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Message started by Jlfosternz on 05/10/13 at 14:12:00

Title: Painting/restoring
Post by Jlfosternz on 05/10/13 at 14:12:00

This is my first post on the forum, so I want to start with saying thanks to everyone else's previous posts! I'm a new rider and bought a 2005 s40 6 months ago. Thanks to these boards I've so far lifted the seat, removed the washer from the carb, drilled out the idle mixture screw, swapped out my muffler for a Harley Dyna, and rejetted the carbs - and now the bike run is running like a champ!

My question though, is about painting. The bike is scratched to the bone on the shells that the fork tubes slide in and out of (not sure what they are called; but I mean the part that attaches to the front tire), and I'm curious if anyone could recommend how best to repaint those? i.e. Any special type of sandpaper to use to sand them down, and any special type of paint or gloss cover I should use? Also, I have the same question for the engine covers on the left side of the bike as they are scratched and rusty (previous owner left it in the rain for 7 years while only putting 2300 miles on it).

Thanks for any help you can give, and for all the help you've already given!

Title: Re: Painting/restoring
Post by Dave on 05/10/13 at 14:24:39

The aluminum fork legs, triple tree yokes, engine side covers and wheel hubs are aluminum that has a surface what was brushed with a sanding drum at the factory - then clear coated. The surface is not completey polished smooth under the clear coat - but has a series of directional scratches that does reflect light.

The clear coat is not excpeptionally durable, and when it breaks down it allows water to get to the aluminum and corrodes it.

Making the surface look line new is tough. The clear coat and bare surfaces need to be the same...either coated or not. The clear coat can be stripped with paint stipper - but then you need to either paint the surface to get it to look good, or you can lightly sand it and buff it and either clear coat it again - or if you don't let it sit out and only ride in fair weather you can leave it bare and polish it regularly.

Some of the people on this site have used Scotch Brite pads to just scratch the corrosion and get the bare aluminum to match the surface under the clear coat.

I had some corrosion on my engine cases. I took them off, stripped the clear coat off, and then machined buffed them. They look good - but the aluminum is very soft and scratches very easily.

Title: Re: Painting/restoring
Post by Jlfosternz on 05/10/13 at 14:47:57

Thanks for the quick reply!

I may have played down just how scratched to the bone they are. The fork legs look like someone took a grinder to them. Below are pics of the fork legs and the engine cases. I'm not sure whether buffing them are still going to be an option. If I strip, sand, paint, and coat them, can I later re-strip and try buffing them?

Fork legs:
http://54.252.92.216/images/fork.JPG

Engine cases:
http://54.252.92.216/images/engine.JPG

Title: Re: Painting/restoring
Post by EJID on 05/10/13 at 15:47:52

Wow! For an 05 that is not just neglect, but abuse of a motorcycle :(

I don't have experience in sanding/buffing the aluminum on these bikes so I will leave the advice to the others, but welcome and hope you enjoy the ride 8-)

p.s. You probably want to check/replace those tires...even though they only have 2300 miles on them they are probably in need of replacment

Title: Re: Painting/restoring
Post by Dave on 05/10/13 at 15:50:57

They could be stripped, sanded, buffed and clear coated - but it will take a considerable amount of time. You would have to sand until you got to the bottom of the corrosion - and they may be deep.

You can strip the clear, sand or sandblast to clean up the surface, and then prime and paint them...then strip it off and paint it later if you want. Powder coating and baking the pieces will require you removing everything from the pieces - which will be a lot of work. You can paint them with the parts mostyl assembled.

Go to the RYCA site....and the customer bikes have a wide range of polishing and painting. You can get an idea of what you might like on your bike.

Title: Re: Painting/restoring
Post by Jlfosternz on 05/11/13 at 08:04:10

Thanks for the help! I may wait until the off-season to do the aluminum and just keep focusing on the chrome for now.... as ugly as the bike looks from this damage, it runs perfectly, bought it for a steal, and love working on it :)

Title: Re: Painting/restoring
Post by Jiggyfly on 05/11/13 at 23:34:27

Buying a set of fork tubes on eBay in better condition might be waaaaaaaay easier.

Title: Re: Painting/restoring
Post by Serowbot on 05/12/13 at 00:02:31

There's a point where deterioration, becomes art,...
the Japanese call it "Wabi Sabi"...
I think I like it...
:)...

Title: Re: Painting/restoring
Post by ToesNose on 05/12/13 at 04:28:26

You could always paint them too ;)

Title: Re: Painting/restoring
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 05/12/13 at 10:12:41

3M green pads on a palm sized jitterbug sander stripped the junk off my cases. Keep a spray bottle of water handy, wet the pads & cases some. YOull learn the optimal amount, about the time youre done,
Rattle can clear works fine,

Title: Re: Painting/restoring
Post by Jlfosternz on 05/12/13 at 12:21:35

Well, with a couple of hours time on each (could have used a couple more), I've done up the left-side guard over the belt and the right side guard over the transmission (pics below). The right side was even worse than the left, so I decided to do it first. Definitely not a show room shine, but a huge improvement... it is definitely turning out a lot easier than the chrome work is.

While I'm sure Wabi Sabi is fine artform, I'm not so sure I want it on my own bike ;D

Belt Cover:
http://54.252.92.216/images/E1.JPG

Transmission cover:
http://54.252.92.216/images/E2.JPG

fixed it -v1

Title: Re: Painting/restoring
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 05/12/13 at 16:55:10

A little jitterbug will create a texture that doesnt have straight lines & knock the crud off real quick., It will create a matte finish that looks really close to stock after the clear. IF ya use the water.

Title: Re: Painting/restoring
Post by ToesNose on 05/12/13 at 16:57:11

Looks like they cleaned up pretty well, did you do it by hand or use a buffing wheel?

Title: Re: Painting/restoring
Post by Jlfosternz on 05/12/13 at 18:36:11

All by hand, but I think I'll go buy a jitterbug to do the rest.

Thanks to the feedback, I just use some paint stripper to take off the gloss, then a 3M pad to knock off as much crud as I could (with or without water, I didn't do as much of the job as I was hoping for). I tried a wire brush at first, but it made too many scratches for my liking. Then used some waterproof 400 grit sandpaper with a little water (by far the longest part of the job), then 800 grit sandpaper, followed by #0000 steel wool, before finally some aluminum turtle wax.

Once I get everything to at least a non-embarrassing state, I'll probably go back and try to get it all show-room shiny. :)

Title: Re: Painting/restoring
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 05/12/13 at 22:58:20

The sander isnt gonna do the little spots, its for rippin across the broad places, well, AND it gets rid of the lines. B4 I went to that I was doin it by hand & I could see there were gonna be all kindsa lines in different directions,, the sander turned it all into one ready to shoot, not textured surface,but all the same, I cant explain it, but its a lot better than how it was gonna look with the hand sanding lines,
ahh! It was one big blurred finish,, kinda matte,Remember to9 use water, lightly, on the pad & when ya see the silverish mush, squirt the pad so it doesnt clump up.

Title: Re: Painting/restoring
Post by WD on 05/13/13 at 10:50:38

I'd have just wet sanded the base material with 320 grit paper and then sprayed it with stainless steel tone appliance epoxy. Looks like metal, seals the base material, much more durable than the factory coating... I'm doing one frame and set of steel fork sliders in gloss black, another in almond (CL72-248cc and CL100-99cc Honda Scramblers). My Savage is getting the engine repainted, was Chevrolet red-orange and I'm a Dodge guy (loathe GM), probably Chrysler Magnum orange to go better with the pumpkin and cream paint job, fork sliders matte black to match the frame unless I decide to pull the engine and do both in almond.

Chrysler/Dodge semi-gloss black engine enamel is a near perfect match to the factory frame color. So frame, engine side panels and fork sliders done in it makes a pretty good tie together color... paint your engine's inner cases, barrel and cylinder head sections a contrasting color and... :o

Title: Re: Painting/restoring
Post by Badass94Cad on 05/13/13 at 14:43:52

I'm in the same boat. Picked up the bike for a steal, but the aluminum cases are all pitted to death (not to mention the rusty spokes!). :'(

I've done a bit of aluminum polishing by hand in the past, and planned to attempt to polish up the parts on this bike (last winter, never got to it).

The technique I learned is this: After removing the clear, use stages of wet sanding. 1000, 1500, 2000 til it's good and smooth. Then I buff the parts with a polishing wheel and rouge on a power drill (I bought a cheap $20 Ryobi since I hated putting pressure on the bearings in my DeWalt). Once it's super smooth, then hit it with some Mothers or equivalent aluminum polish. It will look like chrome/mirror finish, but it's a lot of elbow grease!

Of course there are power buffers/polishers available, but this is strictly DIY on the cheap.

Ultimately, the raw aluminum will need to be protected, using something like Zoops Seal or equivalent, or maintained with polish regularly. 8-)

Title: Re: Painting/restoring
Post by Badass94Cad on 05/13/13 at 14:48:10

Just dug up this old pic. The tank is chrome. The block (big box at end of tank) and end cap were raw aluminum that I polished. 8-)

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/7121/mydc0721.jpg

Title: Re: Painting/restoring
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 05/14/13 at 12:24:33

After trying several ideas I settled on parachute cord w/ the middle strings pulled out. A full wrap on a spoke with some polish of sorts & pulled tight, sliding it back & forth it climbs up & down the spoke,, quickest approach Ive come up with. Still hard!