kevs zxr400

[kwackkev22]

ok here goes ive had this bike since 2005 when i passed my test ive done this build in my head loads of times ive just never had any where to do this kind of thing but ive now got a 10ft by 13ft shed so here goes.

This is my zxr400 1999 on a t reg its done around 11000 miles some of witch in the winter months this has shown on a lot of parts of the bike ill let the pictures do the talking. my plan is to have every thing thats rusty sand blasted and powder coated this including the frame and swing arm ive had a price for this all ready 150 pounds i dont think this is too bad at all .And iam going to find out if its possable to get the worthy nuts and bolts cleand and zinc coated the wheels will get powder coated kawasaki green they are different colors at the minute. well heres the pictures progress will be a bit slow but iam not in any massive rush to get it back on the road with in the next 4 months any way

heres how manky the alloy is and scratched from paddock stands



the shock spring will be powder coated and alloy cleaned up

the worst parts on the bike the horn gave up will be replaced

the parts ready for the powder coaters minus a few bits

the part of no return

or this point

engine ready for a good clean need to find them plastic brushes for drills any one ?


the rocker cover gaskets and spark plug channel gaskets need replacing oil seaping out down the drainage holes next to exhaust ports

heres the swing arm (bottom) iam going to tidy the splatter from welding up before it gets powder coated

thats it for now it will be a few weeks till ive got any major up dates ive got plenty of bits to tidy up but working 12hr shifts can make it hard ill have to wait till my next 7 off to make any more major progress
thnks for looking kev

[RedexRobB]

Nice one!

Engine doesnt look too dirty really, mine was covered in 12 years of oil and road crap. Plenty of degreaser and kitchen towel/rags will get rid of the worst, then what i did was get some wire wool, a tube of Autosol + a few hours had engine looking pretty damn good! Hope you got plenty of pictures of the wiring loom and labeled things up.

Check out my build if you ever need any inspiration. http://www.bikepics.com/members/RobB/93zxr400/ got a few pics there, and just as many in build thread.

Hopefully in a years time ill be starting a new projet myself! Keep us posted!

[kwackkev22]

oh rob how do you get the bearings out of that rear suspension link the one with 3 links and the rear caliper carrier do you have to get nasty :smt013

[Tyrant]

Good luck with it!
I'm hoping to do exactly the same with mine. No prior experience of anything quite so drastic, so your build thread will be very helpful.

[masterofinsanity]

nice! keep the pics coming...... £150 for the frame and swinger is bloosy expensive mate, i paid £75 for my frame/swinger & subframe.

[RedexRobB]

oh rob how do you get the bearings out of that rear suspension link the one with 3 links and the rear caliper carrier do you have to get nasty :smt013

I take it you mean the triangle shaped bit with three holes? One for the dog bones, one for the rear shock and one for the frame to attach to?

If so then yeah nasty is good. iirc theres one hole thats got two bearings in it thats probably going to be the bitch. I used an old socket thats the same diameter as the bearings, placed it in and whack the f*** out of it. If you think thats difficult wait till you get to the swingarm bearings! I took mine to my local dealer who did it for me so theres that option if you really do get stuck. It costs extra but for the lack of hassle sometimes its worth it.

Also take note that those needle roller bearings are only available from kawasaki and are about £10 a go, and i think you need 6 or 7 of them all in all. If you change the head set bearing they are 70 quid for the set too, £35 each for the top and bottom, and they arent the same part number either so check the microfiche to see which one is which according to the part number on the packet they come in, oh, and these too are only available from kawasaki. The only bearings i could find elsewhere were the wheel bearings, the sprocket carrier bearing and theres a roller ball bearing in the swingarm too. Luckily these are about 3 or 4 quid each, tops. Oh and another thing, the bearing cups are easily removed with a long, thin drift. I left them in place for powder coating so that the recess they sit in didnt get powder coated. Then when it came to removal, simply cut the coating round the edge with a stanley blade so the powder coating doesnt break when you knock the cup through.

The brake caliper one is probably the same, i dont think i changed mine as forgot there was a bearing in there, but a good whack with an old socket and hammer will do it.

Another thing, installation is alot easier! Do the same as removal and use an old socket to drift them into place, take your time and dont use the inner of the bearing to drift it in place, only the outer! Take lots of pictures before you do anything just so you dont forget and have something for reference later on, that goes for the entire bike not just the bearings. If you havent got it already, you will need molybdenum disulfide grease for the swingarm bearings and for a few other bits too, it says in the manual which lubricant you need to use where on the exploded diagrams.

Have fun mate cos that what its all about!

p.s. as for powder coating mine was a £120 back hander job, shoulda cost me 180, but that did include every single bracket on the bike

[kwackkev22]

nice! keep the pics coming...... £150 for the frame and swinger is bloosy expensive mate, i paid £75 for my frame/swinger & subframe.

thats for all the brackets as well told him there was around 30 bits and bobs that want doing lol its that pic of robs all layed out that made me want to do mine like that.
oh thanks for all the info rob looks like ill have to put a few quid to one side for the bearings

[masterofinsanity]

thats probably not too bad then.look forward to pics.

[kwackkev22]

ok so ive been busy in between work cleaning and polishing only just had some time off work since striping the bike. ive been cleaning the engine and other parts of the bike. well ill let the pics do most of the talking here goes

heres one of my new toys its the heavy duty one so its great for polishing

been cleaning the engine using jizer and a steam cleaner
from this

to this

theres still a bit to do on the engine heres the starter and coolant pipe cleaned up as well

heres another one of the engine minus the all the gunk around the sprocket

today ive been polishing heres the bottom yoke with the casting line i used a file to get rid of this line and polished up

and heres a few afters


i polished the top of the fork legs came up good heres a before

and heres both after


thermostat came up nice was brown

and heres one of the down pipes ones polished one isnt

and this is what scared the crap out of me on friday the bulb blew up i was very jumpy for the rest of the day

well thats it for now hope your enjoying it as much as iam :thumb:

[lewisdale]

engine looks lovely, lovvin the workbench too lol, gotta be better than mine though lol

[Scott221]

It may be too late. But make sure you have bolts in every hole on the things that are going for coating. Powdercoat is extremely thick stuff and is an absolute giraffe to get out of bolt holes!

[RedexRobB]

Its not too bad if you have a tap and die set.

Looking good kev, especially the engine! Just a sham you wont be able to see it! Otherwise peace of mind that its clean!

[masterofinsanity]

nice pics, loving the yoke!! bet the engine dont stay that clean for long.

[zxr400baby]

Hi
It looks nice a clean to me in any way..I have now put a black cover over the back seat which was blue and got of ebay and black visor that i got 20.00 from a bike breakers in cardiff..my black and red zxr baby bike now looks real cool ..

[kwackkev22]

ok so ive been busy again i wanted to do some thing interesting and different this time so ive been cleaning nuts bolts and various fittings this includes rust removal and shot blasting ive been using bilt hamber detox c witch is great stuff to use and its possable to heat up to 90 hence the next picture i did mix around 3 litres in a buket but with the cold weather the detox c was cold and it would take days to remove the rust and as a bonus it strips old zinc plating off parts too so i poured some of the mix in an old sause pan and warmed it up just below boiling point and put a few bits in at a time heres the pictures.
heres the set up

heres what the stuff looks like before going in the detox c


and heres the afters just 30 min in the hot bath of detox c note the dark apprence thats where the zinc plating has been striped


the ones that could be cleaned on the wire bursh where but the harder shape ones where shot blasted with my home made booth the black coating that detox c leaves is a pain to shift
heres the booth best i could come up with but hey it worked

i drilled a hole and slid the nozzle and put the 18mm bolt back on the other side to hold it in place
heres what it managed to blast like i was happy with the results
the one on the left has been blasted

heres one more just so you get the idea

so why all this cleaning and shot blasting well here the new bit of kit i was going to send my bits of to be plated but i just didnt want to run the risk of the platers losing bits so i got this bzp brite zinc plater of a local bloke thats been making these kits for years it cost me 70 pounds its not that hard to use just mix the 4 acids and zinc in water. set the electrics up and thats it really it only put 1.5 volts thought and i havent needed to alter the power at all even on as many as 5 big items the only advice i could give you is shiney in shiney out.
heres the plater any way

heres an after side buy side

heres a before the prep is the hard part every thing has to be clean

iam very happy with this peace if to bad its geting painted lifted out for pic

few more bits in action

heres the afters you will see the cheap tacky alloy polish well this just gets rid of any white marks that form when the part has dried out these parts where plated over 2 days oh yeah note the silver 1p coin i plated that just to show you the effect


day 2 plating



well thats it this time ive done a few other bits but didnt get any afters ill save them till next time sorry about the large pics
kev :thumb: