Scraping old gasket material sucks!

Goodson Tool www.goodson.com sells a 'super scraper'. This square-cut, hard-edged scraper is the best I've found for removing old gasket material.

I have one of these and as far as aluminum cases go it is irreplaceable. For castiron flat gasket scrapers work well but for this aluminum stuff the goodson is the only tool I'll use. It cuts gasket scraping time down alot. Just make sure that you don't put to much pressure on the ends of it or it will cut into the aluminum. It's very very sharp.

Hi everyone, my first post here. I was just cleaning the gasket surface of the headcover for my 1981 kz1100. It wasn't bad to start with but after trying a razor blade, I was dissapointed at how easy the blade would scrape off the soft aluminum. I took out a diamond hone and with a little solvent, just took everything off easy, it took maybe 10 minutes. Plus it helps flatten the surface. I think sandpaper on a glass plate would work but make sure to clean up the abrasive. Oh, BTW, my handle at KMF is "chocohills" just to let you know that I'm really not smart at all...:silly:

We use a wood chisel with a finely honed edge.

The secret is to always keep the blade's edge at right angle to the surface being scraped so it can't gouge or dig in.