$50 modification thread

[lostsoul74]

It didnt do anything, didnt brighten it, but also didnt discolor it. Which while were on the subject, anyone got any secrets on brightening up aluminum motors besides pulling covers and polishing them?? I've tried bright jelly for aluminum, but really didnt do jack. Half hte time I just use a 400 grit sanding sponge to brighten them up. But i'm sure theres a chemical you can just spray on to remove weathering and tarnish. They've got to make something like jewlery cleaner or something that would work on aluminum. Any tricks you guys got???
I also remember years ago about reading a Muriatic alternative that works the same but also seals the metal so the rust doesnt reapear, (quickly anyways) cant remember what it was, it was hard to pronounce and I knew already what muriatic acid was and ease of use. If anyone knows what that other was let us know and where to get it, sounded like something you had to have a chemical license or some crap for. Hmmm.. now that I think about it, I wounder what jewlery cleaner would do, I dont think i've got anything laying around to try, maybe i'll grab some at big lots or dollar store or something to try it out.

[Hammered]

I picked up a wasted tank from a Yammy R6. I cut the filler out of it and welded it in, centered in place of the offset filler of the stock 1982 Gs tank. Tank cost $30 and it kept me busy all day. By the time Im done it should look as if its meant to be there. I like those modifications that look like "um is that stock?"

Course I still have to cut the tunnel out to fit it to the new backbone, but that will allow me to tig up the inside as well. It will also increase my tank capasity about 3/4 of a gallon I think. The sheel metal for that will come from the donor tank.

[bwringer]

But i'm sure theres a chemical you can just spray on to remove weathering and tarnish. They've got to make something like jewlery cleaner or something that would work on aluminum. Any tricks you guys got???

Aluminum oxide is one of the hardest substances on earth. There's nothing that will remove it chemically without also destroying the unoxidized aluminum underneath. You have to physically abrade it away.

With that said, a couple of cotton polishing wheels that will fit on your bench grinder and some red and white compound might run you $20 or so at Harbor Freight. Use the other $20 for new clutch cover and stator cover gaskets and a new oil level window, remove the parts, and polish 'em.

[reddirtrider]

Aluminum oxide is one of the hardest substances on earth. There's nothing that will remove it chemically without also destroying the unoxidized aluminum underneath. You have to physically abrade it away.

With that said, a couple of cotton polishing wheels that will fit on your bench grinder and some red and white compound might run you $20 or so at Harbor Freight. Use the other $20 for new clutch cover and stator cover gaskets and a new oil level window, remove the parts, and polish 'em.

I've done the polishing act on the 1100, I'm not real keen on doing it again on the 750. I'd like to just get the aluminum back to resemble the dull shine of original. Would bead blasting do that? Walnut shell? How about soda? There's gotta be something out there that's roughtly between leaving the oxide on and a bright, see yourself shine.

[Hammered]

Problem with aluminum is if you dont seal fast after removing the oxide, it starts right up. And ya gotta watch the oil form your hands. I try to remember to put on a set of latex gloves when Im finishing.

[bwringer]

I've done the polishing act on the 1100, I'm not real keen on doing it again on the 750. I'd like to just get the aluminum back to resemble the dull shine of original. Would bead blasting do that? Walnut shell? How about soda? There's gotta be something out there that's roughtly between leaving the oxide on and a bright, see yourself shine.

Any of the above will work, but you still have to remove the parts. Blasting is not safe to do on an assembled engine. Perhaps soda blasting, but you still have to stay well away from the gaskets. It only takes maybe 20-30 minutes a piece to polish them using cotton wheels on a bench grinder if you're slow, and it would probably take longer than that to get in the car (or your other bike) and take them somewhere to be blasted...

If you want a satin finish, just wipe it off every so often to check the finish and stop polishing when it looks the way you want. You'll probably end up just using the red compound to get to that point.

Once the polished parts are back on the bike, give them a nice coat of wax and they're surprisingly durable. I have found out the hard way that the finish won't hold up to road salt (although it can be brought back with hand polishing) but it holds up fine to ordinary weather.


I will warn that the polishing bobs and wheels that mount to a drill are completely useless. You need a lot more speed than any drill will develop.

[Nessism]

The silver Suzuki engines are painted with silver paint. Looks like bare aluminum on the cylinder barrel and head but it's actually paint. The engine cases are clear coated after a brushed finish is applied. I'd love to know what Suzuki used to get the nice fine brushed finish - they sure as heck didn't use hand work like most of us here. I'm currently trying to bring back some engine cases that were previously stripped and polished but the corrosion is deeper than expected. I think this is what happens when someone removes the clear and then leaves the cases to season in the weather - the corrosion can really bite into the metal. Going to try one of those Scotchbrite sanding wheels - maybe the finest one. I've run out of motovation to sit and try to hand sand out all the corrosion pitting.

[makenzie71]

The easiest way to handle the aluminum to prevent oxydation would be to anodize it...which is really the way I'll be going.

This process works EXCELLENT, you just have to up the scale a bit: http://www.warpig.com/paintball/technical/anodize.shtml

Ultimately I would like to anodize my cases, jugs, and head black, gunmetal, or bronze. I'll also be doing my wheels, upper triple, clip-ons, and likely the swingarm I'll be using by that point to match.

Anodizing is resilient to heat, has almost no measurable thickness or weight like powdercoating, and you could actually anodize anything for under $50 (excluding the $25 tub you'd have to buy to coat larger parts like wheels and engine cases.

[reddirtrider]

The easiest way to handle the aluminum to prevent oxydation would be to anodize it...which is really the way I'll be going.

This process works EXCELLENT, you just have to up the scale a bit: http://www.warpig.com/paintball/technical/anodize.shtml

Ultimately I would like to anodize my cases, jugs, and head black, gunmetal, or bronze. I'll also be doing my wheels, upper triple, clip-ons, and likely the swingarm I'll be using by that point to match.

Anodizing is resilient to heat, has almost no measurable thickness or weight like powdercoating, and you could actually anodize anything for under $50 (excluding the $25 tub you'd have to buy to coat larger parts like wheels and engine cases.

According to the article, it works well on forged aluminum, not castings. Let us know how it works if you decide to try.

[reddirtrider]

Any of the above will work, but you still have to remove the parts. Blasting is not safe to do on an assembled engine.

Of course.

What I want is an easy method of remoing oxidation and getting these parts to look original. I'll call some shops later next week to see what they say.

[makenzie71]

It works okay on just about any variety of aluminum so long as you're not going for the extreme colors. Cast aluminum will never look like the bright and shiny red on a Coca-Cola can, but if you're going for basic colors like black or a dark bronze it'll work. You'll never have a sunny yellow engine lol. I got an old dirtbike case/jug/head plate to come out a mottled copper once...that's about as extreme as it gets with cast.

[lostsoul74]

well, after this thread I was up late last night educating myself on various acids and results. While many recommend Phosphoric acid as a better suitable rust removal as it seals itself and turns the rust into iron phosphate where as muriatic acid does an Excellent instant job of rust removal but leaves the area exposed to the elements and speeds up the rusting process without proper sealing. However, this may be great in tanks or areas that will be painted, but as far as exterior areas like chrome and such, it would leave it grey and where the rust was it would be black, not the idea situation for anything exposed. Many who recommend muriatic because it removes the rust instantly without elbow grease and leaves the pits shiney metal, instantly apply two cycle oil or something to help seal it. Perhaps later this afternoon I'll try this out on the parts bike I made my earlier trials on. Also know that baking soda nuetralizes muriatic acid for a post rinse after using in a tank. The use of using soda to clean rust is because there is a small amount of deluted phosphoric acid in the soda, but hardly enough to really do anything quick. And your body itself produced muriatic acid in your stomach, so I guess on a funny note, if your flat broke and cant afford the 10 bucks, you could always puke on your bike lol.

Also note that earlier I stated that Muriatic acid was mild, that I dont even use gloves or anything with it, Muriatic acid is deluted hydrochloric acid, depending upon the strength and delution, it could be quite dangerious, so far i've had no issues with the standard plastic jug stuff I buy at home depo.

Also, NOTE: do not store muriatic acid indoors!!!! the gasses themselves leak from the container and can contaminate and rust everything in the vacinity, I have not yet noticed those effects, but was mentioned while reading with some great examples. I've used this on floors and tubs, tiles, etc on the job, and someone else mentioned hte same and the results after cleaning a floor with it was that everything in the room when finished had a coat of rust on it. I will now go put this outside somewhere as a precaution. Never thought about it till now.


For aluminum unfortunately I did not find any ease of care, though i still yet to see if jewlery cleaner does anything. I did find a mention that muriatic acid does remove oxidation but leaves the aluminum dark grey, I did not see that effect on my trial, in the short time I had it on I saw no effects of anykind.

The only ease of recommendation I found to give it that original factory look is blasting with nuts, anything else (sand, bead) is too harsh, shells are highly recommended and does a great job as I have read. Good excuse to pick up a blaster at harbour freight as theyre cheap enough.

Heres a link to one of hte better sites I came across from a guy thats been working on beater bikes his whole life and what hes discovered works and doesnt work.

http://www.thevincent.com/vinpolish.html

[Old Colt]

One item about cleaning with acids I do not see mentioned here.
Muriatic acid removes rust and clean metal at an equal rate
Phosphoric acid removes rust at a rate much greater than clean metal, as much as a 10:1 rate.
To me this is very important.

[lostsoul74]

Interesting, I have not seen that mentioned in direct relevence anyways, Perhaps those numbers are related to straight hydrochloric acid and not deluted muriatic acid, at least in my case, as soon as sprayed on rust, rust instantly desolved within seconds where as the metal took up to 2 minutes before etching occured.
I know muriatic acid is often used for etching bare metal before priming so i'm definately not arguing with you, but with the deluted store bought stuff i buy at hardware stores, it definately eats rust probably 80 percent faster then bare metal if I had to take a guess at it.
I've heard alot complaints about phosphoric acid taking too long to work, and then you have the whole greying and black effect to worry about if it's something to be seen.
The method I used as talked about above of just spraying it on and rinsing it off within a minute, would of caused no ill side effects with the metal unless left on longer then 2 minutes. The result is nice shiney raw metal where there was rust or pits, you have to immediately seal with something to prevent instant weathering, but for things like chrome and stuff, i'll take that over grey and black oxide.
Again, i'm hardly a chemist and only know of muriatic acid from what has been recomended to me by others in the past adn I've had great results with it, I spent the better half of 4 hours late last night educating myself further on the matter, so I'm by no means an efficiano in the matter, but i would definately prefer muriatic over phosphoric for chrome because i dont want greying or black, kind of defeats the purpose ya know. Actually, since i've got the freetime, i'll head out to the garage now and spray some more on something and then put some oil (i think i'll try engine bright as it leaves a greasy film which i "think" will seal it from weathering), i'll post back in a bit.

[mighty13d]

wow lost, can you throw a couple blank lines in your paragraphs so that it's a little easier to read? lol I don't mind reading it, it just looks like more than it really is all together like that. THANKS!