Craigslist, Ebay and other Resources

Since I don't have access to a Kawasaki dealership locally that carries 30 year old parts, I am forced to look elsewhere for parts and accessories for my project.
Now, thankfully for the Internet, everyone is just an arms reach away.
Utilizing Craigslist is my favorite way of shopping for these things. I am in Eastern Iowa and there aren't always the things I need really close by but when they are, I can drive a few miles and get that really cool part that I found that day.

Such an occurance just happened for me. SADDLE BAGS - GRAIGLIST.ORG I found a posting from 3 days ago on a set of KAWASAKI saddlebags listed in Dubuque. I actually didn't find the posting, Kody Wisner of Wisner Cycles found it. I have been working on my bike in his shop with his guidance. (This doesn't happen for everyone so don't expect it.) Kody was looking for some parts for one of his bikes when he stumbled upon these bags.
All it took was a phone call and an email and I had connected with this guy Thomas Z. I'll call him Tommy Z for now.

Tommy had gotten these bags in an estate sale when he purchased a really cool 1979 Honda Twinstar that was in about mint condition. Well, they were Kawasaki bags, they won't work on the Twinstar so he was putting them up for sale.
What is really nice about Graiglist.org is that you can actually meet and talk to the seller, go and see the product before you actually purchase it. I got to meet Tommy Z. and his son last night after work. What a great couple of guys.
Tom has an affinity for Mopeds, and no I don't mean the Honda Express from yesteryear, I mean cool stuff like the SACHS from Germany, Bridgestones, PUCH from Czech and such. These are really cool mopeds. He even has 3 completely restored Honda 125's. He did them all in his basement. Way cool.
From the way he tells it, he got one a few years ago, restored it and started riding it and he caught the bug. The restoration bug. Now he has done about 8-10 mopeds since he started and is having fun with it. I hope he starts a blog on his projects.
Anyway, back to the resources. By meeting this guy, I could get the whole story behind these bags, I got the chance to look at the bags and check tem over well before I even had to buy them. That is how I would prefer to buy things.
Now that I have them, I got them back only to discover that they don't fit exactly. No big deal, they are close enough that all I need to do is drill a hole in the lower leg of the bracket and put an extenstion on the frame to come out to the top forward mounting point.
I'll keep this updated as I go along as well.

As for the bags themselves, they are great. 2 maroon bags with Chrome crash guards and nearly spotless mounting brackets. Someone at some point had started to sand the bags but I'll get better pics of that tonight. These bags also have the Amber turn signals built into the bag. I think that is great.
I'll do some more research on these bags and figure out exactly how I am going to mount them and then I'll get that posted.
Until then, keep checking back to see the progress as the next thing to do is the Valve cover, clean it, blast it and paint it.

One last thing to say, I think I have made a new Friend in Tommy Z.

Saddle Bags

Well, I was going to have to resort to using the Ammo cans for saddle bags but I just found a great deal on Craigslist. Found a really cool guy in Dubuque that is selling me a set of Kawi bags with lights. I am going tomorrow night to pick them up... I think I am getting a pretty good deal, as you all know that have been following this, it has been tough coming up with money for this stuff. Everyone has been so generous to me on this bike and I really appreciate it. I'll show the bags when I get them.

Blasted Heads

Yesterday I was able to spend abou 5 hours out in the shop. I was able to get the gaskets all scraped off of the cylinders and get it blasted, Here is a photo of the finished blasting job.
Now all I have to do is tape it all off and spray paint it with High temp Engine Paint that I got from J&P Cycles. Part number 910-636 CLICK HERE .

Then I was able to get the head flattened from the blasting job I did on that. That was a whole lot easier than I thought it was going to be, this is the stone that Kody gave me and a can of WD40. It was as easy as wax on, wax off. Run it for awhile, clean it off and re-lube and rub some more. The seat where the gasket goes is now nice and shiny.

Here is a shot of me working on cleaning up those gaskets. That is definately a tedious job.

Kody's dad grabbed the camera and got yet another shot of me working on the bike.

Cool new Chair

Here is a chair that I am going to be getting soon.
This will be great for short or long trips. Expecially for fishing.
It's the Blue Max Saddle
CLICK HERE

Me Working

Ok, so cleaning this thing up is harder than I thought it would be but in the end it will be worth it.
Kody's Dad, Jerry, grabbed my camera up and got a shot of me working on my machine. This will be one for the scrap book, Me, working on a motorcycle. And my own at that.

Removing the Cylinders.

Ok, so tonight I had an hour in the shop, I finished up on some little spots of sandblasting the heads and got that all finished up. Then it was time to remove the cylinders. WOW,easy to do but how can there be so much sand and dirt surrounding the bolts down that far.


It looked like they had submerssed the engine in sand.
THIS IS BAD. Or so I thought, actually, it was just around the Head Bolts, that sand and dirt didn't actually make it inside the engine.



Anyway, now I have the cylinders soaking just as I did the head, I'll take a couple of days to scrub on them and get all of the grease and ---- off of them, then I'll blast them as well. Once they are blasted, I'll break out the Engine paint and turn them completely black.
After the black paint, I intend on sanding down the fins to reveal the aluminum underneath of the paint but just on the tips of the fins, this should be really pretty when it is done.
Anyway, I had a Boy Scout meeting tonight so that is all I had time for. Like I said, I'll get the photos of the cylinders removed tomorrow and show the photos.
As I go though all of that process, I'll take some photos and get them up here. When I actually start putting things together, I'll get out the video camera.

Wisner Cycles

Here is the new logo for Wisner Cycles.