Kawboy's restoration/conversion of a 1980 KZ13

I'm going to do daily posts of this project of mine so those who chose to follow along can and posts questions as we go along here. Besides, I've been posting some material in other relevant threads of things I've stumbled across but that's kind of hijacking someone else's thread and we can do better than that.
I'm also creating a Word Document of the Project and setting up the information into Chapters and subchapters to properly put all of the relevant material together and at the end I plan on giving KZQ a copy to post in the Blog section.

So, that being said, I have a few things on the go at the moment. Currently I'm working on reworking the tailpiece and rear tail light.I've picked up a GPZ900 tail light which I just love the look of and to date have modified the mounting bracket to fit the tail light. I also want to modify the tail piece to replicate the Honda CBX tail piece. Since the project started out with a B@ touring model, there's some mods required to the frame to mount the A2 tailpiece.






At this point I've modified the mounting brackets to install the A2 tailpiece and have started building up the plastic tail piece with spray foam and carving it to shape. Balsa wood has been cut and fit to create the wing and epoxy fibreglass cloth has been added to bond the balsa to the tailpiece. I wasn't happy with the shape on the side at the rear so I've added more low expansion spray foam to reshape. Eventually, I'll glass in the foam.

Today I went back to working on the carbs. I have the 5-6 float bowl off and initially air tested it and found the choke circuit supply tube in the float bowl was blocked. I've used throttle body cleaner before for cleaning varnish off of carbs and intake systems and I like using it because it's in an aerosol can with a spray tube and works great for small cleaning and checking ports are clear. To each their own I guess.
the carb bowl when it came off was spotless inside and after I squirted the cleaner down the choke feed tube within seconds it blew clear and while I was flipping it around I saw what looked like a jet in the bottom of the choke feed tube. sure enough there's a stepped orifice down there. First step is .062" and the second step I can't tell but it looks like it's about .025" - .030". Doesn't matter since I got it cleared out, but I was really surprised to find it in the bore.


Also, I used the throttle body cleaner to clean the "spotless" carb bowl and couldn't believe the residue in the inside



Just for giggles I got my Autosol polishing compound out and thought I'd give it a whirl on the outside of the carb bowl. 20 minutes and here's the result.



Don't know if any of you are familiar with this product. I like it for finishing off after I've used red rouge polishing compound. In this case I just went straight for the Autosol.
Anyway, that's it for today folks.

I stoked today. Had to go into Peterborough to get a few items and found the time to stop in at the graphics shop. 3 weeks ago I sent him a file of the CBX tank decal and the side cover panels. I told him that I was spoofing the KZ to look like the CBX so I wanted decals to match the CBX only with KZ identification.



This is the side cover decal for the CBX



This is the tank decal for the CBX



And the final decals that the graphics shop made up. I'm painting the bike up in the Candy Glory Red paint scheme with the black stripe down the top center of the tank and tailpiece and the side covers will be satin black. The decals get applied over the base coat/color coat then clear coated over top of the paint and decals.

OK, dumb question here, but are those letters on top of a white background? Can't really tell on the computer if I see a white background, or just the clear film of the decals. I sure hope there is a white background!

OK, John, I'll shut up!

(BTW, I like this idea!)

Tell me more about this process for having decals made. I collect and restore "antique" recumbent trikes, and, of course, they have decals that will be blasted away before powdercoating.

By graphics shop do you mean something like a sign shop?

I have two vinyl decal cutting machines, but that's just not the same. It's really difficult to cut out multiple images and then assemble them together to give multiple colors.

That's exactly what he did. cut out the gold and the red and assembled them. The white background is removed and the clear on top holds all the pieces together until the decal is applied then the clear top is removed.

I can't believe he did this work at such a fine level. He did all the computer work, cut the decals and assembled. I got 2 sets of each (4 side cover decals and 2 tank decals) $40.00 total out the door. Don't know what software he uses. I was impressed!!

a link to his site www.autographicsltd.com/

Kawboy - love the decals.
I have always liked the Candy Glory Red colour scheme of the CBX Z (I'm currently restoring one in that colour - turning into a bit of a challenge :S ), be great to see what a 1300 will look like "dressed" like that.

+1 on the Autosol: excellent for polishing up the carb bodies.

Cheers Tim