75 kawasaki kz400d cafe conversion (australia)

[deepwaterimports]

crazy hay lol.

 Good progress mate, she should be nearly done when you finish the seat yeh?.

 I dropped the frame and swing arm off to a local performance bike shop to see if he could free the swing arm bolt and am yet to hear from him. I rounded the head of the bolt used heat wd40 40$ worth of penetrating oil and the mofo still didn’t move so he’s going to use excessive heat or worst case cut it off...... hmmmm not kewl. but new swing arm bolt is on its way, hit a hump at the moment with this swing arm and garage full of wood.(and now water thanks to the rain hahaha) 

[STRETCH-CB]

its still a way off being finished, am going to rebuild motor and de tab and paint frame, lighten up on the wiring, got a bit on my list still.

thats a bummer about your swing arm bolt, its always nthe way with old things, i like to think it is all worth it in the long run though.

i got a bit done this weekend, i painted all my parts.

bare metaled the tank.




then started to paint.




















will hopefully get them in some clear tomorrow, pretty happy with it so far, im glad to two differant greens work together, was a bit worried.

[MotorbikeBruno]

Very cool man. The different greens came out great.

[STRETCH-CB]

Very cool man. The different greens came out great.

thanks man, your bike is coming along quite nicely too, had a day off today so i started de tabbing and sorting out my electronics, will have to wait untill the weekend to finish though. here are some progress pics.

some of the tabs grinded


used a street sign to mock up a plate for underneath, was going to use it but its just a little to think to work with,


started to drop the gauges but i want to play around with a few things before i commit to a height.














finally my grips match the rest of the bike haha

[STRETCH-CB]

can anyone point me in the direction of mounting my seat in a way that it can be removed easily, im going to make a plate that goes in the bottom of the frame so i can fit my battery in and hide the wiring but i also want a compartment for spare fuses ect. i just know some guys have done it but there are alot of build on here. really aching to get the seat on so i can ride it around again, now that ive de tabbed it i cant ride it haha

[teazer]

Try to make that underseat plat dip down between the frame rails as a shallow box. Layout the electrics that you want under there and work out how deep it needs to be.  you need some air in there to keep things cool.  IT will probably not have to be below the frame rails though and painted black it will be invisible.

for teh seat mounts, grab a couple of the tabs you just ground off and weld 2 vertically towards the rear of the seat to bolt through the seat into those brackets.  At the front I'd either weld a 12mm wide piece of steel across the frame for the seat to rest on and bolt it through that, or I'd design a tongue arrangement just behind the tank for the seat to engage in.   

[six206]

My tail and seat pan are out of aluminum so I used aircraft fasteners (dzus fasteners) So I can take it off with a coin or the other end of a key if need to get to the battery or the fuses. There's a photo of them on the first page of my build thread.

[JustinLonghorn]

I really dig the paint, man.

[BriMed1983]

She polished up real nice, digging the green machine

[STRETCH-CB]

She polished up real nice, digging the green machine

thanks but it isnt polished, straight off the gun, cleared them at work,













thanks for the seat tips, will have a go at it this weekend, going to make some templates for the aliminium plate under the seat tonight, see if i can go and cut it up at a mates shed, see if i can be bothered after work though. haha

[neeko1979]

Omg. This bike is absolutely stunning!

[STRETCH-CB]

Omg. This bike is absolutely stunning!

thanks man, it's finally getting to the rewarding part. Will fit the seat and get my battery and all the electronics in position this weekend. I've come up with an idea how to mount the seat. Just have to search through Bunnings (kind of like home depot I guess) tonight to find the bits haha. On the lookout. Will post some more pics soon. Also I wrapped my headers last night and dropped the gauges down lower. Is looking good. It's going to be hard to strip it down again to paint the frame. I just want to ride it all day everyday.

[valvesprung]

Hell yeah that looks great!

[78kz]

Great job on the KZ.
 

[STRETCH-CB]

got a whole heap done this weekend, made all my plates for under the seat and pop riveted them in, got my battery in under the hump and all the wiring done, will take some photo's of all that tomorrow if i get the chance, came up with a way to mount my seat will show some pics of that too, here are just a couple of snaps i took.









its nice to finally be able to ride it again, cant wait until its finished.