Case Painting ?

[isleoman]

I bought a set of cases (thanks Ray) that were reassembled for shipment to me. I think I want to paint the cases and have access to bead blaster at work.

Question is can I / should I leave the upper and lower halves assembled and just tape over the case covers and piston hole openings or should I disassemble the cases and remove the tranny to bead blast and paint.

I haven't disassembled cases before and am a little worried about not being able to get all the bead media off the inside of the cases. If I leave the halves together my builder will be dis-assembling and re-assembling everything anyway.

Ray had the cases apart to remove the crank so there probably isn't any sealant between the case halves now but all the bolts a snug, would the bead media blow through the case mating surfaces anyway?

[Mindless]

I'd split the cases and strip them clean from all the bearings and stuff just to be on the safe side if I was going to blast them.

The media can get into the most unlikely places and when you're about to fire the bike up for the first time, you don't want a load of that in the engine or things are bound to go bad soon.

Talking from experience here since I do quite a bit of blasting for people. When you think you've masked everything off properly - think again.

[Nessism]

I agree. Break it all down. I'd even go so far as to suggest keeping the media out of the oil galley ports as much as possible and when you are done, scrub the crap out of everything with soap and water really well before painting and reassembly.

[isleoman]

Thanks guys just the input I was looking for.

[kirkn]

Nessism has got it bang on the dot. You'll NEVER keep the grit out by just taping. I've done it a number of times, and no matter what, grit will get in, and it'll trash the mating/meshing surfaces in no time.

And even then, the clean up afterwards is very important. Lots of flushing, rinsing, scrubbing and flushing some more.

It's not difficult, but it DOES require a certain amount of almost-anal persistance.

Just my two cents on the process.

Kirk

[sharpy]

Can always find a place that acid/chemical dips the cases like i did and save any hassles about beads floating around. Comes up shiner aswell. Lower cases arent painted standard on the silver engines if u want to be fussy. A good scrub with scotch pads or stainless staeel soap pads makes the lower halfs more shiner. Then if was painted with VHT universal aluminiun paint baked in a oven at 180F for a hr.

[nvr2old]

I, too, am freaked out about blasting an engine block for all the reasons mentioned. It's just too risky. I always just brush aircraft stripper on the engines I'm going to paint. That stuff is nasty, but man does it clean a block. That way you can simply mask off the openings before you coat it, and hose it down after scrubbing the old paint off with a red 3M pad (wear thick rubber gloves and eye protection!). Sand with 400 grit wet, etch prime, paint. No disassembly required, no chance of any grit getting anywhere it shouldn't.

[isleoman]

I, too, am freaked out about blasting an engine block for all the reasons mentioned. It's just too risky. I always just brush aircraft stripper on the engines I'm going to paint. That stuff is nasty, but man does it clean a block. That way you can simply mask off the openings before you coat it, and hose it down after scrubbing the old paint off with a red 3M pad (wear thick rubber gloves and eye protection!). Sand with 400 grit wet, etch prime, paint. No disassembly required, no chance of any grit getting anywhere it shouldn't.

nvr2old,

I like your suggestion as well, and may go that route.

[simon kuether]

I had my engine soda blasted while it was still complete . It was then completely broken down for a rebuild . "Grit" got into the points area and that was about it . I sealed all the openings but forgot this one spot .
When the engine was re-assembled , I washed it with a wax and grease remover then painted it with VHT .
I then took all the covers off and gave them a bit of a polish.
Very happy with the results .



Cheers , Simon .

[jwhelan65]

I had my 1100 media blasted while still completely assembled. I taped off the side covers really well and had him tread lightly around the exhaust and intake ports. I used several layers of latex gloves in all the ports and taped off over that. Time will tell I guess..

[oohsam]

I just finished media blasting mine whilst assembled too.
Got a tiny bit of grit in some spots when I opened up the top cam cover.
I did seal it all up, but probably not as good as I could have.
A few rinses and it looks fine.
I have 4 engine flushes planned when its all painted with some thin clean oil each time until I put the good stuff in....just to flush out any residue that I would have missed and defiantly made its way inside the engine somewhere...

As per jwhelan...time will tell! hehe...

[oohsam]

Oh One more thing. If I knew how messy this was going to be...I wouldn't have done it.
I did try some industrial stripper but it hardly worked. I should have got some airplane stripper.
The problem with media blasting is that yes, it does work very very well. Got rid of allot of gunk that built up over 30 years...
But the clean up is so annoying. There is grit everywhere. I have been cleaning, blowing, vaccumming (not washing as this will generate rust on my bare metal case) and prep-ping for paint for 2 days and still not done...I just seem to get frustrated and go inside and watch tv.
I'll be spraying it with grease and wax cleaner/remover and wiping the whole thing down then painting it.

It should be done tonight and i'll post some pics of how it turned out...fingers crossed!