MOTOBRICK.COM
TECHNICAL MOTOBRICK WRENCHING In Remembrance of Inge K. => Project Custom Motobricks => Topic started by: dglcinc on June 30, 2016, 10:29:44 PM
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Doing a half-baked touch-up on my 87 K75S, including painting the body work (OK not concourse job), stainless fasteners (some of 'em), some cleaning, etc. Will probably post some "done" photos later, but wanted to show this. Decided to try vapor blasting on the cases to clean them vs. soda, beads, walnuts, painting, elbow grease, etc. WOW. Check out the before and after (including the repair of the never to be mentioned again mark on the lower end case from a car left in gear - don't ask.) They look like new casings. I did the cam chain, timing, and water pump covers too, not shown here.
If you like this, check out www.restocycle.com. Fast, fair, great work, run by Nils Menten. Make sure to get him to send you a shipping label so UPS doesn't stiff you at retail. Highly recommended.
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Nice!
So you stripped the paint off first?
Do you mind me asking what the charge for vapor blasting that group of parts was?
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The 87 (mine actually was manufactured in 86) is natural finish like you see, not the black that the later models have, although I think vapor blasting will remove paint too, but YMMV, and then you could repaint, but of course that's much more involved and expensive. There are some interesting project photos on his site, he specializes in Japanese bikes like CBX and CB-750, many of which clear-coated and plated aluminum castings, but there are some nice photos of an airhead he did. The only part that was painted on mine is the water pump cover. That one was half blasted by road gravel, so it was smooth under the paint, rough elsewhere.
For all the parts in the picture, plus the timing cover, cam chain cover, and water pump cover (not in the picture) and repair of the ding on the bottom end cover, it was $300 + shipping and he turned them around same day he got them (I was in a hurry). He'll quote you in advance if you send photos. It's by the hour. I originally was just going to do the top and bottom end covers, he quoted around $100.
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I like it alot... What is vapor blasting? Like super high-temp pressure wash?
Looks great! Something you could do to the entire engine?
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Yeah, you could do the whole engine and drivetrain, but you need to take it apart. Vapor blasting uses a slurry, no way you're keeping that out of sealed cases. Ha. I'll live with the grubby parts. I'll do the swing arm and maybe final drive (if I can get it apart easily) next time I have them off. The tranny and engine, I really can't imagine doing that. If you look at the guy's site, he did that with a CBX and it looks awesome, but you have to really want to do a full frame-off restoration. Not me! K75 ain't worth it (for value) but it makes my rider look pretty sharp!
Got all the bits back on the bike (still waiting for the body work), will try to post some pics over the weekend. Blends in pretty well with the non-blasted bits and looks very nice. Also was able to put a nice shine on the valve and rocker cover bolts with the buffer.
Vapor blasting was supposedly invented during WWII. It's apparently very popular in the UK and easy to find shops that do it. Here it's pretty rare, the guy I linked is the one I picked, looked like a good MC-focused restorer. Here's a good overview: https://rideapart.com/articles/restore-vintage-parts-vaporblast.
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A couple more in progress shots, waiting for the bodywork still. This shows the main pieces back on the front with stainless hardware. You can get the vast majority of the bolts on the bike at www.boltdepot.com. They have lots of exact lengths, quantity of one ordering, reasonable prices, and fast service. Shipping starts at $7.95 so make sure you make a complete list, it doesn't go up very fast.
The only thing they don't have is stainless wave washers, readily available on eBay. I got mine from River City Fasteners seller, which was fast, fair, and they have an M6/8/10 combo pack. Note, not recommended to replace high-stress items (brake parts, engine mounts, shock mount) with stainless, at least this stainless, which is all A2-70. This is close to the 8.8s used on the bike, with somewhat lower shear. Fine for covers and such. The 10.9 on the stress parts I think even A4 falls short. Motoworks.co.uk has some stuff they claim is up to snuff for these parts (and not cheap.)
More to come!
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Funny how you say, not worth it because of value.
I wonder how many k100/75/1100 are left in the world?
I know one day they will be worth a lot more.
Most unique engine I've ever seen on a motorcycle besides the one with a turbine engine.
Sent from my HUAWEI MT7-L09 using Tapatalk
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Yeah agree it's unique but the market doesn't agree right now. It's valuable to me because I like it (else I wouldn't spend time and money on it). I suppose maybe in another 20 years they will be priced like R69s? There's still a lot of them out there so I guess that keeps the price down. You don't have to wonder how many there are, I think the sales figures were published. There are enough - tens of thousands total.
I should know better - I had an R69S in college in excellent condition and sold it in 1986 (oops dated myself!) for $1400. Slow and I didn't have anyplace to store it, but I still loved it.
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I too see value "differently".
However,I suspect we are on the cusp of the common use of electric vehicals.This will be a paradigm shift in a similar way that Steam engines fell from grace....there will be heaps of the internal combustion engines redundant or legislated off,I suspect.'Wouldn't mind a little external combustion engine now.Awesome,oh well.Er,oops I guess that dates me....
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More pics. Now really truly the only thing left is getting the rest of the body work back from the painters. The tailpiece is the new (original candy red color.) Not concours quality, but pretty nice.
By the way, if you have your cam chain cover blasted (vapor or otherwise) don't forget to either scribe your hall plate location or take good pictures. I did! Fortunately I have an adjustable dwell timing light so I can put it back in the right place, using some other nice info here on Motobrick and elsewhere...
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Greetings fellas,
Dglcinc, first and foremost, thanks for the nice project and you were a pleasure to work with. Would love to work with you again sometime.
Please allow me to introduce my outfit - we're RestoCycle, located in Tucson, Arizona (or your local UPS depot, whichever is closer) and we help people restore their motorcycles. Our primary service is the vapor blasting you saw demonstrated above, but we also do some component repair and do complete restorations on Japanese bikes. You can learn more on our website, and we're also on Facebook if you do that sort of thing.
Personally, I bat right, throw right, ride a GS when I'm not restoring motorcycles, and was deeply in love with an 85 K100RS-ABS for a few years. I get the brick thing :-).
Please be in touch with any questions, here or via PM or email, we're at your service if you're interested in our work.
Best,
Nils Menten
RestoCycle LLC
Tucson, AZ, USA
http://www.restocycle.com
nils@restocycle.com
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Jeez, my photos are all over the place. depending on which device I look at them on they are stretched, rotated, etc. Oh well.
Here's the final job with all the parts on. Just got back from a 1400-mile ride to Canada and Ohio. Only lost two bolts, and they were non-critical! Also, had to get new tires in Ohio (it was time.) Went back to stock-sized bias-plys from radial oversize. They are the Michelin Activs, and they are very nice!
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The bike looks outstanding. Nice project, fast too!
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Here's one of the other side:
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Very nice looking K75S, Is that an original colour.
Regards Martin.
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Yeah,stunning.Close to mine's original colour.I'd just put it in the living room.
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It is the original color, but I just had it repainted. The original paint was fading and had the usual nicks and wear associated with 50K miles (I just rolled over today!)
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What radial did you have on the front before you went back to bias-ply?