mr ebay that i have won on the tank so i paid as soon as i heard so the seller ( in italy) can't back out of the deal

should be here in a couple of weeks and then progress can be made on the big black beasty ( mind you the tank is kwaka green so thats going to look nice...)

progress was made in the carport on the weekend due to a comment that mrs spotty made. i got given an old sansui stereo last week and she pronounced that the speakers were too big to come into the house ( i've already got a small PA set up in the house) so i said i'd set it up in the carport. her response was we don't have any room out there

so i did some rearranging, tidying, cleaning, shelf building and lo and behold...room. as an added bonus i've got my bar fridge set up instead of being stuck in a corner, i've got room for the stereo, tools i can get to instead of fecking around walking up and down the hill to get them out from under the house

got more shelving to put up this weekend and even better its a long weekend and i've got an extra day off on tuesday, woohoo

on the down side by the time i'd tidied and rearranged i'd got tjhrough a six pack of my favourite french beer and i was too pissed to get started on the elec problems on the vmax, ah well this weekend should be good for that too and hopefully it'll be raining so no gardening

[spotty]

I underestimated the backing out abilities of my new found Italian chum
Back to square one

FCUK

[Terry in Australia]

Get on the FB ZZR1100 page Spotty, John McKelvie (I think I've spelt his name correctly) in the UK is a top bloke and sells just ZZR1100 parts. I bought that crank and rods from him, and he was very decent shipping wise.  

[spotty]

After some farting around trying to get a tank out of England, I contacted the Italian seller again and said I was happy to pay the 100 Euro (#160 ish ) freight ( after being told it would be about $300 from UK )
So I'm hoping it will be here in a couple of weeks
I did some work on the bodywork today, filling cracks and chips using Terry's superglue and baking soda method, primered most of it to be sanded again and see what it looks like
Still don't know what colour to paint it ?.
One colour with contrasting decals or ...
Something really stupid ( rising sun in green and white, black and silver ? ) Union Jack , Camo, Mr Men, jelly bean sticky vinyl ?

Check out Dazzle Camo, it's a WW1 pattern used to disguise ships by tricking the eye into not knowing which direction the ship was going or how fast......so maybe not perfect for a road going motorcycle but it looks trick

[spotty]

Well, finally some activity.....

Got the tank, looks good but will have to be painted but that's for the future

Tried to bleed the clutch and front brakes to make it easier to move around , no luck

So a week later the vacuum bleeder turns up so try again, no luck with the clutch so likely the m/c is fcuked
front brakes came up with enough pressure to make it safe enough to roll around, more work needed there

[Terry in Australia]

Well, finally some activity.....

Got the tank, looks good but will have to be painted but that's for the future

Tried to bleed the clutch and front brakes to make it easier to move around , no luck

So a week later the vacuum bleeder turns up so try again, no luck with the clutch so likely the m/c is fcuked
front brakes came up with enough pressure to make it safe enough to roll around, more work needed there

Hmmnn, I have a new, unused clutch master cylinder here Spotty, if you're wandering past, I'll leave it in my letterbox? It's not strictly a ZZR1100 item, but it's new, so should be able to be MacGyvered to fit?

[spotty]

Awesomeness

I shall give you a call in the very near future ( after I've had my breakfast )

[spotty]

Took the illegal trek across town to uncle tez's place yesterday and picked up a lonely looking master cylinder from his front porch ( where I could picture him sittin' doin' some whittling while sippin' on some ginger moonshine)

Fitted it today after changing the bolts and such to stainless Allen bolts and shimmed the adjuster pin to get rid of some of the wobble in the mounting ( still some more to do but I need to thin down a brake banjo washer to about 3 bee's dicks thick )
Bolted up the hose , attached the wonderful new vacuum bleeder and hey presto.....
Almost instantly it was bled up. Used about a quarter of a litre of brake fluid to get rid of all the air bubbles, perfect pressure on the lever

A big thanks to Terry for getting me out of the deep brown stuff

Going to have another go at the front brakes tomorrow and if they won't pressure up then I might just get another mc to match the shiny trick looking one Terry gave me

[Terry in Australia]

Looks good Spotty, I like the bracket you made for the fluid reservoir. Once this CV crap is all over, you'll have to bring your brake bleeder over so I can have a look at it, sounds like a good tool.

[spotty]

The bracket was already there, I did adjust it so it was a bit nearer and changed the bolts but that was it

The vacuum bleeder us great , you just attach it to the compressor, put the little hose onto a well opened bleed nipple , squeeze the trigger and it just sucks the air out followed by fluid, a truly magical toy

[Terry in Australia]

Nice, was that an Ebay bargain? I might have to invest in one.

[spotty]

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/233481895173

This should be the job, says it's stocked in Melbourne, mine took less than a week

The kit comes with all the stuff to do cars too

[Terry in Australia]

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/233481895173

This should be the job, says it's stocked in Melbourne, mine took less than a week

The kit comes with all the stuff to do cars too

Thanks mate, just bought one. I won't hold my breath waiting due to the snails pace that parcels are coming in, but no drama, I don't need it right now, it'll just be good to have.