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When I was 15 years old, my dad bought me an 83 GPZ305. This would have been around 1987. When I got a car at 16, I sold the bike. I tried to track it down but came up empty handed. I bought this one from a want ad I had on craigslist at the end of summer. I worked on it a couple weeks and stored it in my shed for the winter. I just bought another one for spare parts from craigslist a couple weeks ago that had not run in years. I cleaned the carbs and put in new plugs tonight and it started. I want to keep the bike mostly original but just a few subtle touches. When I sit on the bike its 1987 all over again! Here's some pics of what I did to it before winter hit. Its rough but I restore classic and antique cars for a living so I see the potential. I paid $300 and he delivered it. It ran but not well. It had one coil power wire not connected, the carb jets were drilled, and the diafram springs cut in half. After a week of carbs on and off 20 times, I bought another set of carbs. Now it runs nice.

I removed the helmet locks and bungee tabs so nothing hangs down under the plastic. I cut down the lever for the seat latch, welded on a new stop and pad for my finger.

I found a car stereo amplifier wiring kit at my local Walmart. This will be my new starter cable and frame ground. I bought a new starter lug boot from my local Kawasaki dealer cause my old one is brittle. I like little details.

I found a local vinyl sign shop that screen prints. I took them all my plastics and the master cylinder lid. They charged me $100 which I thought was great. I'll paint on my stripes and clear over everything. I'll color sand and buff for a show quality finish. I'll have the frame powder coated. I want this bike to look showroom new.

I wanted a newer styled headlight. I had a pair of diamond H4s in my shed from a tubbed S-10 I used to have. I went to a salvage and bought an S-10 headlight bucket and ring. I modified it to fit inside the GPZs bucket.

My next change was the bulky blinkers. I wanted smaller ones but also wanted them to look similar to stock. The rear mounting brackets were an easy mod but the fronts had to have a spacer. I used the original washer and some muffler pipe. I welded the washer then filed it smooth. I'll weld these to the blinker mounts and grind them and smooth them with body filler so it looks like the were cast as one piece.

I never like how tall the 305 windscreen is. I looked for a new windscreen but obsolete. I found a plastics company to make me a new one but it was $150. They were going to cast it over my old one which would have made it bigger. I cut off two inches and got out my DA sander and foam sanding pads wet from 1000 to 3000 grit. I buffed the crap out of it. It took me a couple hours but saved me money. Here's before and after.

My mom recovered my seat. I did not like the original heavy grain so I went to an upholstery supply and found marine grade vinyl with a lighter grain. She made it look original.

Here is the pile of new parts for it. I had a quart of the red mixed at my local auto paint store. I bought a New Old Stock speedo surround because my indicator lettering was gone. I also bought a new ignition swith so the letters would be crisp. This is where I stopped on it. I have since bought 4 other bikes of which 3 are projects like this one. Coming from building street rods, bikes are a lot cheaper and more fun.

It was raining here a few days ago so I tackled my ignition switch plastic surround. It was sun bleached and the plastic sluffed off leaving a deep scratch. I sanded the entire piece and sprayed on bedliner out of a spray can. After a couple heavy coats with 1/2 hour dry time in between, I held the can away and misted it on to get the grained look back. After that dried, I sprayed it with SEM vinyl and plastic paint. The color is landau black. It gives it the matte finish like plastic.

nice work. that windscreen turned out real nice. gonna have to remember that trick.

Great job so far. At this rate the finished product will be amazing.