Aussie 1100's new life

[Troyskie]

Here is the first go with the Autosol...

[Troyskie]

Next is the bristle brush...

[Troyskie]

Now the paint stripper. Although the photo is crap, in real life it looked kind of arty, but definitely not what I want.

[Troyskie]

And here we have the wet/dry. Yes it is not finished & those scratches are mine (but not the big gouge).
This only took about a minute, which was much quicker than the other methods I attempted assuming they were quicker.
As I mention earlier, this was done with a 800/1500 combo, but I think I'll add some coarser early grades to remove some PO evidence of rough love like that gouge.

[Troyskie]

I just spotted Pat & Marks fun polishing up his headers and forks. I might consider polishing he forks the same way (buffing wheele & rouge), but for the headers and collector, I might black chrome them. Has anyone done this? Does the heat change the black to brown?

[ribbert]

Troy, you may not have been around when this was posted.

OK, so WTH Noel, you say the above, then don't offer an opinion as to which method was the 'best'/ 'easiest'/ 'most fun'... in your opinion?  I've read varied accounts of folks getting pipes to look like that, and most of them seem to be a fairly involved and concerted effort. I know Father Pat, and Leon (I think) love the Simichrome, was that your end-state solution too?

Do tell.

Dan 

......and very likely polishing the headers....though i'm still pondering that effort vs return.

Don

Dan, we're all men here, you can say WTF.

I had though about posting this at the time but thought better of it, so, against my better judgement and because you asked so nicely, here it is.

I have said a number of times I have no interest in polished pipes but I must say after a few days of riding with them I have taken quite a shine to them.




Getting that sort of finish was not the point of the exercise, expediting the process was.
If I had something handy to remove the paint, then the whole process is probably 30 mins per pipe and involves NO hand polishing, it is not labour intensive.

In the absence of something to dissolve the paint I rubbed it off with emery cloth under a running tap. The cloth degrades at just the right rate so at first it removes the paint quickly and then progressively smooths the metal enough to move straight onto mechanical polishing. Having a stripper (yes, I know you can get it) and not having to rub the paint off would make it a lot easier. I will do this on the next set. A couple of grades of W&D would have the same effect but take a lot longer.

Then it's simply a case of working it on a rag wheel. I did try a stitched wheel and course polish as an intermediate step but it was a little too aggressive and turned out not to be necessary.

Polishing is a bit of a black art and is about speed, pressure, duration, abrasion and heat and constantly assessing the results as you go, and that is impossible to describe.

Heat plays a big part in closing the pores of the surface over and these parts at times were so hot I could barely hold them through leather gloves.

I only used one grade of polish on the rag wheel, green. That was enough to jump straight from rubbing the paint off to the finish you see.

I cannot imagine how long it would take to do this by hand or believe the same standard could be achieved, it is a job I wouldn't even consider taking on. I imagine you would have to work up through many grades of abrasives to get there with an incredible amount of rubbing, this is where mechanical polishing allows you to jump some steps without compromising the end result.

I do the same on my screens, they a mostly machine polished.

SS is great stuff to polish, it has just the right level of hardness and the surface is fine.
I just did this (below) half an hour ago. This was with the SS underneath unscratched, as it would be if chemically stripped (I just polished straight through the paint)







These I started refitting as they came off and looked pretty bad, I quickly cleaned them up on a wire wheel which scratched shit out of the soft aluminium and then buffed them really hard on the wheel, 5 mins each and while not perfect, they are good enough. These got so hot I couldn't hold them through leather gloves. You can't do that by hand.



This is the rag wheel that makes it a breeze and the single grade of polish I used.

 

So, the bottom line is, find something that will chemically strip the paint ( or rub it off, but this makes more work getting rid of the scratches) 30 mins playing around on the rag wheel and you have one of these.
I did try hand polishing one of the finished pipes to see if there was any further improvement, there wasn't.



Despite my misgivings about something else to keep polished, they do look good.

I realise these are only photos and not video, but it did happen   

So maybe now we can debunk the myth about polishing pipes.

Noel




Troy here's the picture of the side cover I tried to post this morning, the sheen level is by design, I didn't want it any shinier. I seem to recall I just used normal clear on this, not high temp.



Be very careful using the clear, it is VERY thin and a bugger not to get runs in.

I had always intended to black chrome my pipes, but they need maintenance as well. May as well save myself the money and just polish them occasionally, no more work than black chrome.

If you're polishing alloy, such as fork legs, clear coat them. Keeping that sort of stuff polished is a mugs game.

Noel

[oldktmdude]

T
BTW Noel, the local car accessory mob had the Ford Argent Silver, so the frame will get some love soon too.

What happened to the black frame idea?   Pete.

[ribbert]

Troy, I love restoring automotive finishes and have been doing it for a long time. It's a bit like golf, you never actually get totally on top of it but you get better at it. If you want any more info on polishing, preserving and painting. PM me.
Even after 40 years every job has an element of experimentation about it and the combination of variables is endless, the results immensely satisfying.

Just look at Pat and Mark today, wouldn't call the King their Uncle.


Noel

[Troyskie]

T
BTW Noel, the local car accessory mob had the Ford Argent Silver, so the frame will get some love soon too.

What happened to the black frame idea?   Pete.

I'm flip flopping. Now it's getting closer to original, I'll probably go all the way. Having said that, with the drop bars on now, all black is good too....decisions decisions.

[Troyskie]

Thanks Noel, I'll be PMing soon. Regardless of the colour, I've not done any automotive paint before.
As I'm intending to make her a daily ride I'll most likely focus on the visible parts and simply clean the rest.
I did find the Incralac at the local Wattyl shop today. They've changed the name to Copper Clear Coat, but it is the original Incralac formula.
After seeing what happened to FJMonkey's forks (without a clear coat) they'll get a polish, but definitely a clear coat.
Nice hint on the caution with the clear coat, I'll be careful.
Like you, I don't want a highly polished look, more of a satin sheen like you have in the pic.
I think I'll also start planning painting the engine. Totally different to frame paint I would think (do I need to oven bake it on or can it simply be sprayed?), and I would like to polish back the cooling fin edges (the original look again). A big BUT, if I polish back the cooling fins (W&D) should I consider clear coating them? They'll get mighty hot, so perhaps a super fine grit W&D? Will the paint on the edges adjacent to the fins peel off if they're polished? Finally, and I think I saw a post from you about this, can I paint most of the engine without removing it from the frame? Cheers, Troy.

[Troyskie]

News! Looks like I'll be doing the Delkevic 89 FJ1200 slip-on conversion to 84 1100. The other mufflers didn't end up coming through. Ordered the Delkevics from Joe today. Saved myself some cash as well, but I think I'll be spending that on the conversion.
Steps to go till I'll call this project complete for a pretty daily :
Replace centre stand (original is warped in two directions I've discovered, but works for now), I sourced this from Joes in ACT.
Replace foot peg brackets with the ones I'm cleaning up. (These came from Rob at North Coast Motorcycle Dismantlers 0419 214 265, thanks again Mark)
Put on the new headers, collector & mufflers (I will do my best to do a step by step on this)
Paint exposed frame
Paint the engine (as much as I can in the frame), then polish fin edges if possible (I'm getting better at the W&D)
Try and reduce or at best eliminate the vibration noise from the fairing and attachments (I think it's the instrument cluster, but might be headlight as well)
Clean up crappy hand paint mess on duck-tail.
Give her a good clean.
New helmet (suggestions please, I normally go for Arai or Shoei), as my old HJC needs to retire.
Run back to Batemans (or Bermagui) and show her off all shiny!

[oldktmdude]

Run back to Batemans (or Bermagui) and show her off all shiny!

Sounds like you're making good progress Troy. Looking forward to seeing you and your nice shiny bike again. Plan on doing a run, south down the coast from here when you visit. This is our local race track, so it'll be a good shakedown for your bike (and you!)
                                                                                                                                                 Regards, Pete.   

[Troyskie]

make sure your mirrors are clean, you'll need to squint as I'll probably be waaaaaaay behind   

[X-Ray]

Noel will be able to give you some better pointers with the painting Troy, but I have a few pics here http://s367.photobucket.com/user/raywise_2008/library/FJ1200%20Bits%20and%20Pieces   showing the before after shots of my engine repaint when I was adding the RPM oil cooler. I used VHT Gloss Black Engine enamel. Fantastic paint, sticks like anything as long as your engine is degreased and dirt removed properley. I didn't do the polished fins look this time, although last time I just used some 600-800 wet and dry to do the edges.
Concerning noise from vibrations, I do get a bit from the instrument cluster, but mainly from the loose weights in the FJ mirrors!

Have Fun,  

[X-Ray]

Oh, forgot to add that yes you can paint the engine in the frame, just takes a bit of time to mask up properley and get things out of the way.