Montreal Manchild with an '81 Honda CB750K

The Jimbonaut said:
Time for an update. I've become a cautionary tale.

After several more hours polishing with the coarser (red) polish to the point where I had the thing looking pretty damn good (here's one side getting close to being finished) -

cVHMg0b.jpg


- I then re-polished the thing with the white polish, and after several hours of that then gave it a final polish with Autosol. No photo of the final product, but man this thing looked like new. Ok, not like new maybe, but pretty damn good. Thing is, there was lots of black polish caught in the hard to reach areas, and after trying to get it out by washing it under hot running water and soap (to little, but encouraging effect) I had the genius idea to empty the dishwasher, put the valve cover in there along with the soap pod and hit the Full Cycle button - firm in the knowledge that the thing was going to come out gleaming.

Well, it didn't. It came out not gleaming at all -

Jump9uB.jpg


Black as the ace of spades. Totally oxidized, looking pretty much the same as it did before I started polishing weeks ago. Fortunately at this point in the evening I was half cut so kinda smiled when I saw it. In the morning when I woke up sober as a judge and saw it I was smiling considerably less.

So, word to the wise. Don't put your freshly polished aluminium engine covers in the dishwasher to clean them. It's an awful fucking idea.

Back to scotchbriting and polishing. Christ doing cartwheels.
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Damn that sucks dude
I always clean my shit off in a diesel bath, it eats all the grease, and prevents corrosion/oxidation for a little bit since it leaves an oily coating.
If you’re feeling ambitious, you can rig up an old fuel pump to circulate the diesel around in whatever you are using as a tub to speed up the cleaning process.
 
Hahaha. Heat, soap and water are not friends of polished aluminum. Unless you're planning to clear coat, that will happen eventually anyway. Or you can polish every Saturday with your Harley friends.
 
Look for shark hide, apply it liberally after polishing and you will get through a season without having to re-do it. I've not been able to find it local but you might get lucky in mtl. it's sold in boating supply shops and is for alloy on boats. Kiley uses it on his old Beemers etc. and it keeps the polished bits gleaming.


Link:
http://www.sharkhide.com/mpinfo.html
 
I remember looking into Shark Hide a while back, think it was when I stripped the clear off the front forks and was shopping around for ways to protect them. (Never needed to in the end - I just scotchbrite them once a season, job done). If I can get hold of some here, that's what I'll use.

If I can't, what are my clear coat options? I'm not sure there's a rattle can 2K gloss that withstands the heat, and the only VHT paint I can find is a satin finish. Really want gloss. I also don't have the funds right now to go down the ceramic/powdercoat route on these parts. Any suggestions?
 
The Jimbonaut said:
I remember looking into Shark Hide a while back, think it was when I stripped the clear off the front forks and was shopping around for ways to protect them. (Never needed to in the end - I just scotchbrite them once a season, job done). If I can get hold of some here, that's what I'll use.

If I can't, what are my clear coat options? I'm not sure there's a rattle can 2K gloss that withstands the heat, and the only VHT paint I can find is a satin finish. Really want gloss. I also don't have the funds right now to go down the ceramic/powdercoat route on these parts. Any suggestions?
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Eastwood makes a nice direct to metal clear, gloss, satin, etc.... I've used the satin over my bare chopper tanks and it's held up very well to fuel, etc...

https://www.eastwood.com/paints/clear-coats.html
 
Thanks man, I used the SprayMax 2K clear on both the KLR and CB tanks, love the stuff. Not sure though if it'll hold up against heat. I saw Eastwood also sells a product called ExoArmour which looks pretty similar to SharkHide, but again it's a tough product to source here in Canada. I'll check out Napa, they seem to be able to get hold of a lot of harder-to-source stuff here north of the border.
 
The Jimbonaut said:
Thanks man, I used the SprayMax 2K clear on both the KLR and CB tanks, love the stuff. Not sure though if it'll hold up against heat. I saw Eastwood also sells a product called ExoArmour which looks pretty similar to SharkHide, but again it's a tough product to source here in Canada. I'll check out Napa, they seem to be able to get hold of a lot of harder-to-source stuff here north of the border.
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Both VHT and Duplicolor make good gloss engine enamel clears. The VHT stuff I used on the 360 cases has held up pretty well to abuse.
 
advCo said:
Both VHT and Duplicolor make good gloss engine enamel clears. The VHT stuff I used on the 360 cases has held up pretty well to abuse.
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They do? Can't find anything up here - there's a clear VHT header paint but only in satin, and a Duplicolor clear but not specifically for high heat applications.
 
The Jimbonaut said:
They do? Can't find anything up here - there's a clear VHT header paint but only in satin, and a Duplicolor clear but not specifically for high heat applications.
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I'll check over in ME on Sat when I go get the ACV for the GL. If they have it I'll grab a can for you.
 
Maritime said:
I'll check over in ME on Sat when I go get the ACV for the GL. If they have it I'll grab a can for you.
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Thanks Mike, very cool of you. Think I've found a supplier of SharkHide over in Alberta and will give them a ring later. I've never restored aluminium before so not sure what the best product is to use for the final coat. Clear it or SharkHide? Think I'm veering toward the latter. That way I can just keep topping it up, rather than having to strip the clear coat if it starts to crap out. What do you think?
 
If I could get sharkhide I'd go that route. I tried to have some shipped from NFLD and they couldn't do it and the closest place I could go get some in USA is upstate NY. I don't know what they put in it but there is a waiver on the website you need to agree to to have them ship it to you.
 
SharkHide man, sounds like a great product. Lemme see if I can get some shipped over without it costing an arm and a leg - if it's a no-go then I'll figure out a plan b
 
Ok, found a supplier over in Alberta (Explorer Industries) who both have it and will ship it (ground only). $100 for the can, which would probably last me this lifetime and make healthy inroads into the next. The very friendly Cathy who I just spoke to is not sure if it works in high temperature applications - she's going to find out and will call me back.

Did your friend Kiley use this stuff on engine casings too? No problem?
 
If you go back in the BOTM threads Kanticoy(Kiley) has a few winners and he uses it on all alloy parts. His old Beemers he restores have it and I've seen all those bikes in person, it works. He's in Alabama so weather is better than here but he rides his bikes in the rain and it just takes a wipe with a damp rag to bring back the shine after a few coats of sharkhide have been rubbed on.
 
I just messaged him, but I am 99% sure he has and suggested I get some for the valve covers on the GL for next time I polish them. I did those once, spent hours only to get caught in the rain the first ride and have them look like your dishwasher parts LOL.
 
Ha! My dishwasher parts. Won’t make that mistake again in a hurry. Thanks man - there’s definitely a lot of work involved in cleaning these things up, so whatever I can do to keep them looking good without having to repolish them every 5 minutes sounds good to me


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