Last time out, you’ll have heard me gloating about being the fortunate recipient of a far from shiny example of Kawasaki’s 1976 flagship Z900A4 in boxes for nowt.
I did promise the generous benefactor that I would do justice to his kind gift by restoring it to the very best level I could afford to. To this end the naked aluminium castings would need to be cleaned to the very best standard available in the UK and that meant visiting Greater Manchester with my trusty Nikon. To the best of my knowledge I am the first ‘gentleman’ of the press (if that’s not an oxymoron?) allowed to cross the threshold and see the secrets of Stephen Smethurst’s business (called Stephen Smethurst Casting Renovation). Stephen took a wee bit of persuading, but I did point out that to copy him, someone would need a very big bank account given the huge financial investments he had to make, and even then they wouldn’t have the years of experience and experimentation Stephen has undergone to perfect his system of making aluminium castings appear as if they just left the machine shop.
Stephen had worked his magic on engines for me in the past, so I knew that the quality of his work surpassed that of any of the competition’s efforts that I have ever seen or heard of. Most folk believe that vapour blasting is all that is required to clean engine cases, but this is far from the truth. Vapour blasting alone makes parts look better than they were, but it is far from a serious restorer’s goal.
Denne historien er fra September 2021-utgaven av Classic Motorcycle Mechanics.
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Denne historien er fra September 2021-utgaven av Classic Motorcycle Mechanics.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Honda VFR750R - RC30
If there’s a more worshipped V4 out there, we’ve yet to see it: welcome to our reboot of the awesome VFR750R RC30…
Mountain tension!
Award-winning motorcycle engineer!
Fazer set to STUN!
What do you get when you mix CRK’s lovely café racer kit to Yamaha’s budget middleweight and the recently-retired Martin Fox? Well, one helluva foxy Fazer!
Project Suzuki 1984 RG250 part 4 BRUNO BARES ALL!
This month, while we wait for backorder engine parts, we strip the chassis back to the bare frame, assess what is needed and plan the reassembly…
Project Kawasaki Z900 Stocker part 2 Ralph has a blast!
For the best finish on his Z900’s motor Ralph wants the best, so he visits Stephen Smethurst Casting Renovation to find out how it’s done properly.
Project Suzuki TS400 Part 8 Loom with a view!
We’re getting down into the nitty-gritty this time with component testing and loom building. What could go wrong?
Project Yamaha TX750 Part 12 A question of balance…
Only The Beach Boys had good vibrations… so what’s Mark been up to, to sort out the bad ones coming from his TX750?
Splitting links
Ralph Ferrand works with tools all day long – he sells them too at bikerstoolbox.co.uk so he knows what works.
STAVROS: PRINCE OF PRANKSTERS!
It’s probably fair to say that Stephen JamesParrish’s persona and overall levity throughout his life have muddied the waters as to just how good a bike racer he was back in the day.
Metal magic!
Ralph Ferrand works with tools all day long – he sells them too at bikerstoolbox co uk so he knows what works.. .