Topic: Pitted motor covers... Options?

[bcart82]

Hey all,

After asking the forum's opinion and doing some digging, I've decided not to rebuild my engine, nut instead I'm just going to clean it up.

I pulled all the engine covers - valve cover, stator, gear, chain, points, clutch, etc. The aluminum is pretty bad.

I just stripped whatever was left of the clear coat off, and there's a lot of pitting. What are my options? I'm considering sanding and painting to match the original case covers - except the clutch inspection and points cover, they'd stay shiny.

Is there a way to fix pitting and get a good polish?

Anyone know of a place that specializes in that? My polishing skills are beginner at best.

[BobbyR]

The aluminum can be brought up to a perfect shine. You sand off the white oxide and pitting. Start with a rougher paper and work your way down to very fine paper. You can buy buffing rouge sticks and drill mounted buffing wheels from Sears and other places. You start with the most aggressive and go down to the mildest.

You will be amazed at the deep shine you can get.

[Rigid]

I have glass bead blasted and clear coated with good results.

[Stev-o]

I like polishing like Bobby has already suggested but I have seen them powder coated as well.

[d9canada]

I posted some info on doing polishing for the DIY crowd or you can have it done professionally pretty cheap.  It's amazing how quickly you can bring pitted stuff back.  Just sand it pretty aggressively with wet/dry with water and just a bit of dish detergent, start with 150, then 300, 600 then off to the buffing wheel with brown (aka tripoli) compound.  I found Duplicolor clear works best and if you can put them somewhere really warm like an oven at 150-175F for a half hour or more, that really helps for durability.

[bcart82]

Well this is good news. Looks like I've got some sanding to do. I'd much rather polish the pieces than paint them.

I'm surprised to hear the mention of using a drill to polish. I've always used a die grinder... Maybe I'll try slowing down and using a drill this time.

[Stev-o]

Here is some polishing info....

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=60470.msg655788#msg655788

[Hinomaru]

Bcart82, You probably want the natural finish polished covers, but just in case ...

Have you seen the aluminum/ceramic coated finish? Pretty tough stuff the way I understand it and I’ve been thinking about this for my 750K covers. However, I’m still on the fence between this finish and traditional polishing. Pics below are from forum member: 736cc and his bike.

Pretty sure it was done by a company called Jet-Hot: http://www.jet-hot.com/

[bcart82]

Wow, good stuff here guys!

Thanks for the link Stev-o! Sanding anything is where I always screw up, so it's good to get the nitty gritty detail (no pun intended). Without being able to ride, I guess I have no choice but to be patient and diligent with the sanding and polishing.

Hinomaru, that coating looks great!! Definitely going to look into the pricing of that stuff... I'm a sucker for a good deal that keeps me away from the detail work