Restoration of a Gpz 750 R1 (1982)

[Philippe]

Hi Garry
Thanks for the compliment!
To be honest, I don't know for sure. In some leaflets to promote the Gpz750 R1, it's mentioned that it has the special crinckle finish on the camshaft cover, in others it's not mentioned at all. I'm going to give it a smooth black finish and a clear varnish on top to give it a glossy appearance like the rest of the engine covers.
I'm going to do this because I don't have the special crinckle paint and I don't intend to buy it just for one camshaft cover.
GrtZ
Philippe

[Garry.L]

Hi Garry
Thanks for the compliment!
To be honest, I don't know for sure. In some leaflets to promote the Gpz750 R1, it's mentioned that it has the special crinckle finish on the camshaft cover, in others it's not mentioned at all. I'm going to give it a smooth black finish and a clear varnish on top to give it a glossy appearance like the rest of the engine covers.
I'm going to do this because I don't have the special crinckle paint and I don't intend to buy it just for one camshaft cover.
GrtZ
Philippe

I managed to get a textured type paint for my turbo but to be honest it's no where near as pronounced as the original crinkle finish.... thankfully most of it's hidden

[Philippe]

Hi Garry

wow that's a nice, clean bike!
Yes, the crinckle paint is hardly visible so I'll just give it a coat of "normal" heat resistant paint and varnish.
GrtZ
Philippe

[Philippe]

Hello guys

a little update
the last week I've spent a lot of time on preparing parts for painting.
The frame is painted!

the freshly painted frame

The majority of the frame parts is painted too.

The engine cases are painted and received a layer of gloss varnish.

the engine cases

The front tyre is mounted and the main loom of the electricity is repaired.
New piston rings and a drive chain and sprockets are ordered.
All the bolts, screws and nuts went to the galvaniser to become black and grey again.
The fork stanchions and the brake caliper pistons went away to be hard chromed again.
In addition to the main loom, I started to clean the fuel level sender...

This is how it looks on the inside. Rust, rust, rust...let's hope I can repair it.
That looks promising for the inside of the fuel tank...wait and see what that'll be.
GrtZ
Philippe

[DavidZ1R]

Very nice work as ever Phillipe, I had some zinc work done last week for my z400 twin project ( I know) for rusty 40 year old stuff, came back well.

[DavidZ1R]

Very nice work as ever Phillipe, I had some zinc work done last week for my z400 twin project ( I know) for rusty 40 year old stuff, came back well.

[Philippe]

Hi men

I have some progress: see for yourselves.
The fuel level gauge is cleaned and repaired and it's working!

The beginning of the assembly of the frame parts has started.
New conical bearings are installed in the headstock and the lower triple tree is in place.

I couldn't resist to mount a few interior frame parts and started with the battery box and a few electrical components.

The rear part of the frame, where the taillight is attached, was also mounted.

I couldn't continue because I had to wait for a lot of bolts, nuts and frame parts to be rezingued black and gray.
On tuesday I received a phone call to get the good news: the parts would be ready on wednesday and as promised, they were ready!
This is the result of the good work!

As you can see there are a lot of parts I don't need for the bike, those will be used for a next project ( a Z1000A2 during the autumn)

Today, the assembly of the engine can start!
Perhaps more news this evening...
GrtZ
Philippe

[r3sc]

Hi Philippe,

Great work as usual!

Have all the black plated items been zinc plated and then passivated black or is it a different finish altogether?

[Bill P]

Enjoying this Philippe Top Job

[Philippe]

Hi guys

I'm back!
Thanks for the replies.
@r3sc: I don't know how the guy does it but it's a shiny black finish and it protects against rust.
@Bill P: thanks, I hope I don't disappoint you with the work of today...

So, this morning I started the assembly of the engine.
A few weeks ago I ordered a new camshaft chain and a new primary chain. New oil seals were ordered too.

the new chains

I started by putting the new chains and new oil seals on the cranckshaft.
The assembly was placed in the upper part of the cranckcase.

the first step

The gear box was also placed in the upper cranckcase

the gear box

The gear selector with the three forks was secured in the lower cranckcase.

the gear selector

After that it was time to join the two halves together.

the joined cranckcase halves

Then I had to put the primairy axle in the cranckcase.
In that axle is the starter clutch embedded so I replaced the starter clutch to make sure it worked as it is supposed to. The eight rubber dampers of the primairy axle were replaced too.
Guys, putting the primairy axle in place is a pain in the ... for me. I'm not used to it but after some trial and error I succeeded and the oil pump could be mounted too. After that it was time to mount the oil pan and the new oil filter.

The clutch basket was installed, the engine was put upright...
and this was the result of a morning of assembling engine parts

After a bit of eating and resting the fun continued.
It was now time to mount new piston rings on the pistons.

new piston rings

The pistons were attached to the cranckshaft with new piston pen clips (remember what I found a few weeks ago when I opened the engine).
It became time to mount the cylinders over the pistons...but before that I had to install new camchain guides

the new camchain guides

Since the Kawasaki piston ring compressor is only suited for the Z900 and the Z1000, I mounted the cylinders by hand...first pistons 2 and 3 and then pistons 1 and 4...it took me a few hours of work and it costs me a few broken fingernails but the pistons are in!
At 4 P.M. I mounted the engine in the frame and the hardest job was done.

So far, so good.
Perhaps more news within a few days.
GrtZ
Philippe

[Philippe]

Hello men

some more news!
This morning I decided to do some work on the frame. The engine can wait...
I started with mounting the swingarm in the frame. Before I could do that I had to connect the drive chain because I always use "endless" drive chains.
The drive chain was placed over the swingarm and then both were mounted.

Now I had to assemble the rear shocks. they were taken apart, painted and some parts were zingued black. They consist of quite a lot of parts, see for yourselves.

the parts of the rear shock

I managed to assemble them by pressing the springs together and then mount the rest of the parts. If you do this yourself and it's the first time ever, take care! NEVER put your fingers between the upper parts of the shocks and the spring, always use a tool! If, for one reason or another, the tool you use to compress the spring would fail, you can only loose a tool, not a finger...
Anyway, this is the result.

the mounted rear shocks

And then it was time to mount the grab handle. Now it would become clear if the measurements I took when welding the frame were correct. And yes, they were correct, the grab handle mounted without any problem!

the mounted grab handle

I decided to mount the rear wheel too. Before that I had to put a tyre on it. It went smooth and after 15 minutes the tubeless tyre was mounted.

the rear wheel with a new BT46 tyre

The rear disc brake rotor was mounted afterwards. If you do it before you put a tyre on the wheel, there's a chance that you cause damage to the brake rotor.

Before mounting the rear wheel, I mounted the inner rear mudguard, it's easier to do it before the wheel is in place.

the inner rear mudguard

A new sprocket was mounted on the sprocket carrier and then the rear wheel spindle was mounted with all the nescessary parts (drive chain adjusters, rear brake caliper holder and spacers).

the rear caliper holder

The drive chain was placed over the sprocket and the whole assembly was put in place.
The two small stoppers were placed at the end of the swing arm and secured with a bolt.

Then I decided to mount the rear outer mudguard. If you do this before you mount the rear wheel, it's in the way and you have to maneuvre the rear wheel around it.

And when all these things were done I had to get back to the engine.
The front sprocket had to be mounted...
That's for the next episode.
Perhaps within a few days.
GrtZ
Philippe

[moizeau]

Looking lovely Philippe. Have you got a tyre machine or do you use levers to fit the tyres?

[Philippe]

Hello men

the next episode:
@ moizeau: Pete, I don't have a machine, it's all by hand and I use 3 of these levers to fit the tyres

So, the last few days I've been making the attachments for the fairing...they are OK but need some refinement, more about them the next time.
Today a parcell arrived and in it were shims to adjust the valve clearance.
When looking at the camshafts I discovered that a previous owner switched the camshafts
The exhaust camshaft was used for the intake and vice versa. They even changed the sprockets
So I had to change the sprockets and remeasure the valve clearance. It turned out that two valves had no clearance at all.
I didn't have the correct shims so I had to wait.
In the mean time I mounted the cylinderhead, the starter engine and some more items of the frame.

The tail light and the rear indicators are mounted

The air filter box,with new intake rubbers

The front sprocket cover

And yes I mounted a special washer behind the front sprocket nut before installing the cover!

The camshaft cover was mounted after setting the valve timing.
A new upper camchain guide was mounted too.

This is the result of todays work

Perhaps some more news about the fairing tomorrow

As you can see it's mounted temporarely.
I'm waiting for the fork stanchions to be hardchromed and I used some old stanchions with the same diameter in order to mount the headlight brackets and the headlight.

That's all for today folks!
GrtZ
Philippe

[chrisNI]

Good work Philippe

[CLASSICAL]

What an absolute star you are Philippe!
Great work again