So I've just about finished my winter project on my Vulcan and was able to snap a few pictures last night. Of course, after I finally put the gas tank back on and filled it up with a gallon of gas, it turns out the petcock gasket had dried up and cracked from sitting in the cold with the tank off. I've got a rebuild kit coming in on Thursday hopefully, and then it'll be ready to go. I fired her up and got her running with gas dripping out the petcock anyway, just to make sure she was gonna start up when I wanted her to.

So the laundry list of things I did was:
-New handlebars (half-apes, no control adjustments needed)
-New handgrips
-Bar-end mirrors
-New headlight assembly, headlight mounts, turn signals, and headlight handlebar-mounted headlight cowl
-Re-build the front forks and painted the lower forks black, added Kawasaki decals.
-Remove the front fender, rear fender, side covers, and tank, stripped the Teal paint off down to metal, and repainted and coated with 2k clearcoat. Additionally I removed the triple-tee and the gauge clusters and painted them all black as well
-Polished the corroded clearcoat off the wheels, painted the inner rims black, added reflective rim tape
-Removed the seatback frame, cut and folded the rear seat, build a new bracket underneath for the seat to bolt to, and painted the rear cargo rack
-New rear turn signals, attached to the bracket leftover on the cargo rack from removing the seat frame.
-Ear shave was previously done but I had left the airboxes on, so I finally removed them and installed a Nautilus airhorn on the right hand side.
-Slapped on a fresh new set of tires, and put a 170 in the back. The guy at the shop that mounted the tire said it was "disgustingly oversized".

Overall, it ended up being a MUCH more involved project than I was expecting but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm loving the new look though. Eliminating the rear backrest was the biggest thing for me as I thought it was ugly as sin.

Anyway, what do you all think? I need a new set of shocks for the back, and want something that sits stock height or maybe an inch lower (if I can get away with it with the bigger tire) and black to match the rest of the bike. Any suggestions there?

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I like it. Especially the fork gaiters.

Maybe I should get some fork gaiters to hide my seal leaks hahaha

Right! Forgot about them. They really tie the look I was going for together.
Thanks!

I can't wait to get her back on the road now... that petcock rebuild kit can't come in soon enough.

Amazon.com: Daystar F00058-BK-02 Black 11" Long Travel Fork Boot: Automotive

These were the ones I got, only $17 bucks.

Sharp! Looks good. The blackened lower forks with the "Kawasaki" on them is a nice touch that really sets the bike apart, purely on its own. I'm not much of a person for the headlight cowl but its cool how there is just enough screen there to encapsulate the instruments. Ya got something to be proud of!

Thanks! I originally got the Kawasaki decals for the tank thinking they were smaller, but once I got them in and finished the forks, I saw they fit that nice blank spot perfectly so it worked well. And then putting the fairing on enveloped the gauges perfect, that was kind of a gamble too. I've run into an issue, though, with the cowl mounts... The bolted mounts on the handlebars light right up with the gas tank when turning to full lock on either side and hit the gas tank unfortunately. I might try to get some rubber caps to keep it from denting/scratching or try and re-locate the mounts. We'll see...

You'll figure out something. Half the fun is figuring out ways around problems.

Looks great buddy

Thanks Gaz. I'll need to take some proper pictures once I actually have the time to wash 'er. She's got loads of dust from a disintegrating bike cover on her right now. I'll be a happy man once I have a house with a garage in a month.