Hitchcocks Forum

The EFI is in for exploratory surgery today. Gulp. But this does open an opportunity for brightening her up a bit. Last summer I polished both engine cases to a reasonably bright finish - not quite mirror finish, but it looked great. However, I live in Scotland and a lot of salt riding gets done so the finish doesn't last. Anyone have any ideas how to preserve a polished aluminium finish (the cases are aluminium right?). m

how would a good spray with clearcoat go you would have to use wax and grease remover [uto shops should have it] to clean surfaces. which part of gods country are you in.

I'm in Paisley... for my sins. Would clearcoat stand up to the heat of the engine? Possibly worth a try on maybe the rocker covers as they are relatively inconspicuous. m

Michael should be able to get hi temp clearcoat [pos halfords] i,m originally from alloa [clacks] mums people were from paisley way . regards.

Sounding like good news from the professionals (touch wood!). Seems like a fueling problem all along - crappy, dodgy plug along with a slightly sticky choke (or bistarter on efi) meant for poor running. Hopefully the knocking was pinging, and perhaps the sticky choke helped minimise weak mixture problems! She's coming home tomorrow so we'll see...

Not sure about clearcoat as a stonechip can lead to even more work when the moisture/salt gets under it.

Hi Michael,

Back in the sixty's/seventies I used to strip off the clear coat on all polished aluminium surfaces (mostly Jap bikes), because of stone chips allowing salty water to get under the coat and make one hell of a mess and a lot of hard work to restore the shine. I came across a product named Belgom which has a wax in the formulation. Not only did it give a brilliant shine but water would bead up and run off. Might be worth a try and it is sold by Amazon and others - link attached or just search belgom.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belgom-Aluminiu ... B001QZY1IU

PJ

Michael if you have really polished the surface of the crank cases then in the process you have made them smooth, and probably reduced their ability to dissipate heat due to radiation by about 25% due to the approximate 25% reduction in surface area. A small technical issue but in normal use probably no need to worry. However as you have found any corrosion/oxidation now becomes highly visible. It was there before you polished the surfaces but was less noticable on the rougher surface. Clearcote or othe sealing products will seal the polished surface, BUT a slight chip in the seal by a road chipping or whatever will allow the oxidisation to spread under the clearcote. The infamous spiders web effect seen on Japanese engines, among others, for the last 50 years. As it occurs under the coating it just about impossible to prevent or eradicate. That leaves a final, simple way of keeping the cases clean........Solvol Autosol with copious amounts of elbow grease. HTH.