Vapour blasting

[Fischmann]

Can anyone give me a rough idea of how many hours it would take to do a first-class vapour blasting job on a complete CB550 engine – just looking for a rough idea in order to get a quote

Thanks!

[Nurse Julie]

Do you mean complete as in its still fully assembled or complete as in the engine is fully stripped and all casings need blasting?

[Fischmann]

Fully stripped – it's done 52K and I'm guessing it will need some inner parts replacing, especially if the outward appearance is anything to go by

[amx1992]

Took me 3hrs to blast mine with my slightly underpowered vapour blaster. Make sure you clean everywhere incredibly thoroughly afterwards.

[Fischmann]

3 hours sounds about right to me

I spoke to someone who has suggested it could be as much as 30-35 hours, which I thought was excessive, or outright mad really, as it's basically a working week!

Will have to shop around

[Laverdaroo]

Cameleon vapour blasting in Yeovil, ask for Nathan and say you got the number from Roo,if you can get it there he's first class and cheap.

[Fischmann]

Thanks Laverdaroo!

Edit: and their website is very inspiring, thanks again

[Laverda Dave]

If Roo's suggestion fails (it shouldn't but just in case) and seeing you are in the south east you could give I Cleenz Machineez a call, they are in Penge, south London. Speak to Kane, his work is excellent, they blast porker engines and understand all the pitfalls of vapour blasting. I have had three motors blasted by them and never had a single issue but try Roo's suggestion first as I-Cleenz are not cheap, I paid £400 for my 400/4 engine about 5 years ago.

[SteveW]

I went to see RD Cox in Reading just before lockdown. They said around £125 for the head and barrel of my 550.
They seemed pretty switched on, had dozens of bike engines waiting to be done and others all finished.
Hopefully they’ll be doing mine later this year.
RD Cox are the people Allen Millyard used for his amazing creations.

[Lobo]

Whoever you choose, whatever they tell you, be SURE to thoroughly wash and blast the pieces clean afterwards. I was told by my (very good) guy that, “Ah, I’ll clean 99% of the beads away”….. which gives you a false impression. Coz 1% is still a bloody lot.

Wash, air-line blow out everything, wash, and air-line blow again. Watch you eyes when blowing out galleries, screw holes and blind corners etc.

[royhall]

My 750 engine was done by Higgspeed (the 2 stroke exhaust people) and it cost £125 all in. They had it ready for me in 3 days. It came back full of blast media though, took me ages to make sure it was all gone. That said, no matter how sure you are about your cleaning you can never 100% guarantee you got every single bead. Just got to hope that if you miss a bead or two they get trapped in the filter. That's the sixth bike engine I have had vapour blasted and so far no problems on that front.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

[Fischmann]

Thanks everyone for the sound advice – I'll probably get in touch with Chameleon first as I like the look of their Cerakote work

[Matt_Harrington]

Cameleon vapour blasting in Yeovil, ask for Nathan and say you got the number from Roo,if you can get it there he's first class and cheap.

+1 for Nathan - decent bloke and knows his stuff - and yes, pretty good value!
Matt