VERY oxidized engine.

Very very nice!! That is exactly what I am trying to achive with my 76 A4. Can you tell me more about the soda blasting? What did you have to do to build your soda blasting equipment? Are you using a sand blaster and just using baking soda instead of sand? Im sorry I know it is alot of questions but I really would like my engine to look like yours and this is the biggest hurdle in my resto.

I haven't tried the soda blasting yet, but I'm going to. There was some posts about it here, and it involved a Harbor Freight solvent sprayer and a box of baking soda. I bought the sprayer, and I've since found out I can buy a fifty pound bag of sodium bicarbonate at the local feed store for 13 bucks. I'll be doing that pretty soon.
I just finished removing the paint and polishing my upper triple. And I'm experimenting with trying to maintain that high shine with some stuff called U-Pol. Gets good reviews from auto body pros: www.autobodytoolmart.com/u-pol-clear-1-h...-up0796-p-15130.aspx

Some soda-blasting options

Click > www.kzrider.com/forum/21-tools/318083-budget-soda-blaster

Good Fortune!

Excellent article..
I especially loved the home made blast cabinets, I bet you could take it a step further and use something like an old job box for the cabinet. Big easy access.

The cabinets are worthless IMO. You need some sort of filtered exhaust, otherwise it's a hugh dust cloud. Think of it like blowing up a balloon. I take my stuff outside, clean it, and let Mother Nature clean up my mess.

I've blasted a couple things outside, but it's MUCH better with a cabinet... if you do the work to set up dust collection. In my shop, I have good lighting, a heater, etc. I listen to music while working, I wear earbuds with Comply memory foam tips, they do a good job of blocking the noise from the howling shop vac.

I run a hose from the cabinet to a 5 gallon bucket. Put a straight pipe through the center of the lid of the bucket, maybe a foot long. Put a few inches of water in the bottom of the bucket. The pipe shouldn't go down into the water, we're not building a bong here. Play around with using more or less water, raising and lowering the pipe. At the edge of the lid, cut another hole and run a hose from there to your shop vac. The water in the bottom of the bucket will catch a lot of that dust so you don't have to clean the shop vac filter nearly as often. I use this setup every day, but only have to clean it out every few weeks.

Also, I keep protective plastic duct taped to the inside of the view port. I have to change that out every couple months.

Thing about soda blasting inside a cabinet, there's no dust collection system that's perfect, so there's going to be some white-out. If you're accomplishing what you want to, you won't be able to see it. Learn to moderate the soda/air ratio, and learn to work by memory and by feel. It's a hassle, but it's well worth it. It takes a lot of patience. The only things I soda blast outside are too big to fit in my cabinet.

Hi and i am new to the site and i am just starting to restoring a 1978 KZ 750 twin that is really in not to bad of shape but has been sitting for over 3 years in a heated garage. the engine casings look ok, but lack the shine as in your pictures.I was curious on the baking soda method you have mentioned as i know how long and hard using never dull or things like that take and still never look all that great. did you have to buy some sort of blasting unit ? or did you just build one somehow? will a small detail sandblaster work with baking soda instead of sand? did you just use regular polish after the blasting? or is there a link somewhere explaining the process and how to do it that you know of? I want to redo the bike and paint it white so it has that vintage look and the stock chrome and Spoke wheels pop with a shiny power plant. Thanks for any help or info you could guide me to and what a great site!!!

sorry, i didnt see how you explained it until after i seen your pics and wrote the question.

lakesguypaul wrote: Hi and i am new to the site and i am just starting to restoring a 1978 KZ 750 twin that is really in not to bad of shape but has been sitting for over 3 years in a heated garage. the engine casings look ok, but lack the shine as in your pictures.I was curious on the baking soda method you have mentioned as i know how long and hard using never dull or things like that take and still never look all that great. did you have to buy some sort of blasting unit ? or did you just build one somehow? will a small detail sandblaster work with baking soda instead of sand? did you just use regular polish after the blasting? or is there a link somewhere explaining the process and how to do it that you know of? I want to redo the bike and paint it white so it has that vintage look and the stock chrome and Spoke wheels pop with a shiny power plant. Thanks for any help or info you could guide me to and what a great site!!!

If it's just normal oxidation and not too bad I say polish it by hand and avoid the mess of blasting. As you say, it takes time but so does blasting when you consider plugging everything up, possibly taking things apart, and cleanup or re-assembly. Once finished it's very easy to maintain the shine. I'm not sure what level of shine you are trying to achieve, but hand polishing looks good enough for me.

Absolutely gorgeous ED....

I'm with you, time with your girl and a little elbow grease, all better...

OMR - Thanks, but I must admit you got me beat! I cannot say I've ever cleaned and polished the inside of my engine, but yours looks great! I bet they didn't look that good inside the day they were made. Ed

OMR. :ohmy: what ratio of h20 to simple green :blink: or used straight out of the container.
:woohoo: your results look great