Custom Fighters - Custom Streetfighter Motorcycle Forum banner

First time project 2009 Kawasaki Ninja 650R

36K views 88 replies 19 participants last post by  spdu4ia 
#1 ·
Today I purchased a salvage title 2009 Kawasaki Ninja 650R. I have owned 2 bikes before this but I've never really done much maintenance besides oil and spark plug change. So this project is going to be a bit of a undertaking for me.

I have an idea in mind of a cafe/streetfighter style that I'd like to take it, but first things first I need to take care of the basics and get it street legal.

The bike is a salvage title. It seems to be in mostly decent shape. The headlight is gone but the wiring is still all intact, the bulbs and wiring for the front turn signals are still intact as well, but all the plastic is gone. One mirror is still intact, but the glass is gone from the other, but the frame is still good. There is a crack in the metal piece below the handle bars that the gauges are mounted to. The radiator is shot and seems to be leaking slightly and the chain seems to need a good cleaning.

So all that aside, the bike seems to start up and run great! (Until I find more things hidden that need work)

I'm not really sure what I got myself into, but I'm excited to see where it leads me!

First things first I think I need to get a new radiator. I've found them on ebay for around $160, but if anyone has some other ideas I'm all for advice.

Like I said earlier, I'm a complete novice to all of this so I appreciate any advice and support I receive.
Thanks in advance
 

Attachments

See less See more
5
#82 ·
The sanding and all the prep work are the hardest part. It's FAR from perfect, but for my first paint job, I'm pretty happy.
I'm thinking I'll ride it through the summer, and then next winter I'll strip it all down, and then REALLY get meticulous. Another nice thing about doing it all myself, I can just keep changing it up every year!

I agree, I need to bust out the Dremmel tool and round out those curves on the flyscreen a bit more. I'm also debating if I should keep it black, or maybe paint the fly screen white as well.

As for the paint, the more I look at it, the more I'm considering leaving it matte and skipping the clear coat. Especially if I'm going to put the bedliner stripe I think the gloss and the matte of the bedliner would kinda clash. Plus for my first paint job, I'm really not confident that i could make a clear coat look nice.... Or will it look pretty bad without it? I kinda like the matte white look, but it's been kinda rainy so I haven't had a chance to see what it looks like in the sun.

I ran a test strip of bedliner on a scrap piece of plastic I had around and I'm pretty happy with the results. I only used plain old blue painters tape for the lines, and it didn't bleed or tear.


One more thing is the grab handle covers. I'm debating if I should just leave them all white, or if I should fill in the 650R with black.

Decisions decisions.........
 
#85 ·
Well I decided to spray the clear on top, and it IMMEDIATELY caused wrinkles. Thankfully I only sprayed it on the front fender.

Not sure if I sprayed it on too thick, or I waited too long between base coat and clear.

Back to wondering.....do I REALLY need a clear coat?
 
#88 ·
Well I went ahead and clear coated everything. It's far from perfect, but to be honest I'm pretty happy with it for my first attempt at painting.
If it comes down to it and I can't stand the way t looks I've come across a few people with paint shops who will paint it for me at a reasonable price.

Until then I'm riding it and LOVING it!

Took it with me to work the other day.


So I'm SURE I'm going to catch some flack on this, but I found some neon's the other day for $20 and figured "why not?" I don't usually like them, but if done right and you don't go overboard they can look good.

You can see the lights a bit under the tank. I MIGHT add some more somewhere near the tail because I have 2 tubes left, but I'm still debating over that.
 
#89 ·
while its not my style I would recomend if you want "underglow" lights that you go with LED's over Neon since neon doesn't like heat or vibration.


Glad you got it together and your enjoying riding it around though!
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top