1990 KZ1000 police cafe build

What up everybody! This is my first cafe racer build so I thought I'd post it up here as I go along. Hopefully you all can help me along, especially those of you who have done this before. Anyway, I got a 1990 Kawasaki KZP for $900 from a guy in Southern Cali. Most of the police fairings were already gone (good for me!) so I don't have quite so much to junk. Ir runs alright, might have some xmsn problems, but we shall see.

I built a bike lift, more of a table really, and proceeded to tear down the bike. Got rid of a lot of fluff, more to go tomorrow. Here are some pics of today's work.

Not a bike that you see modded a lot, but it actually is a really good base. My buddy built one over the last few months and it's a ton of fun.

Here's his.

Wow....who would have thought.

I'm going to a police auction....

Oddly enough I was looking at one of these just the other day wondering if someone had (or should I) turned one into a Cafe Racer. I think it's a great idea. Signed on!!

Some people have been having problems seeing the photos I posted, so here are some with a lower resolution. Hopefully they work.

That engine is sexy.

StinkBug said:

Not a bike that you see modded a lot, but it actually is a really good base. My buddy built one over the last few months and it's a ton of fun.

Here's his.

Click to expand...

I like that exhaust stack, do you know what kind it is?

Effing love KZ's so sign me up for this one. Interesting how your buddy dealt with the less than cafe'-able rear frame area, well done on his part. I wish you good luck, as those KZ-Police models are zippy as hell!

A guy over on 2 Stroke World is building a badass one, its in the 4 stroke forum. heres a pic.

The exhaust on my buddies bike was custom built from some car mufflers he found on ebay. They were originally mounted to each other, but he cut them apart and made em fit the bike.

It's really funny seeing his bike in person, cause it totally looks like a normal cafe bike, except bigger. When I park my CB750 next to his it looks like a miniature. The KZ is just bigger in every way, but it does have a LOT of power and is really fun to ride.

Continued with the teardown today. Identified and tagged all the wiring that actually does something, then yanked out that pesky wiring harness. I'm thinking about just redoing one with the necessary bits since half of the stock one is for lights and sirens. Or I might just streamline the one I have... I'm going to pull the motor tomorrow and the front end, then see about cleaning it all up. The easy part is almost done.

Also I broke my "heavy duty" chain break tool.

Finished tearing it all apart today. Got the engine out, stripped it down to its bare frame and pressure washed everything. It helped a little. I cut off a few brackets and mounting points that are no longer needed, and welded in a plate on the sub frame. My plan is to mount the battery and as much of the wiring stuff as will fit there, then cover it with the rear bump. I made the mold for that, so we'll see how it turns out once I fiberglass it.

Didn't get much done today as every local place that sells fiberglass materials was closed. Just cut off more brackets and ground things off. Once I get the rear bump done I can start working backwards from there, installing the electrical components and making room for everything. I also ordered a set of clip ons today, cuz I just don't feel like making some.

StinkBug said:

Not a bike that you see modded a lot, but it actually is a really good base. My buddy built one over the last few months and it's a ton of fun.

Here's his.

Click to expand...

That seat's making me hungry. Turkish bread, anyone?

Did you check for rear time clearance with the shocks bottomed out before welding that plate in? You may he omitted (hard to tell from the angle of that pic) but it looks likely that you'll have some issues.

Good stuff. I love the P models.

OK, so it seems that a bunch of people still can't see my photos, so I'm going to try putting the IMG code instead of attachments. Here's my latest progress:

Here's me making the rear bump out of fiberglass. This was my first attempt ever at fiberglass, so if you do this regularly, don't yell at me too much for how bad it looks, haha. First thing I did was figure out a pattern out of an old bedsheet.


And here's the cut out fiberglass cloth. I did a few layers of this loose cloth, which turned out to be a nightmare, and one finish layer of woven cloth.


Here it is after the first layer went on. I know I know, it looks pretty nasty, lots of air bubbles in there. Turns out I bit off more than I could chew. trying to do one piece. Once it dried I cut out the biggest bubbles and patched them, then sanded it all somewhat smooth and did the second layer in several pieces. Not ideal, but it worked fairly well.


Here it is on the bike after the second layer went on. I did a lot of sanding, and it looks much better than it did. Despite the rough look in the picture, it was actually pretty smooth.


This is where I'm at now: I just put the last layer on. This was the piece of woven cloth, and I tell you what it made all the difference in the world. The resin just brushes on nicely, you can adjust it, it lays smooth, ect. Once this dries I should be able to get away with minor sanding, and a little bit of body filler here and there.

Hey, it may not be perfect but it feels good to accomplish it yourself eh?

VonYinzer said:

Did you check for rear time clearance with the shocks bottomed out before welding that plate in? You may he omitted (hard to tell from the angle of that pic) but it looks likely that you'll have some issues.

Click to expand...

Ya, I checked out the clearance. That picture with the straps was me ratcheting it down to make sure it would clear. I got about 3/4" clearance.

Didn't make a whole lot of progress today. I spent way too much time running around trying to get the materials I needed. What I did do was finish the bondo fill on the rear bump. I didn't get too much of a warm and fuzzy with the strength of the fiberglass, so I decided to mount a metal seat pan in there as well. It's strong and all, but I like to over-engineer things. Here are some pics:

Here is the bondo before I sanded it down.


Making a pattern for the seat pan.






I actually cut those little wings off, I didn't really have the right tool to bend them enough, and when I reinforce everything from uderneath, they wont be needed anyway.