Painting question

[trbig]

I have polished up the edges of the fins on my head . (The bike's head, Pro...) My plans are to paint the head black, but leave the fins edges polished. Masking them off is not an option. What I was thinking about was waxing the edges and painting the whole thing. I figure the paint won't stick to the wax worth a crap and would rub back off fairly easily after drying? Should I just not worry about the wax and sand the paint off the edges afterwards?

Not sure what this is going to look like since my cylinders are all silver, but the valve cover will be black also with the fins on top polished like these head fins.


Tod

[Stralya]

Surfboard wax

If you have a stick, trim it so the end is flat or get a new stick. It's easy to follow the edge of the fins or even further down the fins if you like but make sure you keep squaring up the end of the stick, don't run in the same furrow all the time if you want uniform results.

I have a silver head(imported from the States) on a black block with a black valve cover, I was thinking of polishing the three raised bar features along each of the four arms of the valve cover but because of the vetter, you can't see it anyway so I'll just leave it black. I'm going to polish the head somehow, should look pretty good on the black block.

Surfboard wax won't hold paint, it will hardly hold me on a board!

Your setup sounds like it will look great.

Dan
Cowabunga.

[TopCatGr58]

Wish I had known about the wax when I did my valve cover. I painted it all, and then used a sanding drum on my dremmel to sand off the paint off of the raised ribs, took a while but got it done, just had to be careful to keep it from running beyond the ridge onto the main surface! That wouldn't be as hard with the cooling fins!
T.C.

[79XS11F]

Just paint the whole thing and after the paint it fully dry sand the fin edges using a sanding block. The sanding block will keep the paper on the edges only. Blow the sanding dust away and your done.
Rob

[prometheus578]

I have polished up the edges of the fins on my head

Odd... my head just comes to a point.

I wouldn't use the wax, etc. A little too much and you may get a little wax on the area that you wish to stay painted.
Painting, and then sanding the fins will give a crisper edge.

[John]

You may want to file them to a square edge first, because the casting is kinda rough and porus, and then the edges will be squared off when you go to scrape/sand the paint of from the edges. Less chance of messing up fresh paint.

[trbig]

Thanks guys. I did it all with a palm sander. I started out at 220 grit and got everything ground down even and put a flat edge on it. Then I hit it with a 600 grit, then a 3000 grit. Since everything has been smoothed with the sander, after painting, it should only knock off the area it's smoothed anyway.




You'll notice that I only did it to the outside exposed fins. It was planned that way. It looks better than the pic shows. I'll hit it with the 3000 grit after painting and get it shinier, then the Simichrome should make it that much better. It's great stuff. Pro.. you should try it on that pointy head.


Tod

[fly]

polish fins.....paint....let dry....little paint thinner on a rag.....wipe paint off fins.
fly

[fredintoon]

Hi Tod,
my XS650 Heritage Special came with it's engine blacked out and the edges of the fins polished.
Now I remember when racing bikes had aluminum heads and barrels but street bike top ends were cast iron. Poseurs painted their cast iron top ends with silver paint but nobody much was fooled by that.
What that did for me was to fix my opinion that aluminum parts should be aluminum colour and over the years my XS650s blacked out head & barrels have faded back to the natural colour I think they should be.
However, aside from my own prejudice,
with your engine blacked out and the fins edges polished, it will look great.

[trbig]

I might be wrong.... but I think the stock XJ came with the cylinders all black, and the head silver. I'm kinda bass akwards, so I figure the bike should be also! We'll see. If it looks like crap, motors don't tend to last too long with me and I'll try something else next time.


Tod

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Tod,

You're right, except that they DID do the fin accents. One the 81SH, they had the jugs/cylinders ALL blacked out!

T.C.

[trbig]

Hmmm... Then YUP! Mine will be exactly opposite that! lol. Thanks TC.


Tod

P.S. Anyone that has seen Hippy Dave ride.... tell me that that is not the EXACT posture he holds for hours on end!? Does that rider have a ponytail?

[JWSanders]

I painted a set of car rims a long time ago and wanted the edges clean. I just smeared a (very) light coat of vaseline on the places I didnt want the paint to stick to and made sure it was stripped (acetone) on the parts I did. The paint wiped right off.

Granted, it wasn't nearly as tricky as doing the head fins would be though....

[Axel]

engine paint

A bit off topic but my engine block is painted with some thick grey paint . I noticed it when I cleaned up the cam adjuster area with carb spray . I think I was removing clear coat as well .Should I remove this paint and then polish ?
My barrels are black and my heads are black with unpainted fins .