1/8 Kawasaki Z900A4 kitbash

[Lee Chambers]

Hi all, happy to say I have pretty much bashed this bike into a Z900A4, Heller made a great job of the details of the Z1000 kit, just some of the engineering let it down. For example, the rear grab rail was perfect but it was split into two halves and the join seam was in the centre over the tail unit that would've been tricky to hide with a chrome finish. 

 

The 750 kit had a fully moulded rail, but where it bolted to the side of the bike, it was missing the indicator mounts, so I cut off the one piece rail and I glued it to the Heller kit side rails, this worked out pretty good in the end. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the photos, which include a blue 1975 Z1B which I have painted and my friend fully restored, this was taken yesterday in his back garden. "Let the good times roll" as the Kawasaki slogan went.

 

Finally, you can see the work in progress of my build in the link below.

 

 

Edited July 11, 2021 by Lee Chambers

[Marco F.]

Wow!!! Fantastic work!😍

Never thought the original could be shrinked like this 😀😁😂😎

 

[cngaero]

That's drop dead gorgeous Lee.

[Lee Chambers]

2 hours ago, cngaero said:

That's drop dead gorgeous Lee.

Thanks !

4 hours ago, Marco F. said:

Wow!!! Fantastic work!😍

Never thought the original could be shrinked like this 😀😁😂😎

 

Cheers !

[KonaDawg]

Perfect. Just looks real.

[Uncle Pete]

The last one looks fake....

 

But, seriously, I'd have taken the model for the real thing if you hadn't told me it was a model.  I'm waiting on postie bringing my first bike (I'm a plane nut) and was looking for inspiration... You certainly delivered.

[Alpha Delta 210]

Incredible realism (especially in the last image.)

[Lee Chambers]

1 hour ago, Alpha Delta 210 said:

Incredible realism (especially in the last image.)

Well the last image is a real full size 1975 Z1B that i painted for a customer/friend who restores these bikes for his hobby,i mix my own paint for the candy super blue,as no one seems to get the correct looking shade to my eyes and modern car paint just does'nt come close.

[Lee Chambers]

3 hours ago, KonaDawg said:

Perfect. Just looks real.

Thanks,the blue Z1B is real !

1 hour ago, Uncle Pete said:

The last one looks fake....

 

But, seriously, I'd have taken the model for the real thing if you hadn't told me it was a model.  I'm waiting on postie bringing my first bike (I'm a plane nut) and was looking for inspiration... You certainly delivered.

I look forward to seeing your bike build,best of luck.

[Uncle Pete]

2 hours ago, Lee Chambers said:

I look forward to seeing your bike build,best of luck.

Cheers, mate, Postie just dropped it off.  It's the cheap Revell chopper but I'd like to extend the front forks a bit more.  Any ideas for a bloke with primitive skills and a tool kit consisting of not much more than a pen knife with two blades, a corkscrew and a thing for taking stones out of horses' hooves?  I'd like to go with the parallelogram front forks but that wold mean scratching them up out of Wrigley's Doublemint and duct tape.  It wouldn't be hard but for the chrome.  I was eyeballing a couple of kebab skewers, actually, that looked the right diameter for the front side of the parallelogram but I'd still have to dream up the main forks themselves.  Also looking at the two alternative exhausts and wondering if I could marry them into one mondo upswept system.... A casual look has said it seems doable and if a thing's worth doing it's worth overdoing!

[Lee Chambers]

1 hour ago, Uncle Pete said:

Cheers, mate, Postie just dropped it off.  It's the cheap Revell chopper but I'd like to extend the front forks a bit more.  Any ideas for a bloke with primitive skills and a tool kit consisting of not much more than a pen knife with two blades, a corkscrew and a thing for taking stones out of horses' hooves?  I'd like to go with the parallelogram front forks but that wold mean scratching them up out of Wrigley's Doublemint and duct tape.  It wouldn't be hard but for the chrome.  I was eyeballing a couple of kebab skewers, actually, that looked the right diameter for the front side of the parallelogram but I'd still have to dream up the main forks themselves.  Also looking at the two alternative exhausts and wondering if I could marry them into one mondo upswept system.... A casual look has said it seems doable and if a thing's worth doing it's worth overdoing!

Problem solving comes with the hobby,i tend to use cocktail sticks to strengthen the front fork tubes but kebab skewers may do it,i use Molotow chrome liquid,brushed on heavy it self levels and looks like chrome but takes a week to dry sometimes.

[Uncle Pete]

32 minutes ago, Lee Chambers said:

Problem solving comes with the hobby

I think I may have the answer.  The sprues themselves are the same diameter as the forks.  Plus, there's two front ends so I'm going to have a crack at dismantling one set of forks and replacing the top ends with sprue.  Saves me messing about with re-chroming but thanks for the tip... I'lll have a look for that Molotov gear for future reference.  Not sure if I should be going full Orange County with delusions of Paul Tuetel with my first bike, though!

[Lee Chambers]

1 hour ago, Uncle Pete said:

I think I may have the answer.  The sprues themselves are the same diameter as the forks.  Plus, there's two front ends so I'm going to have a crack at dismantling one set of forks and replacing the top ends with sprue.  Saves me messing about with re-chroming but thanks for the tip... I'lll have a look for that Molotov gear for future reference.  Not sure if I should be going full Orange County with delusions of Paul Tuetel with my first bike, though!

I liked his spider web creation a few years back,guess i will have to build something a bit "out there" one of these days!

[Uncle Pete]

1 hour ago, Lee Chambers said:

"out there"

If your out there stuff is anything like your in there stuff, I reckon you'll be delivering a pretty sharp chopper!  Didn't mean to hijack your thread.... Sorry about that.

[Lee Chambers]

15 minutes ago, Uncle Pete said:

If your out there stuff is anything like your in there stuff, I reckon you'll be delivering a pretty sharp chopper!  Didn't mean to hijack your thread.... Sorry about that.

No problem Pete.

[Brandy]

Beautiful! I have a huge soft spot for the early Kwakers. I worked for a dealership in the early 80's and we had some lovely examples come in and some not so, including one 900a I remember that had been chopped and the weld on the spine of the frame had broken. The owner had ridden it in and not even noticed!

 Somewhere I still have an original sales brochure showing the entire line of bikes from the late '70's.......

 Had 2 Z550D-1s myself, the original GPZ, great bike!

 

Ian

[Old Motorcycle rider]

As a kid  i remember that gay living in the same building had a z1000 .I was almost hypnotized by that bike and i used to stand outside where it was parked and look at it .The owner rode it like cracy sometimes doing burnouts and big wheelies up and down the road outside.Also several other bikes was parked around my negbourhod where i lived. i guess thats was when i got my interest for motorcycles

This is  fantastic work ! really like the wethering you done and attention to details !  the paintwork is superb.How did you manage to get the color so spot on? what color is it ? did you mix it youself ?.I have buildt the 1/8 heller Kawasaki z1000 and remember i had trouble to get the right color match.