a quick question for you all ,whats best to do clean and polish,painted silver or painted matt black ? thanks for any input

 

Not sure I understand the question. Is this new paint? If so what paint was used? Matte paint can not be polished...or waxed for that matter, new or old. Clean with rubbing alcohol or some other cleaning agent that won't cut the paint. Soap and water or degreaser if really dirty. New gloss paint should not be waxed until it cures usually 60 days. Depending on what type of paint it may be able to color sand and polish, but not sure that is what you are asking about.


Old paint (Matte is same as above no polish or compound it will ruin the matte finish clean only), you can use polishing compound or just auto wax to polish gloss paint. If oxidized you will need something to cut the oxidation first.


Your question is not very clear so I tried to answer as many possibilities as I could think of...please clarify what you are trying to do.

 

sorry dennisgb i have a 27 yr old engine i want to clean up for my restoration bike and was asking what you guys thought about how to restore it either by polishing or painting engine has not been touched since it left the factory so quite messy

 

will be using this to clean as its quite good

 

Clean the engine good. Use brass wire brushes to get all the crud off...I use the small ones that look like a toothbrush.


Get a good paint prep solvent to do final clean because most cleaners leave a residue that has oil in it and will mess up your paint job.


On my engine I used VHT Flat Black Engine Enamel. You can get it in silver to match the stock color pretty close. I chose the flat black to emulate the RR color.


Doc and I used VHT Nu-Cast Aluminum Engine Enamel for the side covers. I chose the darker one to emulate the RR color. They make this in three shades and the medium silver would look pretty close to the original Hurricane color. I would suggest the whole engine in this paint if you are trying to restore to original look.

 

nice looking engine job there hope mine turns out that way

 

A good paint job is 99% prep and 1% technique. Probably not exactly right but I spent a lot of time on the side covers and prepping the engine before I ever painted.


Once the engine was cleaned I went over all the old paint with a very fine ScotchBrite pad to get a surface for the new paint to stick to.


Side covers were not primed (most recommend against that). That meant that all the scratches and dings had to be sanded out of the aluminum before paint. Prep is much like you would do if you were going to polish them.

 

Now that's a pretty lump of motor! Almost a shame to hide it under the fairings! :-)

 

well i finally got the engine painted what you all think looks best for sides gloss or matt black ty

 

I am a fan of the matte black/silver dennisgb used (although by now it is probably long done). Have you finished putting the bike back together now? Thanks for logging this build by the way, it was great to follow.