I have a 76' kz400 that I've been working on for the past few months, and I have a few questions, so I figured I would start a thread to get everyone's inputs since I saw a few other members here have kz.
So it started out with a good deal found on craigslist for $250 with a title. I wasnt really sure what I was gonna do with it when I bought it, but I quickly realized that I wanted to do a old school bobber style but on a cheap budget. This is the ugly thing that I started with.
started to strip it the first day that I got it.
got it down to just the essentials
at that point I was debating on what to do next. I considered just cutting the top tubs off and welding straight bars down to the sway bar to make a quick hardtail. So i decided to actually cut it up and make a real hardtail. Since I don't have access to a tubing bender or a mill to make the axle plates, I decided to spend the couple extra dollars and get the TC Bros hardtail kit.
The kit saved me a bunch of time as a first time builder as it took a couple variables out of my problem. I cleaned all the old tabs and bars off the main frame section
I don't have a jig, so I used the stock swing arm to keep everything square, I tack welded a piece of flat stock to the back of the original axle plates and c-clamped the new ones behind it.
After I got the lower bars welded on, I took out the swing arm as it was sturdy enough to keep everything aligned. I got a sportster tank mounted so I knew where about I wanted the seat. I wanted the seat as low as possible, so I kinda guesstimated where I wanted the top tubes to be.
here you can see how I cut the end of the tubes to be notched out for the axle plates, I'm not sure if this is the proper way to do it, but it seemed like the best way. I used a bandsaw to cut these out.
So it started out with a good deal found on craigslist for $250 with a title. I wasnt really sure what I was gonna do with it when I bought it, but I quickly realized that I wanted to do a old school bobber style but on a cheap budget. This is the ugly thing that I started with.
started to strip it the first day that I got it.
got it down to just the essentials
at that point I was debating on what to do next. I considered just cutting the top tubs off and welding straight bars down to the sway bar to make a quick hardtail. So i decided to actually cut it up and make a real hardtail. Since I don't have access to a tubing bender or a mill to make the axle plates, I decided to spend the couple extra dollars and get the TC Bros hardtail kit.
The kit saved me a bunch of time as a first time builder as it took a couple variables out of my problem. I cleaned all the old tabs and bars off the main frame section
I don't have a jig, so I used the stock swing arm to keep everything square, I tack welded a piece of flat stock to the back of the original axle plates and c-clamped the new ones behind it.
After I got the lower bars welded on, I took out the swing arm as it was sturdy enough to keep everything aligned. I got a sportster tank mounted so I knew where about I wanted the seat. I wanted the seat as low as possible, so I kinda guesstimated where I wanted the top tubes to be.
here you can see how I cut the end of the tubes to be notched out for the axle plates, I'm not sure if this is the proper way to do it, but it seemed like the best way. I used a bandsaw to cut these out.
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