OK so im in the middle of bobbing out my savage and was gonna post the whole build when i eventuall finish it but i just had to post this cause it looks SWEET .  so basically what i did to prep the paint job was first polishing the upper fins.  took a dremel to it first and lightly scraped the layer of metal off the fins.  Then the demanding work of hand sanding the fins down.  started with an 80 grit paper then 100, 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, and 1500 using up every square inch of paper I bought for each level of grit.  finally finished it off with polishing compound.

Prepped by wrapping all the bits in Tin foil, alot easier to use i feel then newspaper. and taped every opening


after polishing, i taped the fins using pinstriping tape.


after three coats of engine enamel paint, peel away tape and ta da!


what i did was leave the old bolts on but just losened the threads and painted over everything.  after letting the paint dry. it was easy to remove the bolts and replace with SS allen head bolts i got on ebay as a kit.  makes it pop IMO!


ill post the full build when im done

THAT IS AWESOME!!!!
clear coat hi temp(is there such a beast?) to protect the fins...

Beautiful job.

thumperclone wrote on 08/09/10 at 18:15:41:


there is but i havent done that yet  prob should give it a layer of clear coat although my buddy did the same to his vtx without clearcoating the fins and no issues.  and he does ride in the rain.  prob just give her a nice rubdown if she gets wet  

Yeah, the problem with painting the fins though is that since the Savage is air-cooled, those fins actually serve a purpose (cooling the engine), so having the exposed metal is probably a lot better than having a "blanket" or clearcoat insulating it.

I've also never seen any oxidation issues with people that have chosen to polish their fins, so the point is probably moot.