Fuel petcock Q

Aloha guys. How's that COVID-19 treating you guys?

Anyway, due to above, my restoration is slowing down. Have too much time but not enough budget. So was working on small stuff. And came across this.

Fuel petcock on KZ750. Is it plated or just polished? Mine was in pretty bad shape, so blasted and got the grey look. Now I don't know if I need to polish it or send them out to have it plated. Any idea on these? If I have good looking petcock, I can probably tell, but like I mentioned, mine was in sad shape. If plating is needed, any suggestion to where I may send it to?

Thanks for the help.

Never seen a plated Kawasaki fuel tap only black or bare metal. Black on early z1s and bare metal on all later models. Later vacuum taps had a chrome plate with the position markings on but the rest of the tap was bare metal.

On my 750H the petcock is as Warren said,. Fr an original look just bead blast the housing and polish up the face plate with the pri/res/on markings. The actual tap was the same as the housing so bead blast it as well.

I actually polished mine up a bit to match the carbs, but nowhere near a mirror finish. Wasn't to fussed about it being absolutely original though.

Hallo calum. Very nice work you have done. I don't recall seeing this motorcycle before.
But the metal pieces were zinc plated. I actually am selling a 82 CSR 650H gas tank with the fuel tap and sending unit.
Unit looks similar. I know nothing about these CSR 650's Just trying to sell it by bits and pieces. Not much demand for these bikes as I search eBay.
But I can't believe the cheap crap selling from china for under $20 US dollars.
That factory Kawasaki valve would cost $100 or more if they still have any?

z1kzonly wrote: Hallo calum. Very nice work you have done.

Thanks

The zinc plating was long gone on my petcock, I just assumed it was the same finish as the engine. Guess the 750 had seen a bit too much bad weather in its lifetime :ohmy:

calum wrote: I just assumed it was the same finish as the engine.

It is. The green 650 below I've owned since new and the fuel tap is not and never has been plated either zinc or any other finish.

Thanks for the info guys.

Fuel tap, bare metal it is. Probably polish the faceplate as it lost it's shine and I know it wasn't painted. There's no chrome plate shop near where I live, so will give a good shine to it.

I swear the petcock had that shiny look before........................Oh well. hate getting old.