And here is yet one update on the Kawasaki KZ650 cafe-racer project. I was not very satisfied with how the Honda CB500T tank fits the KZ650 frame. The tunnel of the tank had to be pretty heavily modified and I continued to modify it further and further until it was clear that some cutting and welding had to be involved. At this point I was close to hammering the aluminum tank from the scratch, but since I was busy with other projects it never happened.
What happened instead was me buying the New Old Stock 1981 Suzuki GS550 tank. However, it wasn’t a spontaneous purchase. I started looking for alternative fuel tanks for the project, and my search brought me to the line of tanks for 1970s-1980s Suzuki GS motorcycles with engines of different capacities. GS550-650 tanks (different models of different years) got most of my attention and sympathies. At some point I gathered information enough to conclude that:
- I like the design of these tanks and therefore am ready to give it a try.
- With some more or less minor modification of both: the frame and the tank (without cutting the tank though), 1980-1981 Suzuki GS550-650 tanks will fit the Kawasaki KZ650 frame.
And it so happened that in my searches I came across this New Old Stock Suzuki tank on UK Ebay. It wasn’t cheap, but it definitely looked like it was worth investing some money in it. So I bought it, and crossed my fingers on its successful and soon arrival. And I must say I wasn’t disappointed! Tank was completely as described by the seller, and no sad surprises. It came even with the original box and the seller took a pain to pack that box in additional layers of cardboard and bubble wrap, so both box and tank in it arrived to me safe and sound. I spent like ten minutes only to unpack the outer packaging of the original box.
And since I am receiving the new-but-made-forty-years-ago fuel tank not any other day, I shot a lot of photos. Here they are, New Old Stock 1981-1982 Suzuki GS550 fuel tank and its box:
For the forty years of the storage, the box developed individual features: hole from rear tank bracket, mysterious punctures and even a kind of graffiti promising warranty from Wishop (whatever it means).
I already made minor initial modifications to the tank and now I am waiting for mount rubbers to go further with the process of fitting the tank to the frame.
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Hi, nice purchase… I’m anxious to see how you will renew the tank inside. I assume it has some minor rust. Have you gave it any thought how to remove the rust and how to seal it? I also have a tank waiting to be renewed and I’m looking for the best approach.
Thanks!
The rust inside of this tank could be wiped with a finger. It is still some time before I will face the question of cleaning with this particular tank.
However, I’ve done some rusty tanks before. I don’t like tank liners, since on a couple of occasions I had a pain removing flaking tank liners. If the metal of the tank is still sound and has no pinholes I’d give it a good old mechanical cleaning. For this purpose I keep a couple of kilos of small steel hardware (screws, nuts, bolts and so on). I put them in the tank, add some kerosene and then shake the tank until it’s clean. It’s an old school method but it works all the same. After such cleaning I remove the hardware with a magnet. Then I flush the tank with gasoline and degrease it with solvent. Final step is treating the insides of the tank with rust converting/protective chemicals.
If that wasn’t a joke Wishop means w/ shop or with shop warranty but judging from reading your KZR posts you knew that 🙂
Hi Frank!
Nope, it somehow didn’t occur to me to interpret the writing in that way, so thank you very much for your input! Now I wonder how many years ago that writing was put on the box.
Kind regards,
Nazar