Clutch's 1982 KZ750 E3 Cafe

The bike looks great and you beat me too it...the dirty fork lowers stand out now that everything else is done. Also just throwing in my 2 cents that side covers without the emblems was the way to go. Great job and I totally feel your personal satisfaction after finally getting 600 miles on my bike this summer after 2+ years of staring at it in my garage.

danonelson0109 wrote: The bike looks great and you beat me too it...the dirty fork lowers stand out now that everything else is done. Also just throwing in my 2 cents that side covers without the emblems was the way to go. Great job and I totally feel your personal satisfaction after finally getting 600 miles on my bike this summer after 2+ years of staring at it in my garage.

Thanks! It's definitely a sleeker look without those monstrous letters an numbers on the covers. I have a feeling I would end up rubbing them off with my legs at stops and such since they are just stick-ons. As for the forks, whats the best way to clean those up? If you notice on the right one, I was playing around with a "polishing kit" I had bought a while back for my dremmel. It seems to work fairly well, but it would be time consuming to use that...especially since my battery for it doesn't last very long. Is there a faster/easier way to clean and shine those things?

I had to replace the seals in my forks a couple months ago and it was definitely easier to clean and polish the lowers while the forks were off the bike and disassembled.

I'm by no means an expert at polishing aluminum. I also have a dremel polishing kit and found that it is time consuming for larger pieces and also caused some noticeable unevenness in the finish. I have stopped using the dremel to polish.

The approach that worked sufficiently well for me was with sand paper then steel wool and a finish buff with polishing cream. I'd use 250 grit to even everything out, step down to 400 and keep at it to remove the 250 grit scratches, then 600 grit, then finer grades of steel wool to even everything out. There are still barely-visible scratches on all my polished aluminum, but from a few feet it looks pretty nice.

See attached picture of the results using the method above. Polishing is a pain, but in my opinion the results are worth it. Also an excuse to spend extra time in the garage while maybe enjoying some cold ones...

wish I'd found this thread a while back, excellent work.I think the rear foot peg mount would have popped a bit more with the recessed area painted gloss black, just my opinion.Wish I had the patience to paint like that.

Godfrey wrote: wish I'd found this thread a while back, excellent work.I think the rear foot peg mount would have popped a bit more with the recessed area painted gloss black, just my opinion.Wish I had the patience to paint like that.

Thanks! This thread is only about 3 weeks old or so. Not sure if it would have been around when you needed it

EDIT: I wish I had just a tad more patience to do it a little better

I took the tank off to remove the petcock and seal it with a liquid thread sealer today (it was leaking ever so slightly..only noticeable by touching the adapter plate). When I flipped it back over, I realized it had been sitting on top of a screw and now I have some nice little scratches on the top of it.


Any tips on doing a repair job, rather than completely repainting it would be appreciated.

Looks really good clutch... Great Job!. Had it on the road yet?

Boostable wrote: Looks really good clutch... Great Job!. Had it on the road yet?

Thanks

I haven't ridden since fixing the ignition problems, rewiring and painting...unless you count going back and forth on my driveway a few times to make sure it was running right. I may take it out tomorrow for a ride before pulling the tank back off and fixing the scratches I made on it today. I keep looking at the pics I took and wondering if I should just clean the fork lowers, or if I should black those out too (I think the black will look better).

Black it out!!!

I agree with blacking the lowers out I had mine power coated gloss black with my frame and wheels and it stays shiny forever plus its bullet proof I hope your paint is urthane on the tank or the gas will eat all your good work I had that problem those gas caps never seal right.

I will get to that sometime in the future. I thought I was going to ride today, but when I put gas in the tank, it was still dripping. The plumbers tape was worse than the liquid sealer I used, but what do you guys use to seal up your petcocks? I'm open to suggestions and making a run to the hardware store later anyway.

I'm with the rest of you guys "black out the forks". Very nice job Clutch.