Topic: low budget Kawasaki KZ1000 LTD resto, Vintage Stereo & Amish to the rescue

[Terry in Australia]

Well I did say that I'm gonna thin the herd Larry, but today I put a bid in for a 1977 Kawasaki Z1000. Not nice like yours, it's rough, was a drag bike so has been roughly modded, but has 1100cc, cams, GPZ1100 head, etc etc, maybe too rough to ever put back on the road, but I like it, so we'll see.........

[754]

Most multi spindle drills are adjustable, have to be usually to set up the jobs, then lock it down and giver.
 The kiln probably does 1300 to 1500 degrees.

[Terry in Australia]

Well fcuk me, he accepted my offer! Road trip!

Terry's new Zed 1 by terry prendergast, on Flickr

[MoMo]

Well fcuk me, he accepted my offer! Road trip!

Terry's new Zed 1 by terry prendergast, on Flickr

You're not turning into a drag queen are you Terry?

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, no, I'll be putting an old drag queen back on the straight and narrow highway Larry, but I'll leave the engine as is, I imagine it'll be a lot of fun on the street......

[MoMo]

Most multi spindle drills are adjustable, have to be usually to set up the jobs, then lock it down and giver.
 The kiln probably does 1300 to 1500 degrees.

Even though I have n0 desire at the present time to powder coat would that be too high temp Frank? 

[MoMo]

 


recent auction acquisition, early Beatles reel to reel
IMG_9732 by Lawrence Moulder, on Flickr

[MoMo]

Ha ha, no, I'll be putting an old drag queen back on the straight and narrow highway Larry, but I'll leave the engine as is, I imagine it'll be a lot of fun on the street......

I was hoping this wasn't the case

[Terry in Australia]

That's not Jerry, Eric and Sean at the annual F lovers bash is it Larry?

[MoMo]

That's not Jerry, Eric and Sean at the annual F lovers bash is it Larry?

I didn't realize that, pretty sure you are right Terry. 

[MoMo]

Well, the clutch actuator repair on the Ninja 600 worked fine.  Got the new petcock gasket and installed to prevent crankcase  from becoming a mixture of 50/50 gas and oil then rode to work(there now) and all is good to go.   I removed some of the Ninja graphics on the rear cowling and painted the upper half white to match OEM( at least as close a rattle can color that I could find), ordered some red pin striping off ebay that will be close enough to OEM for my low standards. Rather than recover torn up seats I was able to obtain front and rear for 70$ shipped.  Will post photos, bike looks decent and sure is fun to ride,  quick enough, handles decent and is light enough for my feeble old body...Larry

[Terry in Australia]

Good work Larry, I haven't ridden one but I rode an old Honda CBR600 back in the 80's when it was new, and was surprised at how quick it was! Can you post a pic when you get a chance? Cheers, Terry.

[RAFster122s]

Ninjas are often wrecked and abused by previous owners.  Just watching the number of stupid stunts guys on sportbikes do is clearly documenting a segment of the population that trashes them and uses them up. So, glad your Ninja is turning out to be a good one for you Larry.  It is reassuring you found a bike you can enjoy.
Glad you have been able to fix the Ninja inexpensively. 

Hope you have been having some good riding over the past few months.

[MoMo]

A brief recounting of the Ninja's journey... I bought two Ninjas a couple years ago for 600$.  One had a bad starter and the other a bent front end. Replaced steering stem, tires, brakes, battery on the black one and sold it to a co-worker for 1500, book value was much higher BTW.  This white one required replacing the starter clutch which supposedly requires motor removal and disassembly as the clutch is internal but thanks to a link Mick, aka retro rocket, sent I was able to repair without motor removal/ disassembly.  Forum is great!

I was able to find NOS left front fairing(the one on it was trashed) for 100, rear cowling that was also trashed for 30(  I removed all the Ninja graphics and rattle canned it with a Rustoleum pearl mist that was a close enough match), both mirrors were broken and replaced with a used pair that was 50, seats were shredded and replaced with an excellent set off ebay for 70, battery, tires, brakes,  front fender was missing and replaced with a black 35$ one that was rattle canned pearl mist.  So I have about 800 into a 1991 Ninja 600 with 12000 miles.  Waiting for rear pinstriping to complete resto.

IMG_0766 by Lawrence Moulder, on Flickr

[MoMo]

hit post rather than preview, here are 4 more photos
IMG_0765 by Lawrence Moulder, on Flickr
IMG_0764 by Lawrence Moulder, on Flickr
IMG_0763 by Lawrence Moulder, on Flickr
IMG_0761 by Lawrence Moulder, on Flickr



I did leave the graphic of the Ninja warrior peeking out from  the rear cowling.  Think the motor may have been modified as this one seems faste that the black one I sold.     Cheers

[Terry in Australia]

Looks good Larry, looking at that shape, I can see where my ZZR1100 evolved from.

[MoMo]

Looks good Larry, looking at that shape, I can see where my ZZR1100 evolved from.

Think 86 was the beginning of this style.  The riding position is fairly comfortable, even for a 71 year old man with arthritic neck, bad back and crooked wrist.  Thanks for the compliment Terry

[MRieck]

Looks good Larry, looking at that shape, I can see where my ZZR1100 evolved from.

Think 86 was the beginning of this style.  The riding position is fairly comfortable, even for a 71 year old man with arthritic neck, bad back and crooked wrist.  Thanks for the compliment Terry

Pretty sure it was 86. The limited aluminum framed 600 Ninja's were rare in the USA.....more so now. Think that was 1989??

[MoMo]

One never knows what one will find at an auction   Along with a nice set of original mufflers, one rear turn signal, decent OEM left mirror, set of NOS brake pads I bought this really nice set of Yamaha 1974 TX500 side covers  for the outlandish price of $5 total   "Back in the day" (whenever that was) I had an orangish/rust color 1973 TX500 that was my third or fourth street bike.  Decent enough bike (at least it wasn't a TX750 .
IMG_E0776 by Lawrence Moulder, on Flickr

[Terry in Australia]

Hey nice garage art Larry! I too had a TX500, when I bought it for $450 in 1977, I had a choice of either it or a Ducati 450 Silver Shotgun, and being me, I took the Yamaha...... Technically they were both piles of sh1t, but now the Yam is worth about $1 per square foot, whereas the Duke is worth upwards of $10K.

Having said that though, I liked the Yam, and if it wasn't for the fact that the same shop offered me the same amount of money as a trade in on a shiny new CB750 a few months later, I probably would have kept it, it was a fun bike to ride. I don't know how many would still be on the road now, but those sidecovers would look good hanging in your shop, regardless.

[MoMo]

Hopefully those side covers will look good hanging in my ebay sale section when I post them for sale, can't imagine many TX 500 still out on the road though.  I did work on one several years ago so there is at least one .  If I ran across one cheap, I might consider a purchase as they were of a classic style.

I think I sold mine and bought a 400 four.  Always liked smaller bikes back then as I only weighed 140 lbs, close to 180 now

[MoMo]

Here is the set of Irwin bits all cleaned up and just about ready to sell..  $10 purchase plus an hour or so cleaning the bits and treating the box.

[Terry in Australia]

Hopefully those side covers will look good hanging in my ebay sale section when I post them for sale, can't imagine many TX 500 still out on the road though.  I did work on one several years ago so there is at least one .  If I ran across one cheap, I might consider a purchase as they were of a classic style.

I think I sold mine and bought a 400 four.  Always liked smaller bikes back then as I only weighed 140 lbs, close to 180 now

Ha ha, I'm having weight loss surgery in August Larry, if I get down to 180 I'll be fighting fit, I'll even probably throw the uniform back on and put my hand up for a deployment somewhere nasty!

[MoMo]

Hopefully those side covers will look good hanging in my ebay sale section when I post them for sale, can't imagine many TX 500 still out on the road though.  I did work on one several years ago so there is at least one .  If I ran across one cheap, I might consider a purchase as they were of a classic style.

I think I sold mine and bought a 400 four.  Always liked smaller bikes back then as I only weighed 140 lbs, close to 180 now

Ha ha, I'm having weight loss surgery in August Larry, if I get down to 180 I'll be fighting fit, I'll even probably throw the uniform back on and put my hand up for a deployment somewhere nasty!

Weight loss surgery?    What part of your body are you having cut off? 

[spotty]

Hopefully those side covers will look good hanging in my ebay sale section when I post them for sale, can't imagine many TX 500 still out on the road though.  I did work on one several years ago so there is at least one .  If I ran across one cheap, I might consider a purchase as they were of a classic style.

I think I sold mine and bought a 400 four.  Always liked smaller bikes back then as I only weighed 140 lbs, close to 180 now

Ha ha, I'm having weight loss surgery in August Larry, if I get down to 180 I'll be fighting fit, I'll even probably throw the uniform back on and put my hand up for a deployment somewhere nasty!

where  ? the western suburbs or frankston ?  ( local in joke for those elsewhere )