Mikuni VM26 Carbs

I don't think those felt rings are overly important but I suppose they are nice to have.

Looks like you are doing a nice job. I've got a little side hobby of restoring old carbs and getting the black off can be a pain. I recommend the strong type paint stripper, the stuff that requires paint thinner to remove, not water. Even at that, bead blasting when done is typically needed if you want a pristine job. Be happy though, the paint Mikuni used is easier to strip than the stuff Keihin used. That stuff is a bitch.

Here is a set of VM26's I did a while back. They turned out nicely.

Oh, and I've got a zinc plating kit which is really handy when restoring all the old rusty brackets and such.
Good fun.

P1030332 by nessism , on Flickr

Wow!! Your carbs look great!! I can only hope mine come out close to them. I think that I'm going to get the paint off first then dip them before bead blasting again. I got the bracket and two carbs done today...I'm pretty happy. I'll have to look into the plating kit. I like making old stuff look new. This hasn't been as bad as I thought it would. I've cleaned plenty of carbs, just not a set. Once I got into it...things kind of fell into place. I have to order the O-rings yet this evening. I wasn't sure what I'd need once I got started. None of the kits are perfect for my setup. I'm running 125 mains and 17.5 pilots. Thanks again for the advice and kind words!!

I don't know it it'll help anyone out, but I left Strypeeze on one of the carbs all night then pressure washed it before blasting. Only took around 5 minutes of blasting to make it look like new. Apparently following the paint stripper instructions wasn't good enough. I had to go rogue.