This is the penultimate episode of this series exploring the restoration of Kawasaki’s 1976 flagship superbike – hopefully it’s soon test ride time!
This month I’ll kick off with fitting the badges to side panels, which can be a tricky job if you aren’t aware of a few trade secrets. In my experience most 47-year-old side panels are well and truly past their best. Even if they haven’t cracked, as many have, and the mounting lugs haven’t dropped off, the chances are that they will have been resprayed more than once and there will be a huge build-up of paint.
It’s no good trying to strip the layers off with paint stripper, because if chemical is man enough to melt the paint, it will also trash the plastic withThis is not only a massive ball-ache, but the chances are that you will lose the shape of the panel, unless you are hugely skilled with limitless free time. Unless you are an incurable rivet counter obsessing with originality, the solution is to use pattern side panels.
