Restoring a Kat

[Guest]

Hi guys, I've been restoring bikes for about 10 years. For the most part my focus has been on vintage Ducatis. Last year I did my first Japanese bike, a 77 KZ1000, and had a blast with it. So this year I decided to concentrate on a bike I lusted after when I was just a young guy; a 1982 GS1000sz Katana.

I started on it about 8 months ago and I'm about half way through now. I've been posting my progress over on the Ducati Forum and surprisingly there are quite a few guys there that have vintage Suzukis too. They've encouraged me to come over here and sign up, so, here I am.

Here's a pic of the Kawi from last year (I do still own it)



I've been nosin around the site and have to say I'm quite impressed with the amount of information and expertise here. It's a little intimidating.
Hope I don't put an axle in backwards or somethin...

[Dink]

Welcome to the GSR
This post is useless without Katana pictures.

[suzuki_dog]

Welcome to GSR, Mike. Glad you decided to come on over. I'm sure there will be interest in your Katana project.

[steve murdoch]

Hi ya, bulldog.
Wild or mild Kats have been done here so i am sure you will find all the info you need.
The Kawi pic did not show up for me. Pics of your restored Dukes would be good as well.

[cowboyup3371]

Welcome. Unfortunately your picture from the Ducati forum won't show up here as it requires a log in to view it. Can you repost it from something like Photobucket or similar site?

[flynbulldog]

OK, let's try this a different way. I don't use photo hosting sites so I'll have to see if I can upload here....

The Kaw:
025.jpg

[bccap]

Yup. That works and that's a puurrdy Kaw......

[flynbulldog]

Let see if this shows up from a different site...

I can see it, can you guys see it?
This is my 74 Ducati 750 special that I built a few years ago.

[flynbulldog]

I tried upload a few other pics from my computer but they were all just a bit too big - they had already been resized about as small as I felt I could go and still retain some decent quality.
Looks like this site won't host anything large enough to be nice. I don't have other pics of my bikes out there in other places to pull from - sorry

[bccap]

Most of us use Photobucket but it sounds like you don't want to use a photo hosting site. In any case there's nothing wrong with that last photo you posted. Beautiful bike and restoration. If you've got more, fire them up for us......

[flynbulldog]

These are pics of my 65 Ducati 250 race bike. the pics are from another forum let's see if they are visible?

Before and after:

[Charlie G]

Nice! Those little Duc's have such beautiful engines. Nice work. Look forward to seeing more. Welcome.

Charlie G

[trevor]

Wow...I love that KZ!!! And the Ducs are very cool too. That Kawa (77?) is so beautiful though...those lines, oh my. So so pretty. More pics of it? Please..

[flynbulldog]

023 s.jpg

Here's another pic of the 77 KZ1000 - first year for the 1000cc after the Z1 900 model was faded out. I restored this bike in about 3 months because parts are so easy to get.
Most of my restorations take much longer because it's so hard to get stuff for these old bikes.

For the KZ and the Kat I'm trying to get as close as possible (for me) to original or to look like it could be original.
This Kaw has a front end off a same year LTD which had more chrome and there are a few other parts that aren't 100% correct but very close.
It's as close as I could get without breaking the bank. The Kat will be the same way, I was hoping to do a 100% resto but the finishes are so hard to replicate that it's not turning out 100%


These pictures are too small and unclear - If I want to do a resto thread here I'm going to have to figure out a better way to host the pics...

[Jedz123]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]38002[/ATTACH]

Here's another pic of the 77 KZ1000 - first year for the 1000cc after the Z1 900 model was faded out. I restored this bike in about 3 months because parts are so easy to get.
Most of my restorations take much longer because it's so hard to get stuff for these old bikes.

For the KZ and the Kat I'm trying to get as close as possible (for me) to original or to look like it could be original.
This Kaw has a front end off a same year LTD which had more chrome and there are a few other parts that aren't 100% correct but very close.
It's as close as I could get without breaking the bank. The Kat will be the same way, I was hoping to do a 100% resto but the finishes are so hard to replicate that it's not turning out 100%


These pictures are too small and unclear - If I want to do a resto thread here I'm going to have to figure out a better way to host the pics...

What a phenomenal job!!!! I love the big block KZ look. Man so gorgeous . Makes my rebuilds look like barn finds... Well thats fine by me I suppose...

Dog if you have a Facebook, upload your photos there then URL copy the address to here. I personally cant stand photo bucket. That's what I do.

FYI look forward to seeing a Suzuki restore!