Once upon a time a very young Loopy fell in love with the Kwak Z650's :inlove:, a love which for some reason has never faded over the years*.. I know it's going to be a totally different bike from the ones I have now, but I've always loved them and the way they look :O
So a couple of years ago a Z came up on ebay and I bought it....
:hmm: Well, I say a Z...
More like a rolling chassis and a pile of parts :crap: Mind you, I'm not complaining though as I only paid £60 for her..
Project Z ground to a halt before she even really got off the ground due to severe lack of funds, not having a job really didn't help!! But now I have a job and some spare cash and so project Z is a go :dance:
At the time of purchase she looked like this :crap: (poor bike :crying
![Land vehicle Vehicle Motor vehicle Spoke Bicycle wheel]()
Over the next year she was disassembled more and now the frame looks like this
![Bicycle part Bicycle frame Bicycle wheel Vehicle Bicycle drivetrain part]()
and everything else was piled up in the corner of the garage..
While sorting through the engine parts last year I discovered that one of the pistons had been damaged at some point :crap: and unless I wanted to pay an arm and a leg (plus a kidney or 2) for a brand new piston, had to wait to see if I could find summat which wasn't going to result in me selling off body parts to fund a replacement..
This weekend whilst browsing ebay I found one, and it hasn't cost me bodily parts to buy it.. It's now winging it's way to me in the post as we speak..
I also found a stainless engine bolt kit and that's been ordered and paid for and on the way to me as well now
I got a complete gasket set last year so thats sitting here waiting for the other bits to arrive and then I can really get cracking on the engine :thumb:
Since I bought the original 'bike**' I've also purchased a replacement swingarm and rear wheel which just happened to have the rear disc brake assembly (drum brakes were ever so slightly naff at their job).. I thought I had got a good deal on the wheel and swingarm, but the seller didn't come out of it too well.. She severely under-estimated on the postage costs and so it cost her way more that she thought it would to mail it to me from Ireland....
A replacement tank was also purchased as the old one was every so slightly rusty and dented.. I've managed to get the original Kawasaki tank badges off the old one, so they will go on the replacement tank :thumb:
The frame had about 20 years of built up crud on it so I'm gonna get that cleaned up and am looking at powder coating vs painting the frame at the moment....
More to follow
*SSB thinks I'm bonkers!! "It will be slow", "It will handle like sh!te", "You won't like it after a sports bike", etc, etc......
** I use the term loosely!!
