Engine Detailing

[Nbing]

Anybody got any tricks on making the engine on these things shine? Especially the cooling fins for the head, can never get those things polished! The bike is pretty oxidation and covered in gunk! I used power purple to get most of the dirt off, but still is really dull. All tips appreciated, also, while I have the engine pulled out of the bike, what maintenance would you guys recommend? Gaskets to replace? Hoses?

Thanks!

 

[wedoo2]

IncompleteOn your first question I think that you will find that most people will clean their motor real well (there will be several ways to do that) and then paint it. There are several good high heat spray paints that you can use once it is real clean. Prepped well and you should be happy with the results. Black, aluminum like it was born with, or you can go Caterpillar and go yellow.
Lots of folks polish the covers to one degree or another. Lots of work, but, again, satisfying stuff. There are many threads on the best way to do that. There are good instructions on painting anything on the site as well.

As to maintenance, you will want to visit BassCliff's website if you have not already had your mega welcome and been there. Keep us posted, with pics. Here is his website http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/

Use the UserCP to post what your bike is.

 

[tkent02]

Rifle brushes chucked in a drill work well to clean in between the fins.

 

[chuck hahn]

They are also covered in hard azz engine enamel and wont "shine up" unless everything is down to bare aluminum. I am , of course, assuming by shine you mean chromish looking.

 

[GhostGS40X]

You have to strip the paint off them first then comes the patience part. You have to ether buy all the buffing and polishing bits for a dremel type tool or polish buy hand using various grits of wet dry sand paper and buffing compounds.

If you want a mirror shine you should find yourself a very comfortable seat that you don't mind getting dirty and prepare for a lot of polishing time spent in it.

Or you could send it out to a professional and pay to have it done.

Did this cover by hand using 220/320/400/800/1000/2000 grit wet dry sand paper and jewelers rouge....

I'd guess approx 6 hours for me to do this.... once I get better at it and start buying more power polishing tools it will cut down on the time.... For now I am having fun and learning different products to use as I go.

As far as the cylinder head goes. I opted to clean it up and paint it. I don't have the tools or the time to polish every fin individually....

 

[chuck hahn]

Especially the time...good god. That would take a month.

 

[SVSooke]

Polish by hand,no thank you.OK it's a few $$ but I've done it by hand,once.

Heck a 6"grinder will do a good job to but the one above has more power.

 

[Nessism]

That Purple Power stuff is uber strong, but corrosive. In my experience it does more harm than good unless you heavily dilute it. Be careful!

 

[GS ace]

Soda blasting parts that have a texture, like cylinder fins, is the ticket. It's very important to completely remove anything oily before attempting it. I've done a couple of Z1 motors, a few KZ650s, and a couple of GSs. On all of them, I found spots here and there that weren't touched by the soda because of oil.

As far as the shiny stuff goes, starting the polishing process with too coarse of whatever type of abrasive used, and not needed, will add a tremendous amount of time to the task. Judging the condition of the aluminum and matching what's started out with is very important.

 

[JEEPRUSTY]

Cheap Kero is also bad what with the sulphur content.
I have had great luck using stell wool soap pads.

It is very time consuming but it works. Slide one intor the groove and work it. You can use a Popsicle stick to force it home.

 

[Nbing]

Thanks guys! I do have a polisher and use majority of the time of my time on it, or in the blaster. GhostGS40X, those things look nice, What type of jewelers rogue did you use? I originally was going to powder coat the entire engine Black, and polish the edges of the fins. In order to do that i'd have to empty the entire engine out though, I think it might be worth it. (any opinions on this process?)
Was black the original color of the bike? When I picked mine up the Stator cover and shifter cover were painted black.

I just got done doing one cover, heres how it looks now (Bad quality). I need to get it some more shine! More sanding, then the buffer.

 

[Nbing]

Some more pics:





And of course, some newly powder coated parts:

 

[trevor]

My tip..send it out to a pro...It's not that expensive. I guess it depends on what you figure you time is worth.

 

[Gorminrider]

Very Nice! Show bike stuff!
However, there's a school of thought out here that likes the duller shine...after the grades of soapy wet and dry sandpaper (I just go 220/400/800/1000) , just go straight to autosol or turtlewax chrome polish.

This is an old picture-
I regret going past this stage to a buffer, myself.

 

[GS ace]

For obvious reasons, a super shiny finish isn't as desirable as one as close to OE as possible when a bike is being shown and the judging is done by folks that know what they're doing. The out-of-the-crate look isn't as easy to get.

At a recent show, a CBX in stock trim had its cam cover polished to a near chrome finish. Nice, but the overall look of the bike was thrown off.

 

[GhostGS40X]

If you are going to polish items on your bike they should at least flow with some sort of theme. Something along the lines of trevor's 750 pictured above. Those polished pieces fit in with the overall look of the bike. it's very clean. I don't see polishing one item and leaving the rest completely stock as much of a theme.... That's just my opinion though......

 

[trevor]

If you are going to polish items on your bike they should at least flow with some sort of theme. Something along the lines of trevor's 750 pictured above. Those polished pieces fit in with the overall look of the bike. it's very clean. I don't see polishing one item and leaving the rest completely stock as much of a theme.... That's just my opinion though......

Thanks Ghost, I had them polished instead of chromed for that very reason. I was warned (here) that polishing would require a lot of maintenance in keeping them that way. I also did the forks. I was told to clear coat them. I'm glad I didn't. It has not been any more work at all. I try to keep my bikes nice and clean and that is all that is needed. Clear coat is why the parts started to look bad in the first place.

 

[GhostGS40X]

Thanks Ghost, I had them polished instead of chromed for that very reason. I was warned (here) that polishing would require a lot of maintenance in keeping them that way. I also did the forks. I was told to clear coat them. I'm glad I didn't. It has not been any more work at all. I try to keep my bikes nice and clean and that is all that is needed. Clear coat is why the parts started to look bad in the first place.

Oh wow.... I have never clear coated polished aluminum. I have even stripped the clear coating off my factory coated aluminum rims and other components. I'd rather clean them every now and then than to have that yellow, foggy pealing look coating gives them...

Once aluminum has been polished all it requires for up keep is to keep it clean and the odd cleaning/conditioning with an aluminum cleaner/wax.

 

[GateKeeper]

nothing wrong with a little bling, if you keep the theme going from start to finish...

 

[Seaking]

you can spend your time polishing the shiny aluminum / chrome parts or be out riding.. I started polishing up the aluminum on my project bike one bad weather day (bored) to see how they would come up (badly corroded and blah looking) and then looked over to my customized VStar with all it's shiny bling.. and remembered how often I have to clean it to keep it looking good..

After 6 hours of polishing, I put the scotch bright to the parts for that brushed aluminum look.. I'd rather be riding than shining parts.. One bike is enough