OK El Bandito, I had just enough of looking at all these pictures of black coatings all over previously disadvantaged virgin aluminium and plastic surfaces.Now i just inherited a lorry load of work to be done and i hope that someone like yourself can assist. As a newcomer at this stage kindly forgive me if i shoot from the hip covering too many subjects but here goes with the 1000 questions.Just remember that i respectfully share the same space with the 1250's as is the case with my new K7 650.(dammit...that makes me feel so inadequate already..!) As i am 52 and drool over the polished rims and other trick bits attacked by your eye for detail and good taste to round things off, i would like to attempt some of these mods as the stock appearance has bothered me for too long now.
1) What spray method out of a can can i use to blacken the hanger brackets,footpeg brackets that are made from alloy.Surface preparation..?
2)Preperation for spraying the plastic left-hand sprocket cover..?
3) Which items i.e. radiator cover sideplates, PVC sprocket cover requires heat resistant paint or can go for something like a black ''Hammer Spray'' finish..? Special primers..?
4)What approach for the gleaming polished pegs..? Done mine but does not shine like this..?Using standard high speed variable drill with various buffing pads, seem to get better results at slower speed than higher speed...is this correct.?
5)Will blocking off the ''pair line'' on my 650 FI cures the slight decell popping..?
6)One slight problem...i cannot seem to move the hidden bolt holding the R/H side footpeg(rear brake pedal)..any suggestions how to loosen it without damage.? Can i grip the front part where the footpeg is mounted in or will it bend..?
Some more questions but this enough for now.
Any feedback from anyone will be greatly appreciated.
El Bandito, well done on some real craftsman quality work and good taste in going about the whole transformation from stock. You are an ispiration to all of us i am sure.
Cheers, RedBandit , Cape Town, South Africa
#1. Any good shake and spray enamel paint will work, and I happened to use a semi-gloss black paint that went nicely with the other black paint on the bike.
#2 The sprocket cover is already painted, so the only prep I did on mine was to first clean the surface of any wax using a automotive surface cleaner prep from Dupont, then I just lightly sanded the surface with 600 grit wet & dry and then primered and painted the cover with semi-gloss black paint.
#3. I personally don'y think that the radiator end caps ever get hot enough to require a heat resistant paint and the sprocket cover only requires a regular paint.
#4. This from a recent post of mine on polishing aluminum.
Just for the record, here is how I typically polish a painted piece of aluminum.
Fisrt off I strip the paint using Klean Strip paint remover that I buy at Lowes, but Permetex gasket remover is pretty much the same stuff and work just about as well.
After I have removed the paint I start hand sanding the part typically starting off with either 240 or 280 grit wet & dry sand paper which I keep wet with a general purpose spray lubricant which keeps the paper from clogging up and give a better finish.
I then continue to sand the part with 320, 400 and finally 600 grit wet & dry.
I also use an assortment of air powered die grinders and various tapered sanding cones and disc's to smooth out hard to get to areas.
Also if you want to polish a part that has been anodized, you must first strip the anodizing off of the part or you will not be able to polish it. So a simple way to strip the anodizing off of a piece of aluminum is to heat it up to about 150 degrees and spray it with Easy Off oven cleaner which has Lye in it which will break down and strip the anodizing off of the part.
Buy the time I have properly sanded the part down to 600 grit, making sure that I have competely smoothed out the finish of the prior grit sand paper, the part will quickly and easily comes up to color on my buffer.
It also very important how you present the part you are buffing to the buffing wheel in regards to the direction of the sanding lines in the part, and idealy you want to hold the part against the buffing wheel so that the sanding lines are angled about 10 to 15 dgrees off of the face of the wheel.
I have been sanding and polishing motorcycle parts as well as custom billet parts that I have made for over 38 years, so I do know a little about polishing aluminum, plus I was involved for many, many years in the production polishing aluimnum bats and bicycle parts when I worked at Easton Sports Inc. for 28 over years.
#5. Yes, blocking off the PAIR air supply hose will in a most cases help with reducing / eliminating decel popping.
#6. The allen head bolts that hold both of the footpegs to each of the footpeg mounting brackets have a shallow head and also have a very strong thread locker on them, and if you don't first heat up the thread locker to soften it up before attempting to loosen the bolts, its very easy to strip out the shallow hex in the end of the bolts.
I have replaced mine with hex head flange bolts, and you will find it much easier to heat up the bolts by removing the brackets from the bike first.
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gold color and I would really like to return them to silver.