Vapor Blasting of Aluminum Parts

[barryadam]

Looking good Nils. You AND the bike. Glad to hear everything is working out well for you.

Barry

[NobleHops]

Thanks Barry

[rpleines]

Nils, I truly enjoy your posts and admire the fine work you are doing. Great "stuff" on the Kawasaki restoration and the multi engine project. This would make for a fine article in the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club [VJMC] magazine in addition with your CBX projects a great article in the ICOA magazine. Hope you do it, would be a nice entertaining read in both. On another note, when the Kawasaki 900 first came out I wanted one so bad it hurt!!!!! Could not afford it. Looking at your restoration, it hurt again!!!!! Still can't afford it.

[NobleHops]

Nils, I truly enjoy your posts and admire the fine work you are doing. Great "stuff" on the Kawasaki restoration and the multi engine project. This would make for a fine article in the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club [VJMC] magazine in addition with your CBX projects a great article in the ICOA magazine. Hope you do it, would be a nice entertaining read in both. On another note, when the Kawasaki 900 first came out I wanted one so bad it hurt!!!!! Could not afford it. Looking at your restoration, it hurt again!!!!! Still can't afford it.

Thank you as always Rich!

When I was a lad of 16 (1977) I spent a year living in the south of France in Nice, and the post cafe racers would buy the SOHC 750s and the 900cc Z1s and KZ Kawasakis, put lurid paint and loud pipes on them and frankly terrorize the city, stoplight to stoplight. I was out of my mind with object lust for one of these things, and at the time the thing I lusted after the most was a Z1. This one is headed to Switzerland in the spring, but happily I have a second one and a reasonable pile of parts for it, and before too long I am going to to a medium restoration on it (famous last words). That one is going to be a keeper I think

P.S. I really should take your advice and write something. Would be fun. That's a great idea.

N.

[rpleines]

" I am going to to a medium restoration on it (famous last words). "

I don't believe that for a second.

[NobleHops]

" I am going to to a medium restoration on it (famous last words). "

I don't believe that for a second.

I frankly squirm at the prospect, in fact .

[NobleHops]

Let's talk about wheels - we have been doing some interesting wheel projects mixed in with everything else.

We are restoring a 1981 Honda CB750F on the other side of the shop and those normally wear skinny Comstars stock. Those are OK but my customer wanted to do something a little more custom so we hunted up a set of 1100F wheels, plus an 1100F swingarm and front axle and put that all together (with help as always from Dave). But they were a little tired-looking, so a quick trip through the vapor blaster for cleaning and to roughen the surface in preparation for paint was called for.





We pulled the rotors off and sent them off to TrueDisk for grinding and drilling.



Then we masked them up for repainting, using the truing/balancing stand to hold them as we worked. Note that we did not remove the factory paint, it was stuck down there quite well, we just cleaned it and degreased it and painted over it. Worked great, saved steps.





Then we masked up the balance stand, brought it into the spray booth, and painted them.



Finally a new set of bearings and spacers were installed, you know, WHILE WE WERE THERE, and of course new tires and stems, slightly wider doe to the wider wheels. Bueno. This all worked really well. The wheels and rotors look new, and were easier to prep and paint because they were spotless including in all the crannies and crevices.





Last week a customer bought a set of vintage Lester mags for a custom SOHC bike he is building. These Lesters were in great condition, straight with pretty much zero in the way of dings or flaws, but the paint and the aluminum was tired-looking. He's a big fan of the vapor blast finish as is, and so the project was to strip the original paint all the way off, and then clearcoat them. So that's what we did.

The patient(s):











We vapor blasted them, stripping the paint in the process:





Then these got sprayed with Eastwood's Diamond Clear. This photo is actually a test wheel from a Yamaha that we were playing with - we shot clear on one side and matte on the other, and the consensus was that the glossy clear over the satin vapor blast finish was gorgeous.



Presto: They look fantastic.







We did the brake panel and sprocket carrier while we had them, and also blasted his brake rotors, which are also getting cleared on their centers. Check out the brake shoes too, put those babies right back in that wheel.



Rotors before and after:







Happy wheels!

[NobleHops]

Excited to announce some news for the new year that we have been hatching for a little while.

FREE SHIPPING ON VAPOR BLAST PROJECTS BY RESTOCYCLE!




Effective 1/1/2017 RestoCycle is now offering free return shipping to our vapor blast customers for their projects, as well as deeply discounted inbound shipping. We would not be able to do this without the support of our shipping partner UPS, as they have extended additional discounts to us in order to make this possible.

Here's how this works:

Visit our website to get an idea of what your project might cost by viewing the representative projects gallery, or better yet, complete the online ordering form and request a quote. You can easily upload photos of your project right there on the form and we will get right back to you with a firm quote.

On the order form, include the weight and dimensions of your box(es). We will use that to generate inbound shipping labels that we will email to you, which will cost about half of retail shipping costs at places like the UPS Store, or PakMail.

Print and tape the label to your (well packed) box and drop it at any nearby UPS Store or depot for free. The closest drop off locations will be in the instructions on your label.

We will bill you at cost for the inbound shipment, along with the charges for your project when it is complete, via an emailed invoice. Click right in the emailed invoice to pay online with a credit card, and your parts (and shipment tracking info) will be on their way back to you just a few days after we get them.

Click here to see a gallery of representative projects and their pricing: http://www.restocycle.com/what-does-vapor-blasting-cost

Click here to request a quote on a vapor blasting project: http://www.restocycle.com/vapor-blasting-order-form

THANK YOU ALL for your support of our business these past two years. Your support and the great feedback we have received along the way has been fantastic, and we are very excited to be able to offer this to you moving forward. Please be in touch anytime with questions or comments, we're always glad to hear from you.


Sincerely,

Nils Menten
RestoCycle LLC
Tucson, Arizona, USA
nils@restocycle.com
http://www.restocycle.com
(520) 308-3705

[daves79x]

This a great offer Nils! I can't speak highly enough of the work Nils does. The photos shown on the link do not even do the work justice. Give it a try!

Dave

[Jeff Bennetts]

Good timing Nils, this might motivate me enough to start a couple projects I have and get a few things out to you.

Well Nils when are you going to open the powder coating part of your business?

JB

[NobleHops]

You guys are awesome as always. Thanks so much.

Jeff, I did scrounge an oven primarily for the purpose of curing paint and warming up parts for extractions, and I do have a spray booth and so I have been planning on dabbling in powdercoating at least for my own projects, but that is a thing unto itself and so I don't think I will go full scale with that anytime soon.

However I DO know a guy named Tom K that is pretty active with DOHC stuff and he does some really nice 'craft' powdercoat work, including things most shops dislike like brake calipers and MCs. I'll see if he wants more work, but if he does, what I saw of his was really nice.

Happy New Year guys!

[NobleHops]

Jeff, drop a line to a guy named Tom Kerxhalli next time you need really nice powdercoat work done. He is in Massachusetts. Great guy, the work looks excellent. Well regarded.

http://www.tomscyclerecycling.com/

[NobleHops]

Hello gang,

Here's your spring update from RestoCycle.

We have been, as we like to say, "busier than a one-armed paperhanger" since the first of the year. The staff has grown as has our network of suppliers and collaborators, and we have done some fun projects along the way. Here's a roundup:


We built a sweet CB750F restomod for a customer, starting from this solid-but tired bike we purchased here in Tucson. This bike got the full-monty frame up process, paint and powdercoat, 1100F wheels, RaceTech fork, Ikon shocks, 1100F swingarm, total repaint, full engine rebuild including the addition of 900F pistons and cams, an oil cooler, and much more. We borrowed the graphics from a 900F as well and changed the tank over to a smooth-sided look too.






At the other end of teh spectrum, a local customer asked us if we could put one of his late father's bikes back on the road, make a fun rider out of it. "Sure!" we said, "That looks like it's most of the way there already!" Little did we know . Pound for pound this little rig gave us a good fight, requiring an engine rebuild, sourcing the unobtanium exhaust from all over the world, a total rewiring, and decrypting the mix and match of different components that were on it and making them work together. It's done, its fun, and we learned a ton, so it's all good.






A great customer in California gave us two identical bikes to build, one he wanted to make a solid rider, and one that he wanted fully restored. Both 1981 Honda CB750C "Custom" bikes. I have to say, I fell in love with these bikes by the time we finished, Honda really did a nice job on the 'factory custom' package and although I wasn't a fan of them at the time, I am now. As usual we got a little carried away chasing perfection on both bikes but we got a great result and a very happy customer so all is well. Many thanks to the uber-talented Mike Venhaus (CopperCollar) for his incredible skill and talent when it came to assembling bike # 2 up against a deadline.






We flipped a neat little BMW R65 that we should have stayed away from...




...got a lot of practice rebuilding Koni and Ikon 7610 shocks...





...sold and customized quite a few more pair of new Ikons...



...and of course we did a ton of restoration projects for customers, rebuilding forks, vapor blasting engines, and more.


Building a RaceTech'ed fork




Another vapor blasted Z1 engine:






A custom quad engine:



A hotrod Kohler V-twin tractor engine used in tractor-pulling competition:




Honda CL 350 engine:




A ton of BMW work:




Harley-Davidson:



...and more.

Having fun, working hard, all is well.

Hope your spring projects are winding down and your summer motorcycling plans are winding up.

[steve murdoch icoa #5322]

Glad to see business is booming and that you are still having fun with it, Nils.
Having seen the skills that Mike used to put together a couple cool CBXs, no doubt he will be a big asset for you.

[NobleHops]

Glad to see business is booming and that you are still having fun with it, Nils.
Having seen the skills that Mike used to put together a couple cool CBXs, no doubt he will be a big asset for you.

Mike is all that. I just had him for a "special guest star" week, but he is an unstoppable machine and super skilled and talented. It was awesome working with him.

Thanks as always for the good words Steve.

N.