Motorbike engine polishing / cleaning question.

Verdammt

I'm buying a vintage bike this week and one of the previous owners thought it would be a great idea to paint the engine block (including gear box, stator cover etc) black !!!.
The current owner has removed some of the paint with great difficulty and I would like to restore the metal back to its former glory.
I have 2 options open to me , either clean it myself or get a shop to do it, neither of which i have any expierience with.
I have spoken to the Celtic Motorcyle Company (always good for advice) and they told me its very hard to get anyone in Dublin to do this anymore.

Has anyone out there in Boards.ie land have any expierience with this type of work or at least tell me how i might clean it myself.

Any constructive advice would be greatly appriciated as I have 2 bikes and both are off the road because of this problem.

Cheers
V

Victor

Try talking to a paint company - assuming the finish is something like anodised aluminium or polyester powder coating (used with galvanised steel), paint doesn't stick to them very well.

How easily does the paint come off witha plastic (don't use metal!) scaper?

seamus

Some paint stripper, rubber gloves, plastic wool, and a lot of elbow grease methinks.

Just be careful not to put paint stipper on any plastic parts (Sprocket covers, etc), or on the rest of the bike.

Me and a mate managed to completely strip the botch paint job (that we didn't do) off a chrome bicycle frame before. Took ages, especially the corners and fiddly bits

I would imagine most professional jobs would involve dismantling of the engine, and dipping of indivdual parts into some crazyily strong stuff. Expensive work.

Tree

To clean the engine Gunk is brill stuff, jsut dont try to drink it or anything, it looks awfully like coke.

a friend of mine thinks brake fluid is great for stripping paint off metal but if you get it anywhere it shouldnt be you'll be fairly flogged

Haket

Some people shouldn't be allowed bikes :-)

Can you remove the covers that are painted ?. I assume the crankcase is "soiled" too ?. If you could strip them off the bike, you could try shot-blasting them, that'll take most everything off, back to bare metal anyway.

Failing that an appropriate paint stripper may workm I've used Nitromors on engine covers before with good success.

What do you intend to do with them once they are clean ?. Leave them are bare ally ?.

Verdammt

Originally posted by Haket
Some people shouldn't be allowed bikes :-)

Can you remove the covers that are painted ?. I assume the crankcase is "soiled" too ?. If you could strip them off the bike, you could try shot-blasting them, that'll take most everything off, back to bare metal anyway.

Failing that an appropriate paint stripper may workm I've used Nitromors on engine covers before with good success.

What do you intend to do with them once they are clean ?. Leave them are bare ally ?.

Don't fancy the idea of taking the covers off. I'm going to leave it as bare metal (as god made her !!) , so it looks like paint stripper is a good option.

Cheers guys.

V


ps: might post some before and after pics

Victor

Originally posted by Haket
If you could strip them off the bike, you could try shot-blasting them, that'll take most everything off, back to bare metal anyway.

:dunno: it would be able to rust properly then!

Haket

Well as most engines are made from aluminium that wont be his problem. Its the oxidisation (in other words the furry white bits) that'll break his heart :-)

If the bike is never used/stored in wet conditions then you'll be grand. Otherwise better get a part share in Autosol !.

Victor

Originally posted by Haket
Well as most engines are made from aluminium that wont be his problem. Its the oxidisation (in other words the furry white bits) that'll break his heart :-)

Furry white bits = aluminium oxide, rust = iron oxide. Same difference.

DivX

What make/model vintage bike are you buying Verdammt?

Paint remover will work with varing degrees of success depending on the type of paint that was used and whether it was baked on, and how old the paint is at this stage.

Any chance you could post up a pic of the engine/bike? some of the old engines will never shine up, and probably weren't shiny when they came out of the factory.

Are you trying to restore to origional condition or trying to improve on it?

Tree

Originally posted by Victor
Furry white bits = aluminium oxide, rust = iron oxide. Same difference.

Yeah, but rust tends to peel off, the aluminum oxide forms a sort of protective layer (al ox is stronger than aluminium)