Restore the metal!

Hey, I love this site. I have a KZ200 that was sitting in someone's barn for many years. It's in descent condition but I want to get the metal to look as good as I can without taking the bike apart. THe Chrome is really good already, it's mostly the oxidized and time weary metal of the engine...Does anybody know of good polish or technique? Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks

T

First off, you need to get rid of the factory clear coat. I just used a nylon wheel on a drill. Then depending on how shiny and reflective you want it, hit it with varying grits of sandpaper and/or some sort of polishing agent. A lot of guys swear by Autosol or Mothers Mag & Aluminum polish.

Or you can go big and invest in a bench mount polisher, some proper wheels & buffs, and some compounds and rouges. All depends on how much time and/or money that you want to devote to it.

Whatever you do, DON'T try to polish them by hand. It's just not worth the soul sucking time and agony involved, trust me.

I've owned my bike since it was new. I didn't polish the cases at all for more than 20 years because I thought they had some sort of clear coat. Actually, they did not have any coating at all on them. Over that period they oxidized and looked VERY dull. I polished my cases and cylinders BY HAND. It's not a big deal, but it takes time. I found it therapeutic as I saw them come to shine. Everyone has there own method and there own favorite polish. Here's the result of my hand polishing and the products I used. You be the judge. Ed

Ed there's no denying that your polishing skills are top notch. You were actually the inspiration that led to my trying the whole polishing by hand endeavor.
And I can honestly say that I would sooner light my own ass on fire than go through that again.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

I understand. It's best to work on it for an hour or so each day with a beer close by. It's not something that can be done in a hurry; that's for sure. The good news is that once the engine is polished, no matter how that is accomplished, keeping it looking good is not very difficult. Ed

T: if you plan on doing it by hand, a couple of KZRider have mentioned using a tampico brush, especially for between the fins, & old blue jeans cut into strips. A tampico brush has natural fibers & commonly used to clean/polish wire spoked wheels. If you have a cordless drill, nylon bristle wheels can be used... I think that's one of the tools oldmanrock used on his engine which came out really nice. There are all sorts of polishes, so you're on your own there. hee.

tampico wire wheel brush ... tampico brush - rubber-dipped wire core .... small tampico

So I am not the only one who looks at Ed's bike as the "Gold standard" of shine, huh? Killman, you made me LOL on that one! It IS a bitch, but there is a sort of "zen" quality to the work...And the payoff? Oooooh, the payoff! Mother's polish is your friend! Hit ACE hardware and grab a few nylon bristle "wire brush" attachments for the old drill...they will do a pretty good job on the cases...For the engine covers/fork lowers, start with 600-800 grit wet...work your way up to 2000 wet, rubbing compound, then switch to the mothers polish..OMG, is it EVER worth it when you are done!

I soda blasted my cases during my last rebuild and they came out very nice - best five minutes I could have spent. At some point, I'll probably attack the smooth parts of the cases with some aluminum polish, but for now, q quick, medium pressure soda blast will clean everything up and get it ready for whatever level of heck you want to put yourself through....

Yep, I agree... Ed gets 1st place :woohoo:

I used a small hemostat with cut up squares of Scotchbrite and cotton tee shirt for the stripping, scrubbing ,cleaning and polishing this last time and was very happy with the way it worked for me.

Hey, thanks for all the awesome tips!!

Id start with some spray on aluminum wheel cleaner and a trip to the car wash.
After that its all about scrubbing and rubbing. :laugh: