1981 KZ 750 "C3" Build

Hello All,

First of "C3" has nothing to do with the bike itself I chose the name due to "C" as the first letter of my last name and "3" because my son and daughter have been helping and them plus me equals 3.

I picked up the bike last week in non running order. The bike was complete with the exception of the rear fender and airbox. Typical story of a kid got it from a lady in exchange from work and drug it home to "fix up" but abandoned in his dad's garage. Looks like it has been sitting for quite awhile.

Exterior was rough on the surface but looked pretty sound structurally with only some surface rust and caked on gunk visible upon first inspection.

First thing I had to do when I got it home was fast track through dis-assembly due to the fact that I'm not "technically" allowed to do any type of vehicle maintenance in my driveway so I had to get it torn down, photographed, bagged, tagged and into the shed. Dis-assembly was accomplished over the weekend.

I have completed a full dis-assembly of the bike and motor and have everything individually labeled and placed into ziploc baggies for accountability. I now want to go back and clean the parts and do a detailed visual inspection so I can start tracking down replacements/spares.

Question:

What can I use as an all purpose cleaner to take off the majority of the grease, oil, rust, etc...so I can truly see what I have and what I need?

Upon cleaning the pieces should I coat them in a light coat of WD40 to keep them from re-rusting?

Is it ok to keep pieces in a sealed baggie or should I store them open air? (BTW I am in Louisiana so its not to cold but humidity can get high)

My resources for cleaning basically include a 3.5 gallon parts washer, manual car wash if needed, and typical auto stores for accessibility to cleaning products.

Thanks in advance for everyones help and all the good information I have already found and used.

J

Good luck! I'll be sure to keep an eye how you get along. I'll leave the more technical advice to those who actually know what they are talking about. Looking forward to seeing it progress.