I have my daughter all weekend so I have decided to go ahead and paint my gray motor to flat black.....

I got some painter tape, steel wool and a can of flat black high heat motor paint from N.A.P.A..... I will take before during and after pics and post here when I get her done....

I decided not to go with BBQ paint because the motor paint will stand up pretty well to gas, oil and stuff that BBQ paint wont.

Peace, Naz

 

Did mine about 3 weeks ago in a high-gloss black,and sanded all the outer fins back to raw metal looks awesome....but it was a lot of work.Used high temp engine paint.....i need to post pics just not got around to it

 

You covered the one mandatory step I was going to mention....the pictures during the process. I'm looking forward to seeing how it comes out. Your bike is already one of the hottest on these forums in my eyes, and you keep making it better.

And you guys that are now painting your engines...you should have gone with the Low Rider...LOL

 

Thanks Jake..... I kinda wish I would have got a WG

Naz

 

Fuqua find some time dammit!! I want to see pics!!

 

few things... you can get alum etch from home depot to etch the metal... be sure you are using a 1200 paint at least! light coat is all it takes, you need to remember that the motor still needs to dispense heat! thicker the paint is the more it will trap heat into the motor... here aer some pics of when i did my cafe's motor, granted i primed this and everything, but i also have a ram air scoop and oil cooler on this sucker to keep it cool

before:




tools to clean




it was december so i had to get creative for cleaning the motor of all the greace and grime


cleaning that sucker


light coat of primer


light coat of gloss black 1200*


all done with the polished covers

 

I hope your landlord doesn't see those pics!!!!!!! Damn, that looks like a lot of work! Turned out great, has it held up okay?

 

land lord... if by that you mean the wifey... she laughed when she saw the pics and said she thought that there was some nasty on the tub when she cleaned it... one of the great things about being a homeowner... when we lived in our apt... i used to roll bikes into the back door and tool on them in the living room... turned my 2nd bedroom into a spray booth vented though the front window and the whole thing was wrapped in tarps! ha ha ha my landlord there loved me! i build his XS650! hahahaha he man, work with what you got!

 

Can you give me more info on alum etch?

What is it and why do I need it......

My plans were to scuff down the areas to be painted with steel wool, then clean with simple green, dry it and paint it!

Naz

 

you are going to have to remove the crap simple green leaves around by wiping down with acitone or denautred alchole, the alum etch will give you nice profile for the paint to stick, i do not feel steel wool will even come CLOSE to doing this... if anything a course wire wheel will do it, after you wire wheel it, clean with simple green, wipe down with acitone, hit with a tack cloth, and lay the paint...

Phosphoric Acid is used to etch alum... i used Jasco from home depot... worked well... but you are going to have your motor IN YOUR FRAME! so would not do this as it would drip and eat at anythign it touches... if you pull your motor out go to Home Depot or any good paint store. JASCO'S 'Prep & Prime' is very common. cheap and is cut 3:1 for use on aluminum (phosphoric acid is a standard metal prep, used for galvanized and bare steel as well as aluminum)