Kawboy's restoration/conversion of a 1980 KZ13

This is probably the longest drawn out topic on the site.
McBoney stirred up some thoughts with his post about starting a new rebuild and making it a cafe racer. It's a personal thing and we all respect his desire to do what he wants. He had mentioned his intention for the rear end and that reminded me of what I was doing to my rear end. Going though my pictures, I realized that I didin't take any after doing some faring work on the tailpiece and thought I might share.
My intent all along has been to spoof the KZ to look like a watercooled CBX and with thtat in mind, I had work to do on the tailpiece. The model A tailpiece had a balsa wood fin installed and epoxied in with fiberglass cloth. It's been fitted around a GPZ900 tail light. I also wasn't fond of the "toolbox" in the stock KZ1300 so I added a floor to the tailpiece with balsa and epoxy glass. Now it's cavernous compared to the toolbox.
As far as strength, I can push down on the balsa wood fin and lift the front wheel off of the ground so if your considering this type of work, the balsa is really easy to work with and once glassed up is really tough.

I know how you guys love pics

That's got the makings of a very attractive tailpiece, Kawboy. And it's nice to see the inside of your workshop - I'm sure your mighty intellect has enabled some wondrous engineering achievements to take place in there.

biltonjim wrote: That's got the makings of a very attractive tailpiece, Kawboy. And it's nice to see the inside of your workshop - I'm sure your mighty intellect has enabled some wondrous engineering achievements to take place in there.[/quote
Yea, there isn't a man in the subdivision that wouldn't want this garage. 1300 sq ft, insulated, heated, 2 post 12000 lb car hoist, polished concrete floors, and aboiut $9000 in cabinetry. T5 Fluorescent lighting that's as bright as daylight. The only thing that's missing is the time to play in it. I swear I got more done when I was a working stiff.

Nice garage - I have "Man Cave" envy here John -
Good point you make about good quality lighting: really frustrates the hell out of me in poor light when scrabbling around or under a bike and you cant see what your doing: I guess the reality in my case of having 60 year old eyes. Was recently working on my current project (H1 Kwak) and it felt it was more like progress by "braille"

Cheers Tim

I was going to start a new post "Garage Lighting" but something has happened to the site and I have a PM in to Bill for resolution. But just as a sneek preview, here's a pic of the house with the garage doors open, lights on in the middle of the night.

I really like that tailpiece Kawboy, great work!

And indeed your garage is fabulous, I wouldn't mind being banished there (with my oven!).

This is what I have to work in.... barely 40 cm between the dismantled engine and the car, and a workbench of 0.5m square... cosy though!

Paul