Garage Night

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Jun

Tsunami booked in.

Categories: Kawasaki Z400 'Tsunami'

Tsunami is booked in for an inspection on Saturday. We spent last night fixing a few minor issues. We tested all the controls, and found the horn and brake light not working (front brake only). With those issues fixed, and another quick ride, we are confident that the bike will pass the inspection.

We also did some work on hurricane. Grinding back some sloppy welds, and sandblasting the rear wheel (which will end up on Tsunami). Both of these projects are still ongoing. The plan is to get Hurricane back on the road ASAP – and possibly take BOTH bike out for a ride!

May

Tsunami is ready for inspection!

By gazzafish Leave a Comment

Categories: Kawasaki Z400 'Tsunami'

We decided last night that we would do our very best to get Tsunami ready for inspection. We’ve been talking about it long enough and now it was time to DO IT. We had a long list of small items that needed doing and as usual, not everything went to plan..

1. The left side exhaust wasn;t sealing properly on to the engine so we undid all bolts, jiggled it around and re-bolted it up. No more leak. Item 1 – Tick.

2. The seat needed to be re-attached but after looking at it, we decided the seat off the spare bike was in far better condition so a quick seat swap was in order. Quick wipe with a wet rag and the seat was looking fine…

3. Next was the accelerator. It wasn’t returning back to idle if you let go of it. this is unsafe and after some inspection we decided to pull it apart and lube everything. NOT SO EASY. The damn screws holding the assembly together were stripped so we had to remove the one off the spare bike and replace the entire assembly including the cables. THIS of course meant removing the damn carbies AGAIN to remove and re-attach the new accelerator cables. I’m getting pretty tired of removeing these carbies…

4. Front indicator wasn’t working and this was Pauls job. As we also flipped the bars upside down, the indictor was actually fauling the brake master cylinder so we shortened the stem slightly and after some diagnostics, we fixed the wiring problem..

5. We decided to re-fit the side covers to make it look more ‘complete’ and decided to give the entire bike a quick wash…. The engine came up a treat..

The final product….

PS. For all the people who have been watching this from home, I just thought i’d recap on a decision we made many weeks ago. If you remember, we bought 2 X Z400’s at the same time and decided to make one them our ‘good’ bike and call is “Tsunami’. The other bike was to be the ‘parts’ bike. Well we are starting to think we might have got this the wrong way around. just to recap the parts we have taken from the ‘parts’ bike and fitted to our ‘good’ bike are :-

– Indicator

-Speedo

– Seat

– Accelerator

– Accelerator cables

– Gear selector

– Left engine case

– petrol tank

– Spark plugs

– carbies

– axle split pin

– front brake lever

– mirrors

and probably a dozen other items.. too late to change our mind now 🙂

Stay tuned for the outcome of our INSPECTION!!!!!

May

Progress on both Bikes

By crozz Leave a Comment

Categories: Kawasaki Z400 'Hurricane' and Kawasaki Z400 'Tsunami'

A productive night in the garage.

First up, we made some progress on the sub frame mods for hurricane. We did some more work on the 2 parts for the rear ‘hoop’, with a notch cut out for the tail light. These pieces were then welded to the frame. We then did a test fitting of the tail light with zip ties to see how it will look. Pretty happy with the result. Needs some more work with the grinder to neaten things up, and a plate welded in to mount the tail light and a bracket for the indicators.

Whilst that was going on, the carbies for tsunami were swapped with the ones from the parts bike. As a side note, it is interesting how many parts we are using off this bike. Perhaps we should have used this bike instead? Anyway, the carb jets were pretty well blocked, and after a few tries, the bike roared into life. More importantly, it now revved freely. At 11pm, we both took the bike for a spin around the local streets. It now has plenty of power and revs well. It has a few small jobs left to complete for club permit inspection which we will tackle next week.

Apr

Getting Tsunami ready – Part 3

By gazzafish Leave a Comment

Categories: Kawasaki Z400 'Tsunami' and Uncategorized

As most people will know, once you fit new grips to motorbike handlebars, its nearly impossible to remove them without damaging them so I decided to try clean up the switch block first so that it looked ncier on the bike.

Over 30 years of insects hitting the control block, takes it toll, here is what it looked like to start with (excuse the poor quality pics from my phone)..

We gave it a quick hit with the sand blaster it came up like this…

Then a sprayed them with some gloss black.

Then I painted over the wording in white paint. Once dry, i wiped the paint off with some petrol on a rag. What was left is the white paint in the recessed area of each letter. Final result…

Apr

Getting Tsunami ready – Part 2

By crozz Leave a Comment

Categories: Kawasaki Z400 'Tsunami'

We decided to keep working on getting Tsunami ready for a club permit inspection. There are lots of small jobs that need doing.

First up is the handle bars. We hit them with some etch primer first. This is meant to give a good bond to the metal (even with chrome) and give a nice base for top coat. After a couple of coats of that, it was a few coats of mat black. The result is very nice.

Next we tacked the exhaust. There were a few holes where the header was re-welded to the muffler. We first fix this by just welding up the holes, then painted the whole thing with high temp paint. The exhaust was then bolted back onto the bike. We also fitted a replacement clutch cover and gear shifter from the parts bike.

Before we fitting the bars, we tested the lights to make sure the wiring in the controls was ok. Everything worked except the headlight. After a bit of head scratching, we worked out the plug for the headlight globe had come undone. With that fixed, we went about refitting the bars, controls and levers.

We finally ran out of time (it was well after midnight) – but decided to fire up the bike and take it for a quick spin. It started (reluctantly) – but the engine was cutting out under higher revs. I think we have some more work do do. Maybe the carbs just need a good clean up. For club permit inspection we just need to fit the hand grips, and give the bike a really good cleanup.

Apr

Getting Z400 Tsunami ready

By crozz Leave a Comment

Categories: Kawasaki Z400 'Hurricane'

We took the rear wheel into the mechanic to get the tyre fitted. The result looks great, and we decided to fit the reconditioned wheel to Tsunami for club permit inspection.

When reconnecting the rear brakes, we were missing a few nuts and bolt. This prompted a much overdue garage tidyup. The missing nuts and bolts didn’t show up. Then we realised that the nuts and bolts were still attached to Hurricane – as that was the bike the wheel was originally off.

The last job we got done was to sand blast the handlebars for Tsunami. They are going to get painted black, and we need to roughen up the chrome plating as much as possible to give the paint something to stick to.

Mar

Seat & Wheel progress

By crozz 1 Comment

Categories: Cafe Racer seat fabrication and Kawasaki Z400 'Hurricane'

I reluctantly conceeded defeat in the garage night challenge. While the wheel did still need new wheel bearings, it was ready to be fitted with a tyre, so I paid up with a nice slab of James Squire Pale Ale. On to tonight’s tasks, and it was a mixed bag of jobs.

A friend Steve came over, and we wasted no time putting him to work. He welded the exhaust for tsunamic back together, and fitted it to the bike.

While he was doing that, I finished trimming the seat base with the dremmel. It was much more precise than using the angle grinder, and came up quite neat. It’ll still needs a final sand, but the seat is pretty much done. Here it is sitting on the bike.

Then we tackled the daunting tasking of working out how to fit the seat, and making up a rear ‘hoop’ for the subframe. Our pipe bender can only bend 7/8″ round tube, but can handle 1″ sqaure. The tube we need for the subframe is 1″ round. We first tried just using the square die in the bender, but that just flattened the tube out. We then decided to just bend it by hand around the square die. This produced a good result. We then started cutting out a notch for the tail light. We ran out of time to finish this .. so stay tuned for more progress.

Next the new wheel bearings were fitted to the wheel. Then the fun job of fitting the brand new tyre and tube to the wheel. We don’t have a fancy tyre fitting machine, just a pair of tyre levers. After much cursing and swearing, the tube got pinched and we have given up on fitting the tyre. We’ll take it to a mechanic next week to get it done.

Mar

New Email Notification Service.

By crozz Leave a Comment

Categories: Uncategorized

We have removed the “Feed Blitz” email subcription option. We had no way of knowing how many people are subscribed, which is important for us to know as we try and build garage night.

We have added a “Feed Burner” email subscription option in the top right hand corner. I know it’s a pain, but could previous subscribers please unsubscribe from Feed Blitz (instruction are on the bottom of the email), and re-subscribe via the new link.

Thanks …

Mar

Cafe Racer Seat Construction – Part 13

By crozz 2 Comments

Categories: Cafe Racer seat fabrication and Kawasaki Z400 'Hurricane'

It’s taken roughly 4 months – but the fibreglass cafe racer seat is done.

The seat popped out of the mold fairly easily. Probably about 5 minutes of effort. I then gave the edge a rough trim up with the angle grinder and washed off any PVA release agent. I’ll give it a final trim with a dremel once we work out how to fit the seat to the bike.

Over all, I’m wrapt with the result. No serious air bubbles, just a few rough spots that will sand up easily. The seat seems plenty strong enough. I might give it an official 75kg load rating. 🙂

Mar

Hurricane’s rear wheel build – Part 2 (of 2)

By gazzafish 2 Comments

Categories: Kawasaki Z400 'Hurricane'

Well Paul, I have to say, I like Boags, Stella, Miller, Budweiser, Corona…. Anything will do….

The pressure was definately on for the wheel to get finished. After clear coating everything and painting the sprocket, all the peices were ready. It was time for a re-spoke.

First count the newly opened packet of new spokes. 40 spokes, 40 end bits. Need to be careful because not all spokes are the same. Inner spokes are shaped different to outer spokes..

Next to losely fit all the spokes into the hub. This is a bit trickey because they always sit the wrong way and never really want to cooperate. You need to try get them all facing in the right direction. I was lucky that I had our third Z400 sitting next to me so i could check its wheel for reference…

Next, slowly connect the end bits. Dont do them tight and always try screw them on the same number of turns. I started with 3 turns each.. End up something like this

next was to ‘true’ up the rim. This involves tightening all the spokes evenly so the hub stays centered in the rim. If you tighten up one side before the other the hub will be off center and the rim will not run true..

I simply clamp the axle in the vice, and spin the wheel. Whenever it hit the WD40 can i tighten the top spokes, if it lifts off the can, i tighten the lower spokes. seemed to work pretty well..

Next, time to assemble the parts..

Not a bed result if you ask me…

So now all I have left to do is add in the new wheel bearings when they arrive and refit to Hurricane…

Thanks for the beer Paul 😉

Mar

Cafe Racer Seat Construction – Part 12

By crozz Leave a Comment

Categories: Cafe Racer seat fabrication and Kawasaki Z400 'Hurricane'

Fibreglass for Hurricane’s seat is DONE.

Well .. I need to let the resin cure, and then somehow separate the seat from the mold and trim it up. But the messy fibreglass part is finished. By the end of it, everything is sticky with resin, and picking up bit of lose fibreglass. I’ll be a week cleaning up the mess.

Mar

Cafe Racer Seat Construction – Part 11

By crozz Leave a Comment

Categories: Cafe Racer seat fabrication

First layer of fibreglass layed up for the seat. I’ll leave that to sure for a few hours, and hopefully lay down another 2-3 layers tonight. The seat should be ready to pull from the mold tomorrow. I’ve also picked up some steel in anticipation of building the round hoop for the subframe.

Mar

Cafe Racer Seat Construction – Part 10

By crozz Leave a Comment

Categories: Cafe Racer seat fabrication

Here is the seat mold all trimmed up and sanded. I just used an angle grinder with a metal cutting wheel. Probably a bit of over kill – but it did the job. Next I looked at the bubbles more closely. It looks like there are a few air bubble between the top coat, and the first layer of resin. I decided to clean them all up, and fill them. I got some top coat repair putty from supercheap, and fixed them all up.

Next it was 4 coats of mold release wax. A coat of PVA mold release, and a coat of top coat with white pigment.

Mar

Hurricane’s rear wheel build

By admin Leave a Comment

Categories: Kawasaki Z400 'Hurricane'

OK, Paul has laid down the challenge. I just HAVE to complete the rear wheel ready for tyre fitting BEFORE he produces a seat base for Hurricane. Paul already mentions he can taste the beer, well i’m thinking it willbe the beer that HE purchases..

I completed bead blasting all the alloy components for the hub and then did the hard work of polishing them up best i could woth metal polish. They came out prety nice. Then the task of giving them a coat of clear so they don’t oxidise and be easy to clean. they came out like this…

So all the alloy parts are done and have been clear coated. they are now hanging up drying.

Next the sprocket although in good condition looked very ugly and scratched up so I decided to also sand blast it (with granite this time as glass beads didnt even touch it) and got it nice and clean. Next a coat of hammer tone grey (because iots the first can i found) and will probably suit Hurricanes blue/grey look anyway. Quick paint..

Now, only thing left to do before i start the re-assembly, is to polish up the rim. I started with metal polish but that wasn’t really abrasive enough and eventually had to resort to some wet n dry sand paper. It’s only half done at this stage as I need a rest but by tonight, i think i will be ready to ‘assemble’..

and yes, i can also taste the beer already… 🙂

Mar

Cafe Racer Seat Construction – Part 9

By crozz 1 Comment

Categories: Cafe Racer seat fabrication

Success!

After leaving it overnight to cure – I headed out to check on the seat first thing in the morning. I gave the baseboard a bit of a flex, and the seat mold started lifting pretty easily. I unscrewed the baseboard from the seat plug, and with a few worrying cracks and rips, the board came free.

I then noticed that I hadn’t sealed properly all the way around the baseboard, so some resin had leaked between the two, creating a small lip. This was easily chipped off with a screw driver.

Then came the more difficult task of getting the plug out of the mold. The mold is faily rigid, and it is a perfect fit over the plug. I managed to push down on the flat part of the seat, and loosen the mold from the plug. After a bit more head scratching, I worked out that with a gentle tap with the timber handle of a hammer, and the mold appeared to come away from the plug.

I reapeated this all the way around, and then was able to flex the flat part of the seat enough to grab hold of the plug, and lever it out of the mold.

To say I’m excited is an understatement!

Now the bad. There are a few air bubble in the fibreglass. There is 1 small spot that will require some body filler before the actual seat is made. I don’t think it will cause any issues. Oh – and I also embedded the garage night banner logo into the seat mold. 🙂