82 XJ 1100 "Naked Boy" project - Finished

[Tarheeltriple]

Shocking photos

[wingnut]

It's very bright in there

You can't walk into those guy's garage anymore without your sun glasses. Every side cover is like a mirror. They have polishing aluminum down to a fine art. Nice looking work Adam

[thecamelman79]

Happy new year folks,
Well the work on the Naked Boy has been a little hit or miss lately, and when it has been done. nobody seemed to remember to break out the camera.
But i did take some after shots that you guys should appreciate,

Lately we borrow a buzz box welder and welded up a cracked center stand an a small spot in the frame.

Ground down and cleaned up some sloppy existing welds, and sand blasted the frame.

Here's what it looks like after salt dog applied the first coat of paint on some of the larger items,



At the same time we picked up a soda blaster from harbor freight, plugged off all the hole (yeah I know soda wont hurt inside the motor but whatever) and proceeded to blast the motor. then I removed the other covers, gave it a scrub bath with dawn dish soap, filed square all the fins with a file, Sanded the YICS logo on the valve covers smooth, Dried and gave it a acetone bath.

I really hope to get a coat of grey on the motor tomorrow, but its going to be 65 out so a ride may be in order first.











Note the engine stand we made and the dowels sticking out of the lower front motor mounts. This is a perfect pivot point that as you can see lets you tip it up and down and allow you full access to top and bottom of the motor. "Salty Dogs Design"

I will also say that i am only moderately impressed with the soda blasting, It leaves a good surface for starting to polish and does an OK job of removing the paint, but it had no were near the "magic" quality that I've read about so many times. We had a 15lb blaster from harbor freight 60$ a 50lb bag of soda 50$ and rental of a compressor to handle it 35$. so at 145$ plus tax you may be able to get it done professionally and with there access to better equipment, you might be happier with the end results.

Happy new year guys!

[lee_dutcher]

Looking good so far. Be wondern about any updates. Good that you progressing fast and hope all goes well for the new year.

[Cobia]

Sand works better than soda

Hey Camelman,
I also bought a hopper and gun from HF, the cheapest they had, $30 I think.
When I asked the mgr about the blasting media she said not to waste the $ on their stuff. She told me that the "play sand" from Home Depot probably works better for my purposes.
Bought that sand $3.00 for 50lbs, and although the bag said it was sifted and washed, it was wet and still had larger particles in it.
Long story short, I had to sift it and dry it out in a wheelbarrow.
I'm now buying sand used for concrete finish work (stucco) and sift it mayself, works great and only $3.20 for 2 - 5gal buckets.
I'm lucky we have a compressor at our boat storage lot.
Here's a link to my XJ resto project:
http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30638
Hope it helps.

[thecamelman79]

One more time into the Breach Boys!

Well I accomplished 2 things today. Went on a couple of short rides on an absolutely gorgeous 65' day in North Carolina "hard to believe its January, and got a coat of Rustoleame 2000' flat aluminum paint on the motor.

First I rewashed the motor down with acetone and a tooth brush making sure ever thing was pristinely clean the using a combination of duct tape, blue tape, and exacto knife I painstakingly masked of all the wet case areas, holes, valve cover, and everything else I didn't want to clean paint up from. Once again the tipping feature of the stand came in real handy allowing me to paint the entire thing at one time.

Heres the motor with no paint and prepped.


Starting to apply paint




Completely painted







Next I plan to mask off everything to paint the lower jugs Gloss Black and paint the valve cover with Black crinkle paint, but that will have to wait a couple of days

The one thing I need advice with is the lines following the jug split masking black from gray on the stock XJ seem to be a real pain the butt to follow and make look sharp. Have any of you done this and learned any tricks that worked good?

If your enjoying this then Stay Tuned! more to follow. If not them I'm sorry for bumping your threads to page two!

-Camel

[thecamelman79]

Hey Camelman,
I also bought a hopper and gun from HF, the cheapest they had, $30 I think.
When I asked the mgr about the blasting media she said not to waste the $ on their stuff. She told me that the "play sand" from Home Depot probably works better for my purposes.
Bought that sand $3.00 for 50lbs, and although the bag said it was sifted and washed, it was wet and still had larger particles in it.
Long story short, I had to sift it and dry it out in a wheelbarrow.
I'm now buying sand used for concrete finish work (stucco) and sift it mayself, works great and only $3.20 for 2 - 5gal buckets.
I'm lucky we have a compressor at our boat storage lot.
Here's a link to my XJ resto project:
http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30638
Hope it helps.

yeah I've been following your build for a while now. would love to see some updates if you have any. We used an bucket siphon sand blaster on all the steel parts, and some of the real nasty aluminum parts. the sand defiantly leaves a little bit of texture to the aluminum parts "great if you are going to paint em" but it will defiantly increase polishing time on you cases if you plan to leave them clear.

[natemoen]

The one thing I need advice with is the lines following the jug split masking black from gray on the stock XJ seem to be a real pain the butt to follow and make look sharp. Have any of you done this and learned any tricks that worked good?

Pull the jugs off!

[Cobia]

You're right about the texture on the aluminium, but since I'm painting all the surfaces it really opens up the pores of the material and the paint adheres very well. I'm looking to reduce maintenance through time so I'm avoiding surfaces that need polishing, I'd rather be riding.
As it turns out (and Bikerphil mentioned) I'm almost going for the elusive XJ midnight special look, all black with gold trim. Although the tank and side covers are burgundy color and will remain that way because the paint is in very good condition. I'm still fretting about the color for the frame of the side covers, gold or black? But since the exhaust pipes are going to be gold as well, I don't want to overdo the gold farkle factor either!
There will be very little chrome on this one. Duplicolor has a pseudo anodizing paint that I may try over the chrome fenders to make them gold instead of black. I discovered that sandblasting chrome will texture the surface so it will readily accept paint. So it opens up many possibilities.
One thing I've been doing to those formely rusted surfaces like the underside of the fenders, the inside of the headlight bucket, etc. is to coat them with a marine-quality cold galvanize spray paint. I tried that on my G and it has held up well.
Everything I painted gold, like the shift lever, brake lever, pegs, etc, I've clearcoated with a coating intended for racing tire rims. They say it resists chipping, chemicals and such, we'll see. It worked well on the rims on the G.
I'm currently going hot and heavy on getting all the parts for the rear end of the bike painted and ready for re-assembly. I really want to finish that section of the bike so I can re-intsall the wiring harness and move on to the front of the bike.
Pictures will be forthcoming soon. Cheers and encouragement for your project as well.

[Tarheeltriple]

When are you going to put the engine back into the frame?

[Aches n Pains]

Lovin this build.

[DiverRay]

I like reading the post, and the pictures help. The hole in the case is from a "mount boss" that was drilled and tapped at the factory. A LOT of the XS engines show this, and it does not go through to the inside of the case.

[Axel]

Thinking again

I thot maybe I had a wiring harness clip that threaded into that hole but summer was a long time ago

[thecamelman79]

Polishing a FUBARed cover and other things.

OK fellas its been a while since I last posted and I have accomplished a couple of things.

Lets start with polishing a FUBARed side cover
The cover was first sand blasted and looked like this



I then put is on the buffer with some black to survey the damage



Those gouges don’t look all that bad in pictures but the are a good 1/8 inch deep



Hard to see but that horizontal line is actually a small split. I pinned it over and sanded it down with the rest

As usual when I’m typing these things up I wish I was quicker with the camera then I am. I forget to take pictures after sanding with the random orbit sander. Depending on the depth of the scratch you may want to try using power tools to speed things up. Also spend more times with lower grades to make the higher sanding and polishing go faster. I usually go 100 (power tools) 220, 320, 400, 600, 1200, buffer. Noted too keep wet sanding on the lower grades until all the scratches and pits you want are out before you move up to the higher grades. Nothing is worse then doing all this work then to start finish buffing only to find a scratch that wont buff out and you have to start the process over to get it out.

Here is the piece after buffing and washing in dawn.



and after 220



after 600



after 1200



and after buff



After you buff it you will have to wash the wax from the buffer off. At this point a soft tips tooth brush will scratch the surface and leave it looking hazy. Use a 100% cotton rag to minimize scratching. Then coat with turtle wax.

On a earlier day we painted 2nd and 3rd coats of 500 degree engine paint on a couple of pieces followed by a good heavy coat of clear 500

Frame



Please if you do this remember to tape of the label on the neck!



Final drive



Center stand



Swing Arm



Next with a big Sigh and a refusal to remove perfectly good jugs I went about the laborious task of of taping off the jugs. 3 hours later, lots of little pieces of tape, and an exact o knife this is what I ended up with.







Now came time for the paint. Mind you at this point I was actually afraid to apply it, for fear I missed something, and the thought of semi gloss 900 degree black caliper paint running down the motor scared the hell out of me but I pushed on.







Next I waited about an hour and started peeling the tape off for the unveiling.



The side cover is not done. I just hung it on for effect. I sat done smoked a cigarette, drank my coffee and admired it for a good 10 mins and went to bed.

Next I decided to tackle the valve cover. I had previous soda blasted it. So I took it to the sink, washed it in Dawn dish soap (God I love this stuff) and then used a tooth brush and gave it an acetone bath. Followed by more exact o knife and tape work.



I applied I used VHT wrinkle paint and applied in 3 heavy coats 5mins apart. It goes on smooth and shiny and think. Mine ran which turned out not to be a very big deal later. I hung a shop light and flood light over top of it to get a surface temp of 80 degrees for 2 hours. After about an hour it went from smooth to wrinkle in about 5 mins, and Idecided to pull the tape off before the paint got hard. After pulling off the tape alittle paint was on the polished bits, So with a rag pulled tight dipped in acetone I wipped it clean “Thanks Wing Nut for the idea”. I then put it on the kerosene heater like salty dog suggested. After about an hour it looked like this.









I stuck the laser temp gun at it and the heater was putting out exactly 200 which is what you are supposed to bake it at but the top was only getting to 140. The woman in the house refuses to allow engine parts in her oven so I decided to get creative. Using a piece of 14” aluminum flashing I bent me up my own easy bake oven





Shot the thermometer in there after 20mins and it was a perfect 200 degrees! Just goes to show ya what you can come up with when you need to.

After a full hour in a half and a perfect 207 degrees I took off the cover and the wrinkles had tightened up nicely





Also remember the paint sags I mentioned earlier? Well about an hour after I stuck is on the heater (before I thought of the easy bake oven idea) the paint was skinned up pretty good and I was able to gently push down and kinda “slide” out the big lines. Now that it has been baked I can't even see those previously yucky lines!.

Next I've ordered some VHT flame proof 2000 degree satin clear paint from amazon for 7 bucks a can (cant get anything higher then 500 local) and I need to finish polishing the remaining side covers, make gaskets, reinstall, paint with clear, turn the motor on it's side and set the frame over it. Paint will be here Wednesday so I'll probably post again Thursday.

Till next time guys, Keep the shiny side up and the rubber down!

[wingnut]

I here by nominate Camleman "KING OF THE GARAGE. " Nice work Adam. I suggest some thin packing foam, I'll get ya some, all over the frame before you put the engine back in.