'78 KZ1000 makeover

Are you gonna ship your jugs to the same outfit that did the three stage blast process on the cases? That's gonna be a purty motor.

I am Indeed! In fact, I'll have them do the jugs, the head and the valve cover. I will polish the sidecovers. I will also post before and after pics of the cylinder. APE was kind enough to bead blasted the cylinder for me, but I want to show the difference between that and the pro job J&P Deburring did for me. Not to slight APE, I really do appreciate it Jay!

Adam

I'd do the same. That way the finish should match up nicely.

I picked up my jugs and pistons from APE today, YAY! But, as satisfying as it is to have the machine work completed on the jugs and those pricy little slugs of aluminum nestled safely in a box, I've got a LONG way to go. My better half was just asking me "how much IS this thing gonna cost anyway?" Ummm, well, see, there are alot of variables, and I'm not sure.....to which she replies "cut the crap, I know you and you know EXACTLY what its gonna cost, you just don't wanna tell me becasue it's a scary amount!" Well, I certainly can't admit to HER that she's right of course. In chatting with Jay while I picked up my parts, I was told they spent almost 2 hours beadblasting my cylinder. Now, the cylinder was in bad cosmetic shape, just like the rest of the exposed aluminum, but here was APE's result next to the cases -

Here is a better contrast pic, but keep in mind the shadowing from the cylinder fins makes it look a little darker than it is. I have been taking all these pics with my cell phone, but I'm replacing the battery charger for my Nikon tomorrow so the pic quality should improve from here on out :blush:

Side shot - Its more appearant here how much work is left to make the cylinder look like the cases, even after 2 hours in APE's bead blasting cabinet. Again, my thanks to Jay for going above and beyond what he needed to

that looks great.
I was wondering if you could publish J & P's e-mail or phone # ?
My cases are pretty dirty and am wondering if I could send them to J & P for cleaning.
thx
bernhard

Those cases are BEAUTIFUL! :woohoo: You've got to tell us the secret formula.

Very nice. My guess on the cleaning process is vapour blasting. I've cleaned many sets of cases over the years but that's the cleanest set I've seen without a lot of hard labour.

These cases were bead blasted ,then finished by hand.A lot of work...

Well Jack, I must say your cases look much nicer than mine!

For Bernard and anyone else that may want to do business with the company that cleaned my cases:
J&P Deburring
9135 Alabama Ave, Unit D Chatsworth Ca. 91311
818-998-6079

To be honest, every time I look at my cases on the bench I think they've been painted to look aluminum. I'll get the secret formula from them when I drop off the cylinder, head and valvecover. That way the hardcore DIYers will have an outline for guidance.

Ha! Finally got my Nikon up and running again. If only it were so easy with the Kawi, but I digress Here is my valve cover. You can see how oxidized the finish is, and this is what my cylinders looked like prior to bead blasting

And the head is every bit as bad, worse in fact becasue there is no grime on the valve cover. The cam end plugs on this engine have been weeping for quite some time, and that made a mess of things over the years.