Spring cleaning - of fins...

Time to start the re-assembly of Theodora. I'm spiffing up the paint job & am wondering the best way to polish the fins on the head. Although I'd like to remove all traces of paint on the jugs and re-spray them, with the engine in the bike, that's going to be a real challenge on all counts from stripping to spraying.

So I'm thinking my best logical bet is to clean as much loose paint as there is off the painted surfaces and use a fine brush to apply high temp black PJ-1 paint to those areas. The upper fins were not painted and were straight aluminum but they need to be cleaned just as well to make things look right. The valve covers I've now stripped (Thanks Fitz & Rick for the suggestions) and will paint & then sand off the high embossed areas with wet emery cloth to maintain the striping & YICS insignia on the valve cover.

My question is how to best get into the crevices in the fins to either buff free the paint or burnish the aluminum? I thought about taking some 3M pads, cutting them into strips and then take a piece of brazing rod with a snag on the end to grip the 3M pad to make a little buffer tool & put that in a drill to be able to probe into the fins to get the job done.

That'll be a PITA & unwieldy. Is there a better idea that will work as well or easier?

 

Do you own a Dremel?

How about a sandblaster? (Even one of those real basic homeowner paint-stripping ones?)

I use my primitive Sears sandblaster for DIY soda-blasting and it works way better than it ought to.

Also, you'd be amazed at how much you can do in the way of spray painting with the engine still in the bike; you just have to be creative and very thorough with the masking.

 

Dremel yes. Not sure what kind of bit would be long-lived and still get in crease after crease.

No, no blasters of any kind. Not sure how you'd reclaim the soda after it hits the target & is blown everywhere. Seems like it would be unwieldy unless I did it at the beach. Never seen soda/sand blasting outside graffiti removal & the enclosed box with gloves to blast things like spark plugs. Does sound interesting but I don't have the tools & the expense is too much at the moment.

Need to find the cheapest good way.

 

Does the soda blasting with baking soda actually work? What would you suggest to use for soda blasting?

 

Yes soda blasting does work and in general is safe for aluminum but mostly removes pant not oxidation. If using any blasting medium around a bike triple seal every engine opening as they will strip the inside of a motor faster than the outside.$$$$ Lager auto body supply shops will carry industrial grade baking soda meant for blasting. As for the dremal tool use the tiny flap wheel sander if you can find one that has the fine grit paper on it.

 

Think my interest is in rotary tools or the like to clean. Guess I'll stick with my original idea. A dremel SS bristle brush would be a good choice but all the ones I see won't let me go straight inside, they look like a mushroom and only can get the outer rim of the crevasses.

Think I need to be creative...

 

Soda blasting does work well. I bought a cheap POS little blaster from Harbor Freight and bought like a 5lb. bag of soda (packaged for swimming pools) for like $5. Works way better than I thought it would.

 

Ah Pffft, just looked at them from Harbor freight. I don't have any kind of compressor so that's out. Yup... Dremel will have to be my lifeboat...