Tag Archives: kawasaki

Last roadblock to Cafe Race project breached

The last road block, or so I hope, was breached yesterday when I located the elusive ‘Arm & Hammer Washing Soda‘ at Fred Meyer. I’d tried all the other local establishments but they seemed to be a little too ‘high faluten’ for something as old-school as ‘Washing Soda‘.

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In parallel with my quest for the chemical, I have been moving along with the body work on the gas tank.  It seems to be a never ending process!  I have professional body working sanding blocks and papers, and maybe using high quality products is highlighting every little low spot on the tank.    At some point I just have to relent and realize this is NOT going to be perfect.   I do not have a spray booth, and I can’t use multi-stage paints to get the really professional look.   So, maybe a little imperfection will be OK.

This is what it looks like right now after the 5th round of filling and sanding.

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The rest of the low spots on the tank I can live with, but the high-spots where I ground down the mounting studs for the ‘Kawaski’ badge, I won’t leave that way.  They will look horrible once the paint is applied.  I may have to get in there with the grinder again and make some intentional low spots, fill, sand and move on.

Just fore reference, this is what the badges used to look like on this tank before I started:

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More updates as they happen!

A little paint test on the KZ400

Conducted a little paint test over the weekend.  Hung up the parts, on a makeshift suspension system and shot some paint.

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One panel, much like the gas tank, is still giving me some trouble.  There are pits from the plastic welding that just do not want to fill.  I have a new filling/sanding primer I’ll try out on the next round.

Here is a little closer shot of the panel that did work out really nicely.  The welding is not visible with the final paint color.

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I know I can achieve the desired result with the other panel, I just need to keep working on it.  So far I’m very happy with the paint color choice.   But I can tell it will take a lot of work to get a good polished result with this paint.

Installing throttle on KZ400

A little more work done on the KZ400 today!

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Yesterday while test fitting parts, I discovered that the powder coated Clubman bars are too thick and interfere with operation of the trottle.

At first, I tried to sand it all off.  I sanded and sanded.  All that provided was a scratched up, equally thick version of what I started with.

Then the lightbulb went off!  I probably still had the paint stripper I used to removed the powder coating on the wheels of my VFR (that project came out looking sweet!!!).  I did not use much of the stripper, and I seldom disposed of chemicals that are pefectly good, so off into the depths of my ‘chemical warehouse’ to locate the stripper.

A few minutes later I wheeled the bike out to the garage door (proper ventelation you know), donned some gloves and started working on the bars.    After the 2nd application it still looked like this!   I have to hand it to the manufacture of these bars, they REALLY used some tough paint!

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In the end, I had to use a file to finish off removal of the paint.   BUT, remove it I did, and viola.. I was able to install the throttle and grip (sorry, no photo yet) and it worked like a charm!

A major hurdle out of the way.    Next post..   picking some paint to trail…..   I have….  an  *angle*…   🙂

Cafe racing – test fitting some new parts

This week, I have been working with my son on the little Kawi.

While I was vacationing in The Gorge, this past week, a pile of parts arrived for the Kawi.  Along with starting some bodywork on the gas tank, I also performed the first test fitting of a number of new parts:

  • rear turn signals
  • aftermarket rubber grips
  • new stainless headlamp bucket mounting hardware
  • new stainless handlebar mounting hardware
  • bar end mirrors
  • clubman drop-bars (powders coated black, which is turning out to be a problem)

Here are 4 photos of where I left it last night, when it was bedtime for my helper.

Kawi 400 with clubmans and headlamp test fitted
Kawi 400 with clubmans and headlamp test fitted
Closeup of clubman drop handlebar and updated headlamp bucket hardware
Closeup of clubman drop handlebar and updated headlamp bucket hardware
side view of parts installed and tank under heavy re-work
side view of parts installed and tank under heavy re-work
Rear views shows more tank detail, clubman and bar end mirror.
Rear views shows more tank detail, clubman and bar end mirror.

Rude lesson in painting primer on fuel tanks

While filling dings and dents in the gas tank, I applied a few guide coats (primer applied with the intent of sanding all of it all to surface level, which will leave any high or low spots easy to identify) and was relocating the tank on the painting table, at which point the worn out (unknown to me until this point) seal on the gas cap let fuel leak out onto me, my clothes and the tank.

The raw primer was immediately bubbled and lifted off the paint underneath.
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Gas and paint not playing nice with each other. Not a big deal, not totally shocking but.. wow.. if I spend all this time painting a tank, only to have my first fueling mishap (and it will happen) bubble up all the paint.. I’ll be sad.

Here is the good news (I think). What happened is perfectly normal. I don’t have the ‘wrong’ primer, I just need to be careful with raw unsealed primer around fuel. The paint shop where I’m buying supplies indicated that the rest of the guide coat would likely have been damaged by the spill and I should be sure to sand ALL of it off, then re-prime when ready.

Lessons on body work, right? Upward and onward!

Work progressing on the KZ project

Finally off the ground and moving forward!

I had some help Thursday taking off all the big old 70’s chromy bits and bodywork. It took a few hours but I ended up with a big box of parts that I probably won’t use again on the final product.

This how the day started:
kz400_phase1-01

Of the three gas tanks that I have, only one of them is serviceable. The other two are full of rust and are useful only as aesthetic ornamentation for the shop.

Here is my helper, diligently working on the rear fender and signals.
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Another photo of what the rear end before most of the parts were removed. Awesome for the 70’s but oh so heavy and chromey. Must go.
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After a couple of hours of work, this is what we have. The tank is mounted (this is the only one that is usable). Not visible in the photo is the spot rust on the top of the tank. That will all needed to be sanded down to bare metal before I can even think about painting.

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It’s a little difficult to see how much fat was removed from this last shot. More photos will follow. At least progress is being made.

The question is, will this be ready to go before summer ends? Time will tell.

Plastic welding on the KZ400

Progress continues on the KZ400 project. Today’s work was focused around using my new plastic welder to fill in holes on the side panel.

The plastic welder came with a number of welding sticks, to use with a variety of plastics. After quite a bit of melting, and trying the PVC, ABS and PP welding sticks, the results looked less than ideal. None of the plastics seemed to flow well, but they eventually did bind with the stock plastic (type unknown).

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The back side of the panel, having used the green ABS welding sticks
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I later discovered that the plastic I have for model building (a poly styrene blend) seemed to weld a lot easier than any of the supplied welding sticks. I’ll be trying them again in the future.

Once the plastic welding was complete, I used a sharp exacto blade to trim off most of the plastic above the surface of original panel. That was followed by wet sanding with 400 grit sandpaper until the welding ‘slag’ was level with the surrounding plastic.

The last step was several rounds of glazing putty application, followed by more wet sanding with the 400 grit. I later found that switching to the 220 grit dry paper did not produce significant scratches and, obviously, let me complete the rough sanding quicker.

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Finally, another ‘current state’ photo of the bike. It’s slow going but that’s OK, it’s all part of the plan.
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KZ400 – ordered additional parts

D2Moto had a pretty dang good say going, so I ordered some more parts for the project bike.

Parts Ordered
Parts Ordered

While I was at it, I also picked up some blink for the Ducati.  In fact, almost 1/2 the order is one set of blingware for the Duc.   It deserves a little attention as well.

RC045-Red

Parts page lists them fo the Monster.  Checked the 1098 and they all LOOK similar.  I know Ducati re-uses parts extensivly so, I’m hoping in this case I’m right, or it’s a $40 error.   In the end, if they don’t fit I know plenty of people around the area that I could sell them to for at or near what I paid.

KZ400 – more thoughts on the Cafe project

Hunting to find info on the missing parts from my bike, I’ve collected a few of these as reference. What I notice in this one, is that my side panels are missing some sort of ‘intake grate (black on this blue bike).
kz400-01

After a lot of work, documented here on VW Vortex.. he’s got one hell of a cool result!

After a lot more work
After a lot more work

Then it starts to look like this.  Very clean.. classy.   I’m still split on going retro-rat or going with super-clean (but I  want to do silver, not perl white).   Decisions.. decisions…

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Ordering some parts

8d92_1_bI want to get this thing going… and the first step will be to get me some of those clubman bars. Found these, hopefully I did not get douched on the price ($52.00 with shipping), from Oregon.

I’m thinking that I can mount them either up or down, depending on how radical I want to make this thing.

At least I’ve taken the first step, and decided that I am NOT going to ‘restore’ the bike, but instead build my first ever Cafe Racer Replica.  God help me.    At least this will be A LOT less expensive than playing with sports cars, and more mentally challenging than watching Television (gack).

Tonight, I think I’ll really dig into this thing by doing some sanding and bobbing the back fender off.

And a couple more interesting ‘inputs’ on final styling:

This looks so 50's retro cool.
This looks so 50's retro cool.

Check out the tail light and turn signals..  very cool.
Check out the tail light and turn signals.. very cool.

And one more idea for the road:

like the dual exit pipes on the right, red tank and that seat is sweet.
like the dual exit pipes on the right, red tank and that seat is sweet.