I give up polishing....how do I finish my motor?

[Yamahauler]

I started polishing my clutch cover tonight, and didnt get the results i expected. I dont have the right tools i guess. But anyway..what would be a unique way to finish this motor. I dont want it black.

Any suggestions?

[quick5pnt0]

You could always take a scotchbrite pad to it. It'll give it a satin look but since you haven't polished the other side of the case or the cylinder I'm not sure how "even" everything will look.

[Yamahauler]

Yea, dont think it would be too even.

Is all colors of powdercoat heat resistant (enought to withstand cylinder heat)

[edog]

They have special powder for heat resistant.

[Lomax]

what did you polish it with? usually when I take something down to raw aluminum to make it shine I will buff in some mothers billet. That usually does the trick.

[Billy Golightly]

You actually don't look to far from being done. Get a tub of mothers mag and aluminum polish, and a couple packages of fine terry cloths and go to work. An old T-shirt will work too. Anything thats relatively smooth and soft.

[SWIGIN]

heres a pic of eastwoods silver heat powder coat....works great on a 4 stroke pipe

[Yamahauler]

You actually don't look to far from being done. Get a tub of mothers mag and aluminum polish, and a couple packages of fine terry cloths and go to work. An old T-shirt will work too. Anything thats relatively smooth and soft.

Yea. the flat parts are really easy to polish, but its the tight spots that i cant get into. there is also pretty bad pitting and some casting flaws. the picture makes the shine look better than it actually is.

I know it can be done. but not by me, I dont have enough time

I might just might make the clutch cover a differant color than the inner cases, and make the cylinder and head something differant too.

I dont know if i want to use tremclad. I have over $1200 in this motor. I want to make it look good. But just curious. how does the tremclad black and white high heat stuff hold up?

[tyman]

well it doesn't look like theirs alot of tight spots on that clutch cover except for the letters.... you could always continue polishing the cover and just paint the letters black or yellow or something... just a thought though...

[Mosh]

I dont know if it can be done,but how bout having it all ceramic coated,like they do on muscle car headers.It holds up to heat real nice.Might be pricey though.

[Bryan Raffa]

man your real close on that cover,,All ya need is a buffer and some compound

[oldsking86]

Yea seriously you can actually see a good reflection of your hand on there, just a little bit more time and it'll look sweet

[Bryan Raffa]

i use a greaseless compound then switch wheels and use a rouge, a bench grinder with some polishing wheels on it would help alot, but not the best because its the wrong rpm and the shafts are not long enough. Ill take a few picks tonight of the stuff i use

[Yamahauler]

What i did was sand to 800 grit...then i used my buffing wheels with a Dewalt cordless drill.

I used mothers aluminum polish.

I have been looking at the bench grinder buffing wheels, but i dont get how they dont shread at 3450 rpms...the smallest one i can find in a 10 inch.

How do you get the roughness out of the cylinder and head?

[cr480r]

I would paint the cases, and continue polishing on the covers..

[Yamahauler]

I would paint the cases, and continue polishing on the covers..
Well, the flywheel cover is plastic. so I dont know what i would do with that.
If i polish, im polishing everything...btw. there nothing inside that motor (no crank or tranny), i just put the cases together for a pic.

hey Bryan...if your going to take pics...id like to see your bench grinder buffing wheel.

[350xBomb]

sand to at least 1500...Id go to 2k, itll help with the pitting...and with 12 grand into it dont half ass it now...yer so close.

[Bryan Raffa]

yep here this is the stuff:) 1800rpm baldor,cheeper craftsman
all this stuff will soon be mine Im buying him out probley next year but I have full use now.for a little side work

[tyman]

whoaa.... whats with the gold kawasaki??? is it anodized or something.. or were kawi's that color from the factory????

[Bryan Raffa]

nope not gold thats lighting

[tyman]

wow.... i would have bet my trike that it was gold :X lol.... great job on it.. and the swinger too....

[Meat-BoX]

The side case is polished, it just looks gold. Though I do like that gold look. Would make a cool looking motor. The Cal-Fab he just finished also using those tools he has. He's done me a hugh favor and its going to set my Tecate off nice with the way the rest of it looks. Heres the thread. Good info there on polishing also.

http://www.3wheelerworldforums.com/showthread.php?t=61093

See that Pic of Raffa's Tri-Z motor? That could be all you Hauler. If you have the tools and space. Nows the time to do it while the motor is apart. I couldnt do mine like that so Im doing what I can now and waiting for my 1st rebuild then I will get the rest Polished, Powder Coated and Chromed. I just want it to look like a good scheme not a hodge podge of color and Bling. So think it out on how you want your motor to look and go for it. :w00t:

[Yamahauler]

Looks great, I need to go buy a 6" bench grinder now. How do you sand the roughness out of the cylinder, Raffa?

[Bryan Raffa]

get a grinder with long shafts, it makes it alot easer to move the parts around

bead blast then greasless 180 then 240 then to a final polish thats all i do depends how nice you want it then you can go to 400 and more, But thats more money the further you go with it the nicer it will be.

http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/buffing.htm
this site is right by me and has awsome info and forums i have learned alot from here but you learn more doing it!

[oldsking86]

Dang Bryan that side cover looks SWEEEEEEEEEEAT! We're getting one in the mail that was "semi" polished so I think the hard part is done, I take it just some time, compound and some good polishing wheels and I could get mine like that one?

[Bryan Raffa]

if it has allready been done then some rouge on a buffing wheel and it will shine like that

[Bryan Raffa]

What i did was sand to 800 grit...then i used my buffing wheels with a Dewalt cordless drill.

I used mothers aluminum polish.

I have been looking at the bench grinder buffing wheels, but i dont get how they dont shread at 3450 rpms...the smallest one i can find in a 10 inch.

How do you get the roughness out of the cylinder and head?


the big one i use is 1800 rpm but its got the tourqe so ya can lean right into it and barely stop it but theres all diffrent kinds rangeing in rpms
L@@K HERE
http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/index.html

[breastman569]

ive never done it by sand paper ive always just used a bench buffing wheel and started going through the different compouds and take you time and dont stay in one place to long always keep it moving to avoid messing up the aluminum.

[Bigbore]

Polish the flat areas like the covers and the easy areas that you want shinny. Mask them off with masking tape and the blast the rest of the motor (assembled) with walnut shells. The walnut shells will clean the aluminum without pitting it. It will give a lite matte finish. Then remove the tape. Spray the motor will Formula U clear coat. Formula U is a urethane paint for R/C planes that is fuel and nitro proof. You can even get it in colors if you wanted to do other areas with color. Its not cheap, here it's $8-$9 a can. You'll need to preheat the parts to 150 degrees, spray it and bake it at 150 to 180 degrees for about 1 hour (or room temp for 7 days).

The clear will protect the parts you did polish and keep the rest of the motor looking nice with out tarnishing.

[vegas250rr]

I am with Bigbore... I would blast it... on the other hand, I bought a bench grinder at Lowes that has an adjustable RPM range... it comes in handy. polish is nice, blasting is nice... but I love that stock off green color

[Yamahauler]

I think i need that greaseless stuff. I got a system for mounting a buffing which works suprisingly well, you can easily change wheels to tiny ones for getting in tight spots, and its variable speed.

I dremel sanded my head. it looks like crap, will the 180 grit compound take these deep scratches and roughness out of the head?

[Bryan Raffa]

they have wheels that are really flexable that will get in thes area's ya 180 should take care of thoes

[GoodKarma]

I can give a few pointers, if you are still looking to get your motor polished.

I had a lot of good luck with dremel attachments that were Scotchbrite, and the 180 grit worked great to knock the material down without leaving gouges like the sandpaper wheels do (that looks like what happened to your head). I also use a 320 grit Scothbrite wheel if I want to knock down the sandpaper scratches, and save a little time.

I used 120 and 180 grit sandpapers a lot to get things started on this motor, and it took that to be able to knock down the rough surface of the castings. From there I worked with 220, 320, 600, and 1500 to get to this point. The first couple of weeks, I thought for sure that my fingers were going to fall off! Just sit in front of the television and watch football, and sand, sand, sand, sand........and drink some beer to numb the pain!:beer

Then I used dremel polishing felt wheels, and polishing bars (black rouge?) to finish up what I couldn't reach with my 8" bench mounted polisher/buffer.

My top end has been a real pain in my arse, to tell the truth. The castings are a much rougher surface, or I am just plain tired of sanding! I am not going to try and get the cylinder and head nearly as smooth as the bottom end, just because I can't see the benefits of getting the small spots mirror finished. I am still working the cylinder and head, but there really isn't that much left before I determine them to be "good enough".

Hang in there, because it's a rough ride, and it takes many hours to get the results you will be pleased with. You've got a good start, and you can't stop now!:w00t: