Now here's something..........

[CINDERS]

LMAO Peter nice one

[browningautorifle]

Sten gun sights needed a trefoil warning

Pretty funny...

[catman]

Peter, this is off gun topic, but since you asked....... ( sorry)
My bike is/was, a 1982 Kawasaki, KZ 750, E-3. I bought it new off the show room floor.
About 6-7 years ago, I decided it needed a new valve cover gasket, and couldn't stop myself.
I tore the thing down to the frame and retro'd it to a custom, modern day, rice rocket, as we call them down here.
I stripped all the the engine casings off and gave the rest of the motor to a local drag bike performance engine shop to bore and port and replaced the spring loaded, auto cam tensioner with a manual tensioner.. I modified the clutch pack. I replaced the plug wires and caps with Taylor 8 mm green and yellow fluorescent wires and caps.
I had all the Alum. casings and all the other Alum parts, except the carbs, Anodized every color possible, about 35 parts in all.
Had the frame and swing arm, powder coated black and red. I removed all the rest of the factory parts and replaced them with custom made parts, all hand made, by me. Custom made, rear sets and controls/ pegs, clip on's, chain guard, kick stand, nuts, bolts, tie rod linkage and bearing housings, are all made from highly polished stainless steel. I made the License tag holder from Alum and had that chrome plated and replaced the lights with L.E.D.'s.
I took an old fiberglass European style, mono seat and re-glassed and contored it, to fit me and covered it with red and green upholstery with white bead trim and made brackets to mount it on. Then, I added a small bullet fairing on the front and made custom brackets for it from highly polished S.S. which also holds the head light on.
The remainder of the bike, mostly the gas tank and seat assy,, I painted (airbrushed) in multi colors, with metallic colors in a turtle shell pattern with a yellow boarder in between the colors/pattern and then sprayed multi colored metal flakes, in the clear coats. (Why settle for 1 color, when you can have them all). The other parts are painted in single colors, but none 2 the same.
I rebuilt the brake system's and replaced the master cylinders with new after markets and replaced the lines with new, blue and red colored lines.
Every other nut, bolt, bearing and cable, has been replaced too. I also replaced all the wiring and connections with new ones.
I replaced the exhaust system with a chrome, Vance and Hines, 4 into 1 header.
I'm looking at buying new carbs and currently designing a new dash board, that I will have made from Alum. on a CNC and then chrome plated.
I shaved off about 50 lbs from the original total weight and added about 15 HP.
Its not really a "show bike", but does look cool, if you like a circus.
After its all done, I might ride it again. Maybe......
Chuck

[Merle]

I wasn't thinking of something on an industrial or chemistry lab scale, more something used to clean a dirty oven. And don't forget, I was born before the days of health and safety. Think boiling carbon trichlorethylene vapour degreasing tanks that whole Centurion tank gearboxes could be immersed in. And battery shops where you worked in cotton boilersuits stripping batteries and rebuilding them and working with radium laced hospital equipment, gauges and gun sights................. And even worse than that, flying in one of those RAF twin rotor Belvedere helicopters. With the petrol for the return flight - over uncharted jungle - strapped inside, in 40 gallon drums! No wonder nobody else ever purchased them!

I'm surprised you are still alive! Don't let our OSHA find out about you, as I'm sure you would be quarenteened to to protect the rest of us!

[Gil Boyd]

Take them into a professional alloy wheel refurbishe is my advice................not worth all the hassle IMO.
But one things for sure Peter the wheels will look like new, especially if you have hit the kerbs a few times...............then you have to start on the car of course

[Brian Dick]

One of the citrus based cleaner/solvents might work on aluminum.

[Merle]

Peter, this is off gun topic, but since you asked....... ( sorry)
My bike is/was, a 1982 Kawasaki, KZ 750, E-3. I bought it new off the show room floor.
About 6-7 years ago, I decided it needed a new valve cover gasket, and couldn't stop myself.
I tore the thing down to the frame and retro'd it to a custom, modern day, rice rocket, as we call them down here.
I stripped all the the engine casings off and gave the rest of the motor to a local drag bike performance engine shop to bore and port and replaced the spring loaded, auto cam tensioner with a manual tensioner.. I modified the clutch pack. I replaced the plug wires and caps with Taylor 8 mm green and yellow fluorescent wires and caps.
I had all the Alum. casings and all the other Alum parts, except the carbs, Anodized every color possible, about 35 parts in all.
Had the frame and swing arm, powder coated black and red. I removed all the rest of the factory parts and replaced them with custom made parts, all hand made, by me. Custom made, rear sets and controls/ pegs, clip on's, chain guard, kick stand, nuts, bolts, tie rod linkage and bearing housings, are all made from highly polished stainless steel. I made the License tag holder from Alum and had that chrome plated and replaced the lights with L.E.D.'s.
I took an old fiberglass European style, mono seat and re-glassed and contored it, to fit me and covered it with red and green upholstery with white bead trim and made brackets to mount it on. Then, I added a small bullet fairing on the front and made custom brackets for it from highly polished S.S. which also holds the head light on.
The remainder of the bike, mostly the gas tank and seat assy,, I painted (airbrushed) in multi colors, with metallic colors in a turtle shell pattern with a yellow boarder in between the colors/pattern and then sprayed multi colored metal flakes, in the clear coats. (Why settle for 1 color, when you can have them all). The other parts are painted in single colors, but none 2 the same.
I rebuilt the brake system's and replaced the master cylinders with new after markets and replaced the lines with new, blue and red colored lines.
Every other nut, bolt, bearing and cable, has been replaced too. I also replaced all the wiring and connections with new ones.
I replaced the exhaust system with a chrome, Vance and Hines, 4 into 1 header.
I'm looking at buying new carbs and currently designing a new dash board, that I will have made from Alum. on a CNC and then chrome plated.
I shaved off about 50 lbs from the original total weight and added about 15 HP.
Its not really a "show bike", but does look cool, if you like a circus.
After its all done, I might ride it again. Maybe......
Chuck

So, where's the pictures?

[catman]

Pic's ? well since I never completely finished it, I have never took any pic's. But I'll drag it out 1 day and take some for ya.
Chuck

[villiers]

Funny that .... headline news in the German papers today .... the national MOT agency TÜV has just announce a priority warning that alloy wheels have started to crack and disintegrate. Doesn´t trouble me as I´m a biker (with spoked wheels).

[jmoore]

Funny that .... headline news in the German papers today .... the national MOT agency TÜV has just announce a priority warning that alloy wheels have started to crack and disintegrate.

They're just now figuring that out? The old magnesium wheels started doing that ages ago. Once the anodizing is off the cast aluminum wheels, they can do the same. Spun wheels are apt to be more corrosion resistant, as are some of the billet jobs, depending on the alloy used.