Refinishing heads and engine cases - who's the expert?

Hi,
I was told that there is a member on your site who is an expert and refinishing heads and engine cases! My, what a fine man among thieves he must be!
I've got an old '81 XS that I'm trying to fix up, and I was wondering if I could get a recommendation from him on how to refinish the engine cases and the heads.
What method of refinishing should I choose?
For example, flat black on the heads, with polished edges on the cooling fins?
Chrome the whole thing? Black chrome?
Paint the whole thing?
Just sand and buff everything?
Bead blast? Walnut shell blast?
Should I treat the cases differently from the heads?
So many questions!!!
Can someone put me in touch with the expert?
Thanks,
Jason

 

A whole lot of folks on this site have restored bikes, I don't know that any of us claims to be an expert; no matter how good an idea, it seems a better one always comes along.

How you finish it is up to you, how you get there is a different matter. I can offer the following:

Flat black is relatively easy and very good results can be got with "rattle-can" Duplicolor engine enamel, the 500* stuff, not the 1200* "VHT."

Chrome is expensive.

Black chrome is MORE expensive, and not a "tough" finish.

If you want shiny-polished; or even chrome-like polished, then the old original clear lacquer coat has to be stripped off first. This can best be accomplished using Aircraft Paint Stripper. Then wet-sanding starting with 800 grit, then 1200 then start polishing. How shiny depends on what you want.

SODA blasting is the way to go; it gets the aluminum clean and what residue it does leave is easily washed away.

Do a forum search on "polishing aluminum" and see what you get; there have been quite a few different articles on the various techniques used by members.

 

I won't claim to be an expert but since I rarely have less then 2 or 3 cans of Nevr-dull on my shelf, I'm always looking for better ways to clean and polish aluminum cases, engines etc.

One of the best ways for me has been to use compound first, grit dependant on the existing finish, then either hand polish with nevr dull or machine polish. The nevr dull leave a coating slowing future dulling. Some guys use 1000 to 2500 wet/dry starting low and working their way to the finer grades, then finish with a polish......the one we all agree on is there is no magic bullet that will allow us to "dip and get a mirror finish"...it just doesn't exist.....

jeff

 

Contact member "Mad_Bohemian" who does polishing work.

Someone sent out a motor for soda blasting - - cost $100, looked awesome, but without further protection, road grime and oil would soak into the clean aluminum.

Items like covers can be sent out for "chrome" powdercoat which will at least be lifetime durable with no effort, just money.

For $14.00 I bought a Harbour Freight mini sandblaster and have run baking soda thru it with good results so far, next is throw together a booth, cause MAN dust goes everywhere !!

 

Spend $20 on a bag of Soda blasting medium; the dust isn't so bad. I run it through my sandblaster, outside.

 

Magic Bullet Found

Not economical but nothing powered by FM (freaking Magic) is

 

Yeah, I saw that a couple of weeks ago. Jay Leno was having one of his friends do it on Jay Lenos garage. Most of the distributors aren't completely setup as of yet but that chrome finish is amazing. I found a couple of places selling the base materials and as expected, it's expensive.....................................but I'm still hoping for the aluminum polishing magic bullet<LOL>!!

Reminds me of the old Tarnex commercials where the guy would dip an old silver platter and it would come out seconds later looking brand new.....nope, nothing like that for aluminum yet.


jeff

 

you might want to follow this thread. Looks preety inspiring to me. i am going the same way with mine.
http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=29199.html

 

Now if that aint one hell of a compliment then I dont know what is.

Thanks brother

 

Or you can go "old school" with elbow grease and Mother's Billet Metal Polish (among other things.)




No powder coating; no machine buffing.

 

A thread or two for you to peruse:

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic ... eight.html

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic ... eight.html

Investing a few bucks at Harbor Freight and a hand drill and/or a bench grinder will shine you up just fine. I have found that it's fun to do and the results are amazing!!!

Loren