Ok, in an effort to show that there is more than one way to skin the proverbial pussy when it comes to restorations I thought I'd show you one I did on a Z900A4 a few years ago. For those of you not used to classics the 3 most important things are originality, originality and originality, as far too many classics have now been over-restored with over blingy chrome copy pattern parts rather than using or sourcing OE stuff... With the above in mind I bought this 1976 Z900A4 as a fresh Yank import a couple of years ago and set about doing a sympathetic restoration. A 'Sympathetic' restoration is one where the bike is restored back to as close to original as poss but retaining a certain patena consumate with age and miles. Anyway, this is how she landed direct from the States, a very original untouched, unmolesed A4... Looks Ok in the above pic but look a little closer, and..... After a little elbow grease and a re-paint by my fave painter to exact KHI colours, this is how she looked and is very close to how she would have left the factory in 76, ie not 'too' shiney and bling..... Richie (the painter) also managed to mask and save the original info decals on the tail piece Engine was left untouched as I wasn't about to split the casings on a virgin original 22k mile motor that once recommisioned ran perfectly. As you can see theres nothing too heavy or involved in the above just a light resto to bring a 36 year old bike back to 95% original without looking like an over-restored show pony thats never ridden.. Bike was sold to a local-ish Kawasaki Z1 collector not long after it was finished..
nice mate i see you got rid of the K on the side panels did you remove it or get new badges? cue the badgeees we do need no stinkeeen badgeees :lmfao: :lmfao:
'Z' badges were/are one of the few compromises I make with Zeds - there are so few UK models about (long since rotted away or crashed) that most are now yank imports but when the bike came from Kawasaki Heavy Industries in 72 it was known as the 'Z1 not the KZ1...
very nice. i prefer that to the "polished the shit out of everything" look. just looks like a propper bike. not a show piece. something that could actually be used.
yeah mate i know they were Z1s what i meant was did you cut the k off the badge yourself or did you buy new bages without the k
Interestingly one of the original Mad Max big Zeds was on Aussie ebay last year - seller claimed is was the one used in the film but couldn't supply proof... This Reps quite nice.... http://kawasakiz1.com/The-Goose.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwacyd9cqhQ&feature=player_embedded
