Removing engine paint

[Stoney]

Restoring an FJ and I was considering removing all the paint from the motor, probably by using a small sandblaster. I have the engine out and will be giving it a thorough clean today to decide whether the paint is as bad as it appears while still dirty, maybe its not that bad..

I have a few querys .. I cannot find any images of an FJ this has been done to, has anyone seen one? Its a massive donk and I like its looks, I feel plain silver would look good but want to see a pic first
How would this affect cooling ? Woukd it make any difference or be an improvement or not ?
If brought back to bare metal, would it need a coating to protect the finish or would it age 'nicely'.

Any thoughts ?

[FJmonkey]

How about this? Not an FJ but the same engine. It will help visualize the unpainted engine.

[Stoney]

Yeh its more deeply recessed and hidden in an FJ what with the frame rails. I can visualise it sirt of, but a picture is worth a thousand wirds, might have a play with gimp later.

Looking into coatings, Alodine or Bonderite M-CR 1001 Aero is a thin clear chrome coat fir aluminium that preserves it from salt spray. however they have either stopped making it or are going to as it is as listed as a 'product if very high concern' .. being trivalent chrmium..

You can also get other colours, just in case you ever wanted a gold motor lol.

Dunno, probably better off leaving it uncoated or just touching up the missing black bits ..

[FJ120086]

I think if you leave it raw it will look bad with oil and road grime fast. Aluminum is porous. There is a nice silver one on the RPM website click the banner ad at the top of the page. It is one of the big scrolling pictures on the homepage after the race car

[FJmonkey]

As an option, hard anodize will provide great protection but it comes in shades of light gray to near black. Other than that I cannot think of any clear finish that will take head temperatures. I wonder what Yamaha does for the XJR finish?

[X-Ray]

That pic of the XJR is just pure horn Monkey, gees they are a good looking bike, especially in that colour scheme.

I know VHT make a high temp clear coat for engines that may be suitable for coating a bare engine, if going for the aluminium look.

[Pat Conlon]

Click on the RPM banner at the top of the page.
Wait for the picture of Frank's 1350 Wizard to appear at the top of the RPM home page.

That's one bitchen bike.

Frank, got any more Picts of your Wizard?

[TexasDave]

That pic of the XJR is just pure horn Monkey, gees they are a good looking bike, especially in that colour scheme.

I know VHT make a high temp clear coat for engines that may be suitable for coating a bare engine, if going for the aluminium look.

One of the best looking naked bikes ever. Just that Yamaha didn't bring the XJR to the North American continent. I think they looked at Honda's CB 1100 not selling very well here. But the Yamaha is a much better looking bike. That all silver engine gives it a real retro look.

Dave

[Stoney]

Well I dragged the engine out into the yard and gave it a degrease and a rinse, even blow drying with an air compressor knocks more paint off, so if it is going to stay black the old paint needs to be removed first anyway, its barely holding on as it is.
I found my small spot sand blaster, I am going to load it up with some bicard soda shortly and see if it has the legs.




A few more pics added to end of imgur album.

http://imgur.com/a/Hq1va

[Stoney]

I think if you leave it raw it will look bad with oil and road grime fast. Aluminum is porous. There is a nice silver one on the RPM website click the banner ad at the top of the page. It is one of the big scrolling pictures on the homepage after the race car

ok, yeh, that is pretty.

[Flynt]

Frank, got any more Picts of your Wizard?

Really...?  Well ok, here's a couple more.





Frank

[Pat Conlon]

Thanks Frank!

Hey Stoney, why not try some paint stripper first? A couple of applications of that along with a wire brush on your cordless drill and more power washing, all that should come off..

Be careful on the shiny polished aluminum surfaces....that old clear coat needs to come off anyway.
Water soluble paint stripper is the bomb.

[Stoney]

I was just off to town to get some stripper, about 100g of soda cleaned up about 6 square inches, it did not get all the paint either and took 5 minutes, waste of time without recycling it for something this large. It does look purty though..

I have some heavy duty aluminium cleaner, bought it 10 years ago and never taken the cap off, the warnings scare the crap out of me. I wish I read it before buying it, contains hydroflouric and sulphuric acid. nasty.