26 mm Smoothbores ?

Well I thought I'd share my carb rebuild project with you... you see, the automotive world has been doing this for awhile now, and I haven't run across anyone doing it for their bikes. I've polished the throttle body on my SB Chevy, so I thought I do it to a set of 26mm Mikuni's for my 900.
I spent all day cleaning and polishing the carb bores, and I'm thinking of Gun-Koteing the bodies a dark grey or black (fake CR's). I used a Dremel, with an abrasive "buffer" pad, then "Flitz" polishing compound with a felt drum. I had no intension of removing material to increase the bore size, but the polishing should slightly increase the CFM they will flow.

They look a lot better in person.

That looks good. Roy

roy-b-boy-b wrote:

That looks good. Roy

I'm with Roy...well, not literally :huh:

Sweet!

Even though not intentionally as you mentioned, to buff to that shine you would have a slight amount of material no doubt thus increased CFM...

It will be interesting to see what jet changes you'll need to accomplish... Of course, also going to depend on other factors such as if you're changing to pods, exhaust, head P&P etc....

Definitely let us know the results...

How long did this take you on the polishing the bores?

Damn those are purdy!

OMR

Unless you are running the quarter mile with a stop watch you will never know the difference. If you really want better throttle responce you'll have to port and polish the head too. But, OMR is right they look great.

dshelly wrote:

Unless you are running the quarter mile with a stop watch you will never know the difference. If you really want better throttle responce you'll have to port and polish the head too. But, OMR is right they look great.

Thanks everyone... I think this will be it for now, then next winter tear her down for a rebuild -- at that time, I will attempt a mild port and polish job.

OMR, I believe I spend about an hour on each carb, half of that time "hand polishing" the bore (the other 1/2 hour w/the Dremel). Oh, and I am adding pods & exhaust when I mount these, so I'll keep ya posted!

It would be interesting to throw one on a flow bench and compare it side by side to a non polished one.

Nice job on the polishing

Thanks for looking... here's a few more pic's, with them painted and put back together. I used Dupli-Color wheel coating, which is resistant to chemicals, solvents, heat and chipping.

s765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/Bad_Da...current=DSC01166.jpg

Sorry... I already forgot how I psted the pic's the last time!

Another one ...