Topic: Making gaskets

[Mat]

Hey all. Love the forums. I've only posted one thing, that I quickly felt foolish for (I answered my own question quickly with that thing called "research"). But here's something that I'd really not like to learn about the hard way.

I was chatting about buying a gasket set for my new-old bike with a friend, when he told me that I should just make them. Apparently, back in the day he used to just buy gasket sheets and imprint/cut his own.

Has anyone tried this before? If so, what material should I use (there's a lot to choose from)?

I'm pretty new to this nitty-gritty engine stuff, so excuse my ignorance please.

My bike's a '72 cb750, by the by.

[gerhed]

I've made gaskets for fairly noncritical areas like valve covers and waterpumps (Model A).
I use Permatex high temp gasket maker
--just lay down a bead, finger tighten the cover and after an hour
cinch it up.
Always purchased head gaskets, but this stuff could work for that too.

[RatFink84]

I do that w/ my scooter(mostly paper gaskets) but most of the gaskets on my bike are the rubber oring type. I would be pretty leery of making a head-gasket with that stuff.

[Mat]

I've heard of using that stuff, but he was talking about something different. He bought sheets of gasket material.

In brief, he would make an imprint in the material using the piece that needed the new gasket, then cut out the gasket along the imprint from the sheet.

I was just curious if anybody had done this before for their bike(s), and what type of gasket sheeting I should buy. It's more an academic curiosity than anything else, since Z1 gets theirs in quasi-regularly.

[Nikkisixx]

A good auto parts store will have gasket material.  It comes in 12 by 12 sheets of cork, heavy cotton paper and a synthetic material.  For working on older machines that don't have a ready supply of spares, or fixing something NOW when parts are a fedexups away they are great.