TOPIC:

Still hassling with the shipping company (they said they would send me some info before my guy in Idaho could drop it off at the dock. Nothing yet. They're getting a call Monday). In the meantime, I'm doing my best to get some parts I'm going to need.

Found a decent set of right controls on Ebay. A bit scuffed, but I think I can refurb them pretty easily. Got my eye on a pair of headlight brackets on Ebay as well. The auction is still a few days from finishing. I'm aware of the reproduction ears from that website in Germany, but it'd be nice to not have to wait to get them shipped over. In any case, my max bid is the same as what a repro set would cost anyway. We'll see if I can get it for that.

IT'S FINALLY HERE!

Overall? I'm quite happy. Guess we'll start at the top.

THE GOOD:

Holy MOLEY is she clean. Not mint, mind you, but dang near. What I would consider an acceptable patina. There are TINY flaws in the paintwork, and I'm probably going to get it clear-coated (if only to prevent further damage), but other hard to find parts (the airbox sidecovers, actual sidecovers) look amazing. The ONLY flaws I can find on the exhaust pipes (a $1000 item in good shape) is a tiny bit of chrome flaking on one muffler. The header chrome is amazing, and the steel parts in between aren't rusted at all.

THE BAD:

She doesn't run yet. The battery was too dead to really try anything, and while I could've hooked a charger up to it... well, we'll get to that. It's also not 100% yet. There's a few parts I have to get in order to strip off the fairing, and they need cleaned up. It's also got an 80 mph speedometer (1980 special). I've got my eye on a 160 mph speedo on Ebay, but who knows how expensive it's going to end up (they usually go for big money). I also found a bunch of green stuff on the front of the motor, some type of sealer. Not sure why. There's also a small dent in the gas tank, but I can probably take it somewhere to get it popped out. It's not bad at all.

THE UGLY:

Oh my. I'm fairly certain the PO thought he was in electrical engineer. There is electrical tape and wire nuts EVERYWHERE. Just- look at this.

That's THREE wires going into a ground that shouldn't exist. Into a battery that's, if you'll notice, TOO SMALL for the area it's in. There's an extra wire off the positive terminal, and two extra off what I'm pretty sure is the starter solenoid. Also, look closely at the far right fuse. Not only is that COPPER TUBING, but it's SOLDERED IN!!!!! WHYYYYYYY??????

Here's my right controls. You may notice that the wires go... nowhere. Of the two switches on the fairing, the one is for the radio, while the other is my actual stater switch. Which I have to turn off when the motor starts so it stops the starter motor.

In addition to the main wiring harness, there are TWO looms of extra wires going up front from the battery. I'm... still not sure why. I wanted to take the fairing off today, but all of my time was spend removing the bags and cleaning up the wires back there.

This is how far I got today. Hopefully I can get the fairing off in a day or two, and clean out some of this rats nest of... junk. I'd like to get it running too, see how much of a basket case I'm dealing with. Despite that, I'm still stoked. Just OWNING a KZ1300 is, to me, special.

It's gonna need a name. I'm thinking the "Kiwi". It's unique, rare, and completely ridiculous. (Plus, it is a decent abbreviation for "Kawasaki", so I like it.)

I'm envious man!

(love the naked wing too)

Both bikes look great.

T.

I have a spare right hand control, looks the same as yours, if worst comes to worst and the one you got is rubbish, let me know and i'll see if I can post them to you from down here in Australia, no good to me as they aren't from a 79 aussie 13, cheers

BUT:

It's yours now -enjoy it

Holger