Another vintage project

[m in sc]

good friend had this, about 13 years ago, got it running for him, it his business closed and it then sat for 4 years? , then gave it to me, which i then immediately gave it to another friend, david. this is where the pics start. I helped david with it for a few years, then his ex wife showed back up, but we had made good progress, so I bought it off him a few weeks ago and dragged it home last weekend to finally finish. 78 KZ650B.

Few mos later;
all the way down to frame, which is now powdercoated, changed ot KZ1000 mags & rear disc conversion, and all sorts of other little things including a stainless exhaust, etc. now Hopefully will have it all wrapped up over the winter. this will be the 3rd time i brought this bike back from the dead. lol.

'little bit' of carb work:

went thru motor:

current:

tanks sealed, seat is recovered by hand (local pro), and never brown, ever lol. going to be painted orange metallic. all sorts of other parts coming in now daily, too. should be able to at least fire it back up, again, tonight or tomorrow. new dyna-s ign already installed too.

 

[mcmd]

good friend had this, about 13 years ago, got it running for him, it his business closed and it then sat for 4 years? , then gave it to me, which i then immediately gave it to another friend, david. this is where the pics start. I helped david with it for a few years, then his ex wife showed back up, but we had made good progress, so I bought it off him a few weeks ago and dragged it home last weekend to finally finish. 78 KZ650B.

Few mos later;
all the way down to frame, which is now powdercoated, changed ot KZ1000 mags & rear disc conversion, and all sorts of other little things including a stainless exhaust, etc. now Hopefully will have it all wrapped up over the winter. this will be the 3rd time i brought this bike back from the dead. lol.

'little bit' of carb work:

went thru motor:

current:

tanks sealed, seat is recovered by hand (local pro), and never brown, ever lol. going to be painted orange metallic. all sorts of other parts coming in now daily, too. should be able to at least fire it back up, again, tonight or tomorrow. new dyna-s ign already installed too.

Wow, wish I had your mechanical skills!

 

[m in sc]

Wow, wish I had your mechanical skills!

Thanks, i appreciate the compliment. there's a downside... these projects just fall into my lap, i never look for one. then i feel as though i have to fix it. lol. But, this ones been fun and pretty easy overall. They aren't complicated, just a series of small jobs strung together.

I got it running last night, nothings timed or synchronized, everything was basically eyeballed. its the second run, because the 1st had a #2 exhaust leak that was pretty wicked, so had to remove that down tube and reseat the gasket.

 

[G19Tony]

Well done!

 

[Little_Thumper_Boy]

After my own heart! First "real" road bike was a 1978 KZ650SR. Bought brand new in '78 for $2,200 OTD (couldn't afford a Bonnie) very fast bike in its day! The SR came equipped with a special edition tank, candy apple red paint, dual front discs, rear disc, 2 into 1 crossovers, higher bars, and a few other kabobs. I'll never forget it!

 

[Shoot870p]

Great work for sure!

 

[m in sc]

bit more progress, the wiring is finally wrapped up for the most part. Just need to tie in the turn signals & make mounts.

kz running, charging

Wiring sorted on the 78

youtube.com

 

[m in sc]

got a few things wrapped up. this includes the wiring and all the turn-signals (new aluminum units), and retrofitting an H4 conversion lense into the sealed beam 7" bucket. Lots of fiddly things to do, but the structure is there. mostly waiting on parts for the most part but not really in a hurry so thats ok.

new coils and wires ^. also a new factory battery strap.

ignition relay added. this provides power directly to the soils and elec ignition, from the battery, instead of routing it through the whole harness. its triggered by the key and kill switch.

10A fuse as well, since the ign didnt have its own fuse in the main box.

yay everything works. i had to make th eturn signal brackets from scratch but easy stuff. gauge pods painted in wrinkle finish but flash cured in oven to give more spread-out texture

switching to dual discs, so went with kawasaki 'ex' (1st gen ninja) style calipers. i had to fab up and weld up the brackets to make them bolt on, but with 2 of these should stand on its nose if i want.

and some creative use of a dual threaded stainless stanoff and slight bending to get the fender brace around it.

just waiting on the caliper rebuild kits, lines, and 2nd rotor to wrap this part up.

 

[m in sc]

fabbed up a tail light and plate mount from scratch. most of this hardware was for initial fitment, its all been updated on final assembly.

the 2 m8 nuts are 'placeholder' spacers for the tail section mounting (no i am not the one that cut the frame and looped it)

painted it up with wrinkle paint after i smoothed a few things up

used the original factory grom tail light as it fits the tail shape pretty well.

end result:

 

[m in sc]

did a few rides on it pre-paint before x-mas, then, got it all painted up a few weeks ago and have been out riding it around doing shake down runs, prob 250 miles now. lots of metal flake in the paint, wrapped it up with a coat of 2k 2 part clear after last wet sand. base, 2 color coats w flake, 2 clear coats with flake, wet sanded, 2 coats 2k max. did this over xmas break at work in the warehouse.

yesterday, 75 mile ride between cold blasts when the wind died down. also finally got a chainguard for it, stainless.

 

[Shoot870p]

Super nice! Way to go, once again.

 

[m in sc]

thanks! side note: the mirrors are stock 22 supercub units, ordered from partzilla.

 

[eastema]

Wow! Great job.

 

[mcmd]

But wait, you forgot to put the beer can baffle back on!

 

[m in sc]

But wait, you forgot to put the beer can baffle back on!

actually....


Lineage!