Lucille’s engine is currently apart and being rebuilt in London, ON and they have vapour blasted the head, cam cover and barrel and WOW - very pretty and no grit.
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Project Canuck- 84 XS650 Project Build
- Thread starter canuck1969
- Start date
May inquire about what they can do for me at the place I am getting the powder coating done. They may have some tricks up their sleeves.
PM sent.
Tried my hand at dent removal from the tank today. At first I was thinking of buying a new tank but after looking at it for more than 30 seconds realized that it is actually in pretty good shape. There is some minor rust on the inside but will take a closer look once I get it vented properly so I can stick my inspection camera in it. Will most likely need a good cleaning on the inside and a Por15 liner.
On the outside there was one dent that looked bad so I thought I would give it a go with some hot glue and a bolt. A few good yanks and pop offs and got 95% of it out. May need a little more "finessing" but hardly noticable now. Tank will need to be stripped and re-painted and should be as good as new.
On the outside there was one dent that looked bad so I thought I would give it a go with some hot glue and a bolt. A few good yanks and pop offs and got 95% of it out. May need a little more "finessing" but hardly noticable now. Tank will need to be stripped and re-painted and should be as good as new.
WPGxs650_brat
XS650 Enthusiast
I did the same to mine including the princess auto kit (winnipeg).
I am now wet sanding them 220/400/600/800 Canadian tire) then the polish. let me tell you! Bling!
Going to get back to it this weekend. Had to sand down the gouges that were on the covers so now need to bring everything back to a shine. Frame and associated brackets and mounts are out for powder coating so need to finish up the engine to get it off my bench to make room to work on the forks, strip and line the tank and other parts before reassembly. Was thinking of picking up the bench top polisher from Princess Auto to make the final polish easier. The laziness in me does not look forward to hand sanding but let’s see where it ends up. If anything I am expanding my tool collection with this build.
WPGxs650_brat
XS650 Enthusiast
Both my 650 and 400 have been great for that (expanding my tools lol)
Attachments
He who dies with the most tools - wins!
Gee..... nothing like that ever happened to me.....
Hahahahaha!!!!!
S.B.O.M.N.!!! (Snorted Beer Out My Nose!!!)
Figured out my magic formula for a mirror finish. Between some hand sanding, mechanical buffing and a final polish here is what I got. Now to apply it to the rest of the shinny bits.
Tried to get my Suzuki badge in the shot to nail my triple but no go.
Tried to get my Suzuki badge in the shot to nail my triple but no go.
One side down. Now the other.
Nothing special. Just had to figure out the right combination. Hand sanded it from 140 grit to 3000. (180,,220,380,400,600,800,1000,1500,2000,3000) The 140 was just to get the gouges out so then had to carry through all the grits. Then used the brown polish on a spiral sewn polishing pad on the bench polisher followed by white and then red on a single stitch buffing pad.
And here is where I went off the rails. I did all the above to a mirror finish and then hand polished it. Used Autosol and then tried Mother’s aluminum polish. Both put micro scratches back in. Maybe it was the new microfibre cloth but who knows. Gave up on the polish and just spent more time on the red polishing compound and then just waxed it.
If you look in direct light there is some small fine scratches but looks good enough for a riding bike and not a show piece. It’s mirror polished bare aluminum. A fly’s fart would scratch it at this point.
And here is where I went off the rails. I did all the above to a mirror finish and then hand polished it. Used Autosol and then tried Mother’s aluminum polish. Both put micro scratches back in. Maybe it was the new microfibre cloth but who knows. Gave up on the polish and just spent more time on the red polishing compound and then just waxed it.
If you look in direct light there is some small fine scratches but looks good enough for a riding bike and not a show piece. It’s mirror polished bare aluminum. A fly’s fart would scratch it at this point.
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Thanks Canuk - just one more thing: how long did that process take for the LH side cover?
You should call that bike "Damn!", because everybody is gonna see the shine and say "Damn!" 
She has not been christened with a name yet. I will add that one to the list.You should call that bike "Damn!", because everybody is gonna see the shine and say "Damn!"
Well hard to say. Took me a couple of days to figure out how to do it and kept going back and forth on steps not to mention back and forth to Princess Auto and Canadian tire. The sanding stage should not take long. Not looking to get the finish with the sanding. Just to make the buffing easier. If I started from scratch I would have to say a couple of hours. The buffing stage with the bench top polisher goes pretty fast.
Now that I know the steps to follow I will repeat that on the right side. I will get a better idea then.
Ill be starting from vapour blasted parts - no muck, no clear coat.
Thanks!
Pete
Thanks!
Pete
Forgot the stripping stage. That added another hour. You won’t have to worry about that part. All depends on the finish from the vapour blasting. As long as there were no deep scratches you need to get rid of you can probably start at 800 grit or go straight to buffing. I bought the 6” bench polisher from Princess Auto. It does a good job but it takes some time to figure out how to position the piece as it is large compared to the disc but it can be done.
