1981 Kawasaki GPz550 Cafe Build

For a quick peek at the new indicator lights in action, I've posted a short video here:

http://youtu.be/tJXCJFZVfJ4

Note that the turn signal indicators aren't flashing because the signals themselves are not currently in the circuit (e.g. insufficient resistance for the flasher unit). Unfortunately the green led turned out to be less bright than the others. But, in spite of that, and in spite of the fact that it all looks a bit rough, I think it turned out OK.
 
Thats badass
I passed on a GPZ a while back and have always regretted it.
Very cool bike.

WHats the blue light? High beams?
 
Pretty sweet with the indicator lights looks pretty good so far, I ended up filling mine in and then painting over to get rid of the holes left from the handler bar attachment.
 
c4f3 r4c3r said:
Thanks guys. It does me good to hear from others who have fond memories and experiences with their own GPzs. Interesting that it doesn't seem to be used that often as a cafe platform. Perhaps because it is from the 80s. But it still has that nice (mostly) straight frame top, tank to tail (at least the '81 does, I'm not sure how the frame is on the later years). I thought the tank was a bit fugly for a while and had plans on changing it out, but it has really grown on me. I'm partial to a tank that drops off quickly at the rear (a blunt rear) as opposed to one that gradually tapers to a point. Anyway, I like the way it is shaping up so far. This isn't going to be one of those immaculate restoration projects. I don't have a huge budget. It will probably always be somewhat of a rat bike. But I want to customize it to the style that I like.

GPZs were the factory race bikes in their day.
Cafe Racers are low dollar imitations of factory race bikes.
Look up who won World Super bike in 1983 and on what machine.
 
It was one of those weekends, 5 steps backwards for each step forward. I'm not sure if everyone's build project goes like that, or if it is just because I am a novice.

When I was mocking up the front end, I knew that I had a conflict between where the new headlight lived (I replaced the original square headlight and brackets) and the unit that joins the two front brake lines together. So I decided that I would bump the brake unit down a couple of inches and I built a custom plate to facilitate this (see pic below). Now, it wasn't anything special, just a square plate. But, but the time I'd measured it, cut it, sanded it, painted it with a couple coats of paint, and gone to Home Depot for some hardware, I already had too much time into it. When the paint dried I put everything back together. Crap! The bolts that held the plate on still interfered with the headlight shell (even though it is not a deep shell).

I then decided to build some bracket extensions, to lengthen the store-bought headlight brackets that I was using (see pic below). Back to Home Depot for some aluminum. And a bunch of cutting, drilling, grinding, sanding, and bolting later, I had extended brackets. I bolted everything together. Are you kidding me! Still there were problems. At this point I removed both my brake unit bracket and my headlight bracket extensions (now a big waste of time as I'm not using either) and decided to attach the brake unit in a different way. I zip tied it to the bottom of the lower tripple tree. Not elegant, but it works. And my bike sort of has that Road Warrior thing going on anyways, so non-elegant solutions look ok. So, I'm back to where I started from, after burning way too many hours.
 

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Nothing too exciting in this post, but it was a big commitment for me, cutting the frame. I've gone and cut off the last 6 inches or so. I'm still working out exactly what I am going to do there. Here are before and after shots.
 

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This last weekend I went back to working on the rear cowl. I posted a shot early in this thread that showed the rough shape (a rough cut sitting on the bike unattached). It showed my general approach, I've cut off the end of a matching gas tank (and removed the bottom), so that the lines should match nicely. I debated for some time about whether I should attach it to the frame or to the seat pan. Eventually I want to move my battery and other electronics up underneath. So I want the cowl to be easily removable when I need access. I've opted to use the original seat pan (modified) and attach the cowl to it, so that the whole thing swings open using the original latching mechanism.

Disclaimer: I'm not a welder. But I bought a cheap Harbor Freight flux core welder for this project. But I was having a terrible time laying down a bead on thin gauge sheet metal without burning through. My attempts looked like crap. So I enlisted the help of a friend to clean up some of my work and help me lay down a few more welds (thanks Joe!). Now my seat cowl has a front. Here are a couple of pics of the cowl with the new front welded on. I've done a bit of grinding and filling, but just a rough pass.
 

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goochwarmer said:
I tried and failed at what you pulled off!! Congrats!! That is badass and flows so well with the bike!!

Thanks goochwarmer, I appreciate the support, particularly from another Kawa 550 builder.
 
Love the tail section and the dash.
Great build.
I have a 81 KZ550 ltd I am working on right now too.
I love the GPZs, but a LTD is what I got.


Thanks,


Tim
 
County Fair said:
Love the tail section and the dash.
Great build.
I have a 81 KZ550 ltd I am working on right now too.
I love the GPZs, but a LTD is what I got.


Thanks,


Tim

Thanks Tim. I'll keep an eye on your build.
Cheers,
Todd
 
OK, so I haven't posted in a while. It isn't that I haven't done anything (though progress has been limited), I just haven't taken the time to document any of the work. After taking a couple of stabs at different kinds of tail light and license plate attachments, I came up with an approach that I'm reasonably happy with. The license plate doesn't flow quite right, but the tail light fits really well with the lines of the seat cowl. Here are some pics, the first is of the old license plate bracket as I modified it to fit, the next is of the tail light attachment without the cowl in place, and the last two are the tail light with the seat and rear cowl in place.
 

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Because I built the rear cowl out of an old gas tank, its width wasn't a custom fit to my seat pan. So, where the remaining portion of my seat pan meets the cowl, the cowl sticks out close to an inch on each side. I decided that I wanted to do something about this transition. And, I also decided that I wanted solid sides to my seat pan (vs. upholstery that wraps down around the sides). I had a strip of aluminum lying around that I cut into two pieces to trim out both sides of my pan. But I had two problems left:

1. How to bridge the transition space?
2. How to attach the aluminum to the steel pan?

The solution that I came up with for question 1 was to weld in some thin strips of steel in the transition space that would serve as backer for the aluminum strips. My solution to question 2 was initially going to be a metal epoxy, like JB weld, but it failed miserably. Perhaps it is because I didn't apply it to both parts before I put them together? I don't know. All I know is that it peeled right off of the aluminum (and I pre-sanded it). So I ended up attaching it with rivets. I only used about 3 per side (for aesthetic reasons). We'll see if it holds.

Here are a couple of pics. The first is of the steel backing I added and the second is with the aluminum strips in place.
 

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All is not well in Kawasaki land. That custom triple tree crown that folks seemed to like, the one with the hand poured lenses and indicator lights, it has met with a recent tragedy. All-in-all it had turned out so well. I had invested a considerable amount of time and effort into it, including multiple sand/grind and start over cycles. It was all done, all wired, all painted, and all buttoned up. The only thing left to do was bring out the torque wrench and set the torque on a few bolts. While torquing the bolt that clamps around the steerer tube, BAM, a chunk snapped right off. I don't know why. It isn't particularly close to any of the modifications that I made.

The metal feels very light, like aluminum, and is very porous. I think that it is some sort of pot metal. A welder friend, who I went to for advice, doesn't believe that it can be welded. So, I guess I'll be sourcing a new part and starting all over again. F*#k.
 

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Ahh dude that sucks balls. they are cast aluminum and sometimes just not that good of a casting. I love these GPz550's Vonyinzer had one fro a weekend and rode the crap out of it all over Mid-Ohio and PA and it was fast, light and cool. Too bad he traded it. Hopefully you can source a replacement without too much trouble
 
Everyone keeps asking me about the seat cushion. So I decided to take a stab at it. I considered sewing some ribs/scallops in the seat, and/or a transition between the top and sides. But, in the end I decided to keep it simple and just stretch a single piece of cloth, without features, as a cover. You know, just keeping it simple for my first upholstery attempt.

But I first needed to a way of attaching it to the seat pan. I don't want the style of cushion that goes down around the sides of the pan and wraps around the bottom. So, I needed some sort of upholstery backing that could sit on top of the pan. but the top of the pan is far from a flat surface. So I decided to glass one up, from fiberglass, to match the uneven pan surface. Here are a couple of pics of the end result both on and off of the seat pan:
 

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