Is it worth it?

OtisAir

OtisAir

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Mar 13, 2008
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Lansdale
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OtisAir
I have a KZ1100 (Kawasaki Motorcycle) who's four pipes are showing signs of discoloration and one of them has rust near where it's attached to the engine. I've heard that I could have them "dipped" and re-chromed but curious if anyone has done this, what it costs, and did they find it worth it. Please lemme' know as I would like to keep my '82 KZ1100 looking nice.

Perhaps I'll put a faring and saddle bags on it one day too, but for now it's all original and starting to show signs of it. Thanks again.
 
If you're seeing rust, I'd expect it to start rusting through. Having it dipped won't help this, just make it look prettier until it does. I'd say you're better off looking for a replacement exhaust if you want to replace it, but I'd probably wait until it actually forces me to replace it.

The KZ is a great bike. My first motorcycle was an '84 KZ700. Thing had over 100,000 miles on it when I bought it. While the engine was getting tired (had very low compression and made a few funny noises) the thing started up every time, still was pretty quick, and got 40 mpg doing it. When I owned it I was thinking about upgrading to a KZ1000, but ended up getting a Bandit 1200 instead.

The problem I found with the KZ700 was there wasn't a lot in the way of parts available for it, but the 700 was an oddball. I don't know if the 1100 has a bigger following, it seemed that the 1000 was the most popular one.
 
When that happened on my Nighthawk.. I did a cheap redneck fix which worked:

1.) removed exhaust system
2.) sand papered rust off
3.) spray painted with BBQ-grill paint

The paint never came off.
 
I like Jesse's redneck fix idea.
 
Thanks Ya'll, seeing that I am from Alabama originally, I think I'm going up to the walmart and buying some brillo pads and grill paint.

I'll send a picture when I'm done, lawd ham mercy!
 
Did the same to my KZ1000 years ago. The only problem with paint is that you'll be sanding and painting on a regular basis, because it will continually pick up rust. You might ask a local shop or wreck yard if they can locate an exhaust system for you, Kawi made lots of those bikes in the day.
 
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