Keeping it in perspective

It’s very easy to get just a little too obsessive with polishing and lose sight of what you are trying to achieve. Before you know it your 1977 350 twin looks more like a something from a certain cable channel’s bike building series.

Most of our machines were never particularly well polished when new, the alloy castings were delivered en masse from the foundry, experiencing a few nicks and dings along the way. After a quick clean they would have been linished on a belt sander to remove any casting flash and polished; if we’re honest they were generally just shown a mop if they were lucky.

Following a vapour degrease to remove any polishing soap the alloy was sprayed with a clear lacquer and that was as good as it got. If you look critically at an NOS engine case you can see the nicks and dings; whether to take them out is a call only the owner can make.

Japanese alloy tends to have fairly high zinc contents and this manifests itself on occasion as a grey/black line. Normally this zinc rich seam will run right through the casting and is therefore impossible to polish out. If you stand back a few feet from the job most of these marks cannot be seen so don’t beat yourself up for no good reason.