Z1000a1 - not sure what I have or where to start

[chrisNI]

I know what you were referring to I was merely pointing out that the Kawasaki colour name frequently tell you bugger all about the actual original colour. See Z1B brown...

[Jay1969]

Well now that's always looked maroon to me, but I see your point

[csx355]

Good stuff - so
1. I now need to get the paint codes for the colour known as

'Close as to possible to Kawasaki Diamond Sky Blue Possibly Green' I will pm GarryL. / Warren if you are still reading. My wife had a V6 Mazda 323 that looked similar called Noble Green 11n Mica - but hey I'm colour blind anyway.

2. I'm much happier knowing that it is a UK market bike rather than a 're-import' (daft really as they are all imported) and with the original frame and engine numbers. I did not know that some were made in the US as opposed to Japanese made. Learning every day.

3. Better get paid up with the club - there are going to be loads of questions.

4. Powder coat the frame / swing arm and tin ware

5. Send off the chrome work

6. Start a new topic in projects

7. Decide wether to risk the engine strip, inspection and vapour blast myself and get someone to do the rebuild on the motor.

8. Strip the wheels and vapour blast the hubs at the same time as the motor.

Sounds like a plan.

[needaz1100r]

If you only intend to build one bike I would suggest you have enough spares there to largely self fund the build.

Even if that's not an issue, I find it fun and rewarding to do so, and you get to help others out with the spares you can pass on.

On a totally unconnected note, if you want to sell one of those rear calipers, let me know.

[csx355]

On a totally unconnected note, if you want to sell one of those rear calipers, let me know.

Hi Mark - thanks for the tip - I wouldn't really know what the stuff is worth but as soon as I sort out the calipers that I want to use I would be happy to sell what's left.

I'm sorting out the Powder coating, paint and chroming first. I'll see what state they are in and let you know.

[Steve Cooke]

As said a UK A1
The Left hand tank is correct but colour and stripes are wrong the top set of carbs are wrong they may be Suzuki, the Headlamp shell with two holes is wrong, the black indicators are wrong so are the shocks.

[swampy]

It's not much help but my Z900 had chromed footrest mounts and side stand too when I got hold of it.
I think it must have been a d'riguer mod back in the day, I didn't care for the side stand much. But kind of liked the foot rest hangers and didn't want to strip the bike of all its history and the story it has to tell, so the hangers got re-chromed and the side stand got powder coated. Maybe something for you to consider?

Any way good luck with the resto and I hope you end up with the bike you desire.

[csx355]

Cheers Guys - So I have a decent headlamp shell, a set of carbs and a fat ass tank, panel and ducktail to spray. I'm thinking of re-chroming the stand and peg mounts along with some other kit and will start stripping the forks and callipers this weekend ready for vapour blasting and powder along with the frame. The forks I will polish. My gut feeling is for a decent set of Hagon shocks unless someone suggests a more suitable alternative.

[kev edwards]

Top carbs 28mm bottom set 26mm, right tank thou ltd.

[Garry.L]

A gen Uk A1 (MUCH rarer) differs from it's A-typical Yank cousin by the following....

Lights. Side and flash/pass
Indicator lenses
Long rear Guard with reflector
Seat Strap
Twin disc as standard (thinner discs + larger master cylinder)
Rear grab rail (indicator mounts)
Rear light lens (no side reflector as US tail)
No frame reflectors
Panel Badges
Handbook

Personally if it's a home boy then it should be standard given how few of our bikes survived. Plenty of ex-Yanks about if you want to go down the nail-on route.

Original Z1000A1 tank with original stripes finished in factory original Diamond wine Red...

[csx355]

Cheers Garry - looks like I might have the correct tail lamp in that case as well

The lamp on the right has no rear reflectors, does that look original to you? Did you get my pm ref the paint codes?

[chrisNI]

The right hand one looks like the original and they had no reflector, it had moved to the mudguard. They were a bloody horrible light compared with the elegant Z1 unit though...

[Garry.L]

Did you get my pm ref the paint codes?

No Pm?.

Was always told Kawasaki never issued any codes hence the wide difference in shades of the exact same colour, however I have seen a paint code list for Triples so you'd think there must be some info on Zeds somewhere.

RS bike paints can supply you with a few litres of their take on Diamond wine Red, but how close to the original it is I couldn't say.

Failing the above you need to find a painter who's done the paint so knows the mix.

[warren3200gt]

Is Diamond wine red not a 2 colour process like the 650 version? With 650's you need to put silver coat down first then over spray a semi translucent red(green in my case), the more coats of red you put down the darker the finished colour.
There are no paint codes for 650's either so maybe they stopped doing them? The suppliers to RS paints are quite close to me so when I sprayed the (Green) 650 I took an original side panel in and matched to the INSIDE of that as it was unfaded. IIRC it was 2 coats of silver then 2 coats of translucent green to get the correct colour.

[chrisNI]

Is Diamond wine red not a 2 colour process like the 650 version? With 650's you need to put silver coat down first then over spray a semi translucent red(green in my case), the more coats of red you put down the darker the finished colour.
There are no paint codes for 650's either so maybe they stopped doing them? The suppliers to RS paints are quite close to me so when I sprayed the (Green) 650 I took an original side panel in and matched to the INSIDE of that as it was unfaded. IIRC it was 2 coats of silver then 2 coats of translucent green to get the correct colour.

Pretty much, but with candy even simply saying 2 coats doesn't nail it because it can depend on the speed of the pass, distance from the work and even the air temperature, that's why there were such big variations in panel colour and why it's impossible to match via a code, and to be honest I don't think they weren't that fussed about exact matches back then. Two people with exact same paint over the same base coat could come up with quite different shades if they weren't woking closely to a sample. Some modern car paints are a bit like this now, but it's better documented, skilled work, and some of the paint is well over £100 ltr...