82 gpz 750... its a secret...

[MotorbikeBruno]

Jebus, you find a way to shine everything up so quickly and actually take pics....(not that I mind, I'm a self proclaimed pic whore)

[Mr.E]

Oh trust me, these parts didn't get shined THAT quick, lol. Im just getting around to posting up what we've been getting done in the last month. That said, making.g the forks look like that only takes a couple good hours. And polishing is what we do at our day jobs!

[MotorbikeBruno]

I'd have a lot more shiny bits if I did polishing at my day job.....looks like I need to find a polisher that we "need" to have here eh? haha.  Keep it up sir. 

[Mr.E]

Here's a shot of the tank, after stripping.

 

After that, the rust on the inside needed to be removed, so it got wrapped in a few blankets, trashbag, foam pad, wedged into a dryer with towels, and ran a couple cycles with sand inside and it worked pretty good. Not something wed want to do a lot, but just this once is ok

 

[Mr.E]

Here's one of the wheels, also stripped. I believe some polishing is in order for this...

Here are the clipons. We ordered a couple sets a while back, one for my bike and one for this one. Unfortunately, we measured wrong on the fork diameter for the Kawasaki, and these are 1mm to small. Good thing we know how to fix that...

 

Next up will be some serious frame work. Possibly tonight or tomorrow at the latest.

[MotorbikeBruno]

Nice.  Are those the overseas clip-ons? And I do not envy you to polishing the wheels....as Kawasaki decided to add some nice ridges in with the casting!....which sucked.  Looking forward to more updates, this thing is coming along nicely!

[john83]

This is an awesome build and even better because it's a labor of love. I love those 80s sport bike, I always see a cafe hidden under there.

[Mr.E]

Nice.  Are those the overseas clip-ons? And I do not envy you to polishing the wheels....as Kawasaki decided to add some nice ridges in with the casting!....which sucked.  Looking forward to more updates, this thing is coming along nicely!

Yes, they are the cheap chinese (ahem...Taiwanese....clipons ) that are all over ebay. Not so crazy that the bar and mount are joined by a brass pin, so we may Americanize that aspect as well. As for the wheels, yes that will be a job. Ialone will be tackling them soon, and he is possibly working ob the frame hoop this weekend.

[Mr.E]

Ok, im not overly happy with the frame pics, but they will do. I should add that after blending welds, I smoothed with jb weld in a few spots to fill in before powdercoating. DO NOT DO THAT!! I've learned thru knowledgeable member here that jb weld can gas during oven time, and that is very bad for finish. So I ground it all back out...not fun. Instead, brazing is the way to go..

So first things first, I cut the main tabs off earlier in the build and tossed them in a pile on the ground. Then started blending the welds from those tabs smooth with various grinders and such.

 

Basic tools used during this portion..

Here I am starting to mark out areas of weld that I think are excessively high and/or ugly. But hey, these were mass produced in a factory and then covered up with bodywork, so they were able to get away without trimming much.

 

Starting to smooth them out.

 

[Mr.E]

Progress! These couple of pics are actually for a frame hoop I bent for my next project.  But we bent one right after the other on the same table so one looks like the other...

 

 

 

So there it is. It will get trimmed up and fitted soon.

[MotorbikeBruno]

Not a bad loop man.  I like your work table...I've got to make me a nice one like that!

[Mr.E]

Ha I wish that table were mine. Its our tear down bench at work. I know for a fact that it will easily hold 15 tons. Yup, id love to have it in my garage, it would make a great frame layout bench. More to follow soon, maybe tomorrow between dirty diapers and home remodeling!

[Mr.E]

Hungry baby prevails! I am still up, and therefore adding progress shots...

Seat hoop is trimmed up, and installed. The idea here is to make it removable so a pan for the electronic bits can also come out on their own tray as well.

 

Clipons are set on in a mock up

 

And the tank position is finally where we want it too. Now we just need to reseal it, line it and figure out how to hold it on..

 

[jeffreyhardy]

+5 points for putting your tank in the dryer. That's dedication.

[MotorbikeBruno]

This thing is looking great...any progress E?