carb paint

I have an '82 kz1100 spectre about a year ago it died on me and i didn't really have the resources to fix it until recently. well i narrowed down the problem to one of the coils. anyhow, after the bike sat for about a year as you can imagine the carbs we really gunked up. Ive been in the process of getting it running and the other night i pulled the carbs and went through and cleaned them thoroughly with some carb cleaner. from what i have seen of stock photos the carbs are not painted but mine are/were black and when i sprayed some carb cleaner on the throttle springs i noticed it made the paint bubble and start coming off. did someone just paint them with crappy paint or is carb cleaner that volatile. anyways they look like crap now and i was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions about paint that would be good for it of if i should just completely strip them down to bare metal. thanks for any input.

Braden

Carb cleaner will eat paint and your skin. The spray stuff isn't too bad but the kind you dip parts in is nasty. I didn't wear gloves one time and my hands felt sunburned for a couple of days and the skin peeled off for over a week. It was pretty bad. Oh yeah-I would strip them down to metal.

yeah this was just the spray stuff. i made the mistake of spraying it with the little straw thing into a jet and it shot back out and a lot went in my right eye and the side of my face. after running headlong for the sink i started wearing safety glasses. luckily no long term damage done. thanks for the input i think i will strip the all down.

Braden

I have an 82 KZ1100 also and the carbs are black on them to I also have an parts bike same year and model and planning to rebuilt those carbs and paint them black.

alright well after picking up where the brake cleaner left off with a small wire brush this is what they look like now. i only did the two outside ones since i am still in the process of getting her running again and didn't want to have to take them off again. now all i need to do is finish getting in the tight areas and brake out the rubbing compound and i think i can get them to shine pretty well.