Want to keep the dust down use something a bit porous behind the buffer. Hession sacking, calico or shade cloth.
Catches a lot the dust and cloth particles.
Catches a lot the dust and cloth particles.
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How to Polish Your Valve Covers
- Thread starter leggers
- Start date
How on earth did you stay so clean?
Don't think leggers is going to be to concerned. Been near 4 years since he signed in.
If you want to delete a post hit the delete button and the whole post disappears.
I peaked and thought both your and Bosco's posts were right on point....PS I agree with your points RE
buffs.This was my one question, These have a clear coat on them that many people have to take the coarse grit to in order to remove if not using paint stripper right? On other bikes, I have removed faded clear coat with jet paint remover, then started sanding/buffing. However on the other bike I did, I did not polish cause it would look funny the way the rest of the bike was. My xs650 is in better shape so polishing is on the table.
Then when polished, dont you need to clear coat them again or the aluminum will just oxidize again?
Depends a bit on storage and operating conditions?
For my use an occasional buff up with blue magic (it has some wax in the formula) is all I have needed for decades and 10s of thousands of miles.
But I also have some parts that were powdercoated clear decades ago that still look great ( not QUITE as shiny as bare polished aluminum)
For my use an occasional buff up with blue magic (it has some wax in the formula) is all I have needed for decades and 10s of thousands of miles.
But I also have some parts that were powdercoated clear decades ago that still look great ( not QUITE as shiny as bare polished aluminum)
What he said. An occasional quick polish will keep it up. I have several brands of metal polish on hand. All of them work well.
Yes to paint stripper on the clear coat. What’s underneath will brighten easily.
Yes to paint stripper on the clear coat. What’s underneath will brighten easily.
People use the paint stripper and expect the coating to disappear or hose off with water. It doesn't really work like that, well at least not for me. It does soften the coating good enough to scrub away with wet Scotch-Brite, steel wool or your first course buffing. Anyways, it is well worth using the paint stripper first.
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the clear coat changed in the mid seventies, the older stuff, lacquer mebby, comes off easy, the newer stuff, some sort of poly mebby, is much more stubborn.
What’s the best way to get the new stuff off? As suggested above paint stripper? Can’t get the nasty stuff up here anymore. Is it available in the US? Will vapour blasting remove it? Thx.
I think I recently did the "tough stuff" on two '81 Hondas. I used the eco friendly citrus stuff. Applied a heavy coat with a brush before going to breakfast, then another heavy coat on top of the first before going to lunch. It scrubbed away with Scotch-Brite and a hose about two hours after last application. My covers were in bad shape with the deep black spots, so the Scotch-Brite was a good start. Worked well, sausage biscuits and cheeseburgers at McDonald's didn't hurt.
Thx. I didn’t think the eco friendly stuff would be so effective.
Acetone usually makes a pretty good coating softener.
I wasted 25 minutes of my life watching this vid on paint strippers. Results start at 21:00 ‘ish. Not used on m/c clear coat but still gives you an idea of effectiveness of each brand.
Wonder what would happen if you fully immersed the part in acetone for 24 hours. One thing for sure is your walker would be much lighter.
