After a couple days of clean up, what a great Christmas it was. :smile

 

Fresh fluids and a battery and she's alive! Still rough, but running...

 

I'd ride it....and wheelie the piss out of it. Nice find.

 

The next couple weeks I spent making things better, brakes, rubber, exhaust, plastic...

 

Added some K1 one thou 6 pots, CF Yosh, Sargent seat, wired in radar and Zumo...

 

So this is where things start to take a turn... Having some fairing damage I opt to buy a kit of aftermarket graphics along with start sourcing good oem painter plastics and start planning a paint project.

 

So to continue I have to go back in time to hopefully help convey my next decisions on the Gixxer build...

In the year 2000 (wow that seems like forever ago now), our prior cat "Fogarty" (yes named after Carl) was hit by a car right out in front of our house and died, so sad. My daughters were absolutely crushed, little girls then (now 22 & 24 and all grown up).

So like any good Dad, what to do what to do, yes buy another cat, if yer a cat hater suckit don't judge me :wink.

So in year 2000 enters our new addition to the family, solid black kitten, we name her "Gixxer". Pic below is from a scrap book my wife put together moons ago, hopefully you can read the text...




Gixxer was the best family pet, no issues, no troubles, did her toilet business outside, slept with our girls at night, very low maintenance. She would often hang out in the garage with me, pic below of her with my 91 Gixxer.




Long story short, last mid-December it was obvious she was throttling down and that her days were #'d, she died on Christmas Day 2017, it was very peaceful, she got to spend her last day with us, and being Christmas even our girls were over that day. Had it not been Christmas of course nobody would have been home, so we found it a blessing on the timing.

Now 2 things come into play... For one, the new K1 Gixxer build date is 09/00 which is the same month Gixxer the cat was born. Then just a couple days after Gixxer (the cat) died I go down to DMV to get new plates n tags for the new K1 because I bought it out of state, I'm at the DMV counter getting the new plates and they ask if I want a custom plate... In long past (10 years?) I had a 91 Gixxer that I had plated "GIXXER", I asked if it was available assuming not and the gal looks at me funny and says yes it's taken, by you! Huh? I guess because I sold that Gixxer to a Canuk the plate was never released by DMV, so I said heck ya I'll take it, she says you'll get the plate in 4-6 weeks, I said don't bother I have the plate on my garage wall because I pulled it off before shipping that Gixxer to Canada, give me the tags and I'm good to go!





So at this point I'm feeling like this is a sign and just really meant to be, I make the decision to do a full oem restoration of the K1, in my mind it keeps the memory Gixxer the cat in our minds for many years to come. :grin

 

From there out I start hunting n hoarding NOS bits for the K1 restoration, thank goodness for worldwide ebay, in the spring I came across a complete NOS set of K1 bodywork in the blu/wht colors. :smile

 

This summer I had most of the parts swapped out to the NOS bits (sub-frame, rear fender, tail light, blinkers, calipers, rotors, chain/sprocket, exhaust, etc etc etc) along with the NOS bodywork, she is really starting to take shape now. :grin

 

Well that pretty much gets you all up to speed with where I'm at now with the build. :smile

But wait, it's not over! :0

I bought the NOS blu/wht set because it was available and fell in my lap at that time, but I really like and prefer the rare red/slvr color combo and have sense then pieced together an entire NOS set of the original red/slvr bodywork, I'm stoked for finishing the build this fall, more to come!

Let me know if anyone has any questions or comments and thanks for letting me share the build with you! :cheers:

 

That is awesome, that bike looks brand new. Good job on all accounts

 

Thank you, much appreciated K! :cheers:

 

Hello moderators, can somebody help to please move this thread to the Builders Corner section of the forum?

I looked around the site and can't seem to find a way to contact a moderator via pm?

Thanks in advance!

 

Wow, really nice build.

You got a great deal for getting that bike for $1,000!

The bike looks cleaner than new!

How come the chain adjuster bolts/studs are offset below the centerline of the axle like that. Was that a K1 750 thing?

 

Thanks TS, much appreciated! :cheers:

Not sure on the offset, it's the stock setup.

 

Looks good! I love the blue & white scheme.
Reminds me of my '96 750 minus the wheels. Mine were graphite gray not white.

 

Thanks, something about the blu/wht, it always looks great on the Gixxers, especially with white wheels :smile

 

Beautiful job bringing it back. It looks great.

 

Thanks John, it feels good doing it, bonding with the bike through the process as well, looking forward to many future miles!

 

Beautiful, Just Beautiful! Bravo

 

Thx E :smile

 

I had the Gixxer back in the shop for some more NOS bits being installed, since most of the bodywork was off anyway for that work seemed like a good time to try out the NOS red/silver set of bodywork. I'm gonna run the white wheels with a NOS silver (K3) upper I had and red front fender for a bit, watcha think?

I'll switch it over to the black K1 upper, black front fender, and black wheels before Christmas, which will put me right on target for having the restoration done in a year. Good times, fun build! :smile

 

One more pic, 3 Gixxers from 3 decades :thumbup::thumbup:

 

Sharp bike! Looks like it cleaned up really well under the fairing, too. I think I like the original red/silver color scheme over the blue and white. The second set of bodywork will come in handy when you run from the cops. When they are looking for a red and silver bike, you can be riding a blue and white one. :grin

 

Thx DD, LOL great idea :grin

 

Great find and great work! But what's with the older guy crap???

 

Thx :cheers:

Old is always comparative right :grin :laugh

 

Restoration complete! :smile

Got the black upper, fender, and wheels on, she's straight off the 2001 showroom floor now. Great dry Fall day in the PNW today, got her out for a rip, I'm so stoked how she came out.

 

Now that lady is sexy :0:0:0

 

Thanks all, it was a really fun build, took a couple turns along the way but I am extremely happy with the end result. :smile

Here's some progression pics from the past 10 months, lets see how many folks know there Gixxer's enough to spot the subtle tweaks...