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Paint and Polish Prep - What am I doing wrong?

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Hi all, finally got a couple of days this week to get started on the 450 again and I think either I'm missing some tools or am just plain doing it wrong.

I'm starting with attempting to paint and polish the motor prior to rebuilding it. I'm intending to paint the head and crankcases with POR-15 Black Velvet high heat paint and polishing up the case covers and starter motor cover and clear coat with POR-15 Glisten PC.

Anyway, I started off paint stripping the start motor cover and valve and valve breather covers. This seemed to go ok although I'm having difficulty getting into the nooks and crannies on the valve cover.

I sanded the starter motor cover with 400 grit, then 800 grit, then 1200 grit sandpaper and then polished it up, but it just seems to still look like crap, a real dull finish.

I moved on to the alternator cover with 400 grit, but all the time I feel like the sand paper I'm using is just wearing out too quick.

I'm using wet/dry paper and constantly dipping it in a bucket of water to try to keep it clean, but it just seems to wear out too fast.

I'm not sure at the moment if I just got bad quality sandpaper or if my technique is wrong, or if perhaps there's some magical tool out there to make it easier than doing it all by hand.

I feel after two days of this that I should have had at least one coat of paint on and at least a couple of parts polished and ready for a clear coat, but perhaps I'm just too impatient?

Can anyone shed some light on what I'm doing wrong or what I can do to make things easier for myself?

I've read through other polishing threads and it seems like what I'm doing is right, but maybe I'm just missing something altogether...
 
Are you using waterproof wet dry sand paper?

Also note sure why you think you need to use the Black Velvet paint?? If you look at my restoration threads , you will see the deep glossy shine of the Black engine paint that is fully capable of withstanding engine heat. It is beautiful stuff.
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Also make sure you used the recommended prep for the Glisten PC. The Metal Ready is only for when you use an opaque color. You don't use that when you buff out a part as it will dull it.
 
Hi Pete,
first of all, i don't see any real "easy" way to polish ally parts. I've done my own casings and it took me a couple of days to do them with the help of a proper buffing wheel and 3-stage polishing mops. Lots of wet n dry paper on that ally is the first step, you got to cut the grooves and rash out of there and get a uniform finish before moving on. If you are going to attempt the polishing by hand with say, "Autosol" or similar, it's possible but it's gonna take time and probably a fair amount of wrist/finger pain too! Invest in a bench grinder and polishing mop at the very least would be my advice.

That sanding should take a couple of hours per casing unless you got serious issues with their condition to begin with? Plenty of water and lots of wet n dry paper is a must (i use a spot of soapy liquid in my luke warm water when i prep for polish). I've never started with 400 grit either, probably lucky that my stuff hasn't been too bad before polishing i s'pose.

Also, i don't quite get the bit about your starter cover, is your cover aluminium then or have i misunderstood something?

Loads of threads on here show polished casings and painted engines with some fantastic looking results, using various paints and techniques. I painted and polished my own motor not so long ago and i love it, stick with it and put that effort in, it'll reward you for sure once it's finished.

Plenty of good paints and a lot of bad out there too, just make sure to get something that you know have given good results for other posters. Prep is the key, cut corners and you will pay for it later, that bit is certain.
Good luck buddy and don't forget to share your piccies :D

DSC01074.jpg
 
All the starter covers on the GSs in my garage are steel. :eek:

That could explain why they are not polishing up for you. You will need to attack them rather vigorously with a grinder and a felt wheel to get any kind of a shine back on that.

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400-600-1000-2000-wet, should be good to go for a high shine. I've even chucked my power drill up in a vise, taped the trigger in the "on" position, and polished all the pieces that I wanted with a small wool pad, then moved on to a black foam pad to finish the parts. Auto body paint stores sell the pads and the velcro surfaced drill adaptor...very affordable, very good results. I use "Mothers" brand mag/aluminum polish. Either gotta have some rpm's or the arms of Popeye to do it by hand.
 
1800 baldor buffer , 550 grit polish . i can do a complete front end in 10 minutes and looks like a mirror
 
Wow thanks for the replies guys, lots of info!

Posplayr: Yes, waterproof it is (although I suspect not high quality).

As for the Black Velvet, the rep over here in Aus recommded the high heat paint for an air cooled engine as the fins will get too hot for their Engine Enamel.

And yes, I have the AP120 ready for the Glisten PC also. I made sure I clarified with the rep everything I need to get the best prepared surface I could.

Yaddy: I do actually have a bench grinder, but only grinding wheels. Looks like I should be getting myself a buffing wheel. I'm not sure what polishing mops are (I'm a bit tool challenged) but I'll have a look around to see if I can find some info.

Unfortunately I've left my bike sitting around for about 6 years and the casings are not pretty at all, so I'm cleaning up with Marine Clean and then going for the 400 grit paper first.

The starter cover appears to be steel rather than aluminium.

And the reason I'm asking lots of questions is because I want my prep to be as good as possible because I also want as good a finish as yours :)

Steve: Aaah yep, mine appears to be steel. Something else to look for to attach to my bench grinder then.

nvr2old: I went 400 - 800 - 1200 but the highest they had at the time was 1500. Depending how I go I may have to look elsewhere for some 2000.

And thanks for the tip on the drill adaptor. I also have Mothers, have used it for many years with good results.

sonnygs1100: You're making me jealous :)

I do have before and after pic's of my starter cover, but am just in the process of getting my photobucket account sorted because I forgot my password, will post them shortly.
 
Ok, got photobucket sorted, let me first apologise for my crap photos, I just cannot ever seem to take one without shaking all over the shop and blurring them.

So here we have the starter cover before:





And after:





It actually appears much better in these photos than it actually is, the flash shines it up when it's still really quite dull.
 
And here's the breather cover before, looks uglier now as it's been sanded and Marine Cleaned ready for Metal Ready and paint:

 
ok you are not sanding enough with the lighter grit to clean up heavier grit left from courser paper . a sticel wheel with some 600 grit compound would clean that right up or a loose moslim wheel with 550 compound would work . you can use a cheap table grinder as your buffer motor and cut about 20 5 inch circles out of tee shirt material then put hole in center of circle to mount to table grinder , put a 2 inch od washer on inside and outside of the 20 piece of tshirt circles and attach to grinder , turn on apply compound while spining and get to polishing
 
you can use mothers , flitz , semichrome , blue magic for compound on your polishing wheel . thier about 1000 grit compounds . and you can use polishing wheel on grinder for alum and steel ( as long as your not bluing the steal )
 
( the grinder kit )not a bad kit but seems realy high priced to me , i have probably 50 different polishing wheels in my shop for different grit compound and who knows how many different grit compounds
 
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Ok, thanks for that. I've only just started looking and that's the first thing I've found.

Haven't looked at hardware stores or anything yet as it's a bit early in the day for that, but that's probably what I'll need to do.

I may have to visit the dreaded Bunnings as their prices are usually pretty good, even though I hate going there.
 
Thanks for the tip sachsaca.

Unfortunately it looks like we may have some large medical expenses on the way in the near future, so I may just have to pause the project again for a while or attempt to keep going just by hand for the moment.
 
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