What's terribly funny is the lack of appreciation for what "casting alloys" constituted 40+ years ago. You will never know with any degree of certainty about the metalurgical composition of these parts. Heck, it could easily have wandered slightly from batch-to-batch, model-to-model, year-to-year.
Obviously every manufacturer changes their processes and materials as time and volumes change. If the early 750K bikes were low production, then more hand time could have been spent and lesser quality alloy used. As demand increased and production numbers flourished, more stable choices for alloys would have been chosen to limit bad production runs and to reduce "handwork" for cosmetic repairs prior to shipping. Nature of manufacturing.
I personally have never seen a vintage alloy engine part (car, truck, plane motor, or motorcycle engine) that was "polished". Never. I'm not saying they didn't exist, but I've never seen one. And I have eyeballed Pebble Beach restores of some 8 figure resotration of European top flight doozies during their restoration and post. I've had extensive exposure to DuPont's restoration and collection and there has never been a polished part resembling the work reflected here. Sure, they have been blasted, vapor honed, tumbled, etc to get a decent luster, but never a high polish.
And to my recollection, Vic has never produced a polished restoration either?
Having said all that, I prefer the high polished result. But I am not interested in a Concours restoration. I prefer "better than" original because time and experience provide wisdom and choices for improvement. To each their own. Love them, pamper them, flog them, whatever. But for God's sake, ride the dogs!t out of them and enjoy them!
