Refinishing various parts

cantdecide

So... I've got a bit of tidying to do on the ol' GSX1400.

They come from the factory with chrome downpipes and a brushed/ polished effect on the engine casings and forks. The problem is these finishes seem to disintegrate when coming in contact with air. I'm not interested in replicating the factory finishes but I do want a factory-esque finish that will be durable enough to avoid revisiting these parts for at least several years (I don't want to have to watch polished surfaces tarnishing or clear coat chipping as soon as they go back on the bike).

I'm thinking I'd like to go gloss black powdercoating with the casings and I'm looking into blasting and repainting or ceramic coating the downpipes. I'm still unsure what I want to do with the forks- I don't know if powdercoating is appropriate.

Any advice appreciated.

DJDylan106

In terms of your downpipes mate, if you're looking to get them all shiney again, try some really really really fine grade sandpaper, some autosol and a bit of elbow grease and they'll come up as good as new. I've done it on two bikes before on the downpipes and worked a treat! In relation to your engine casings and forks, what my dad done with his engine casings on his honda deauville was cleaned the whole engine with a toothbrush to ensure all the dirt is gone, then sanded down all the pitting on the casings, then wash and dry the lot thoroughly and then sprayed the whole engine with high temperature silver paint, in your case, high temp black (think you can get high temp gloss black, im sure I seen it somewhere) came up absolutely fantastic. Worked the exact same on the forks on his Honda shadow, he just gave them a clean and then sprayed them with grey primer then alloy wheel paint and a few coats of lacquer and you'd swear they'd been done professionally, and best thing was that he never even took them off the bike, just left them in place, took the wheel off and masked everything up! Simples!

But, of course that's how we do things, I'd much rather do it myself than get someone else to do it for me, just the way I like to do things! whatever you think mate, completely up to yourself, hope my nonsense helped you in some way, shape or form!

Safe biking as always.

CJhaughey

I don't like powdercoat on engine casings, its too thick and can interfere with getting the proper torque settings, maybe not as big an issue with clutch and stator covers as with barrels but it just looks wrong.
As stated go for a quality paint, something like VHT or Techcote is best, and then if you think they may contact petrol then use some
Satin black looks better on engines than gloss IMHO.
If you think petrol might come in contact with them use some VHT petrol resistant lacquer over the black.

The downpipes can be cleaned with stuff from Dealz called Astonish hob cleaner in a small blue plastic pot.
No matter what you coat them with they will always get dirty, muck sprays up and gets baked on no real solution apart from regular cleaning IMO.

Forks are usually silver so prime them with etch primer and some alloy paint, I found the Simoniz alloy wheel paint good, or there is an engine silver which isn't as bright as the wheel version.

As with any painting the prep is key, soda or vapour blasting is gentle and will remove all the old paint and more importantly corrosion that may be on the cases.

cantdecide

Food for thought, folks.

The lie of the land so far is that I've removed the full exhaust from the bike for inspection.



The downpipes appear to be much better than I thought and they're probably retrievable to a point but I'm still tempted to blast them and go high temp black unless I can get some stainless upgrades (at a good price- the budget is almost completely spoken for at this stage).

The collector is in poop possibly. the inlet for cyl 3 is non existent and cyl 2 would need some kind of attention at least. I don't know if something can be brazed on to get cyl 3 going again but my mechanic also owns an engineering shop so if it can be retrieved then he can do it. If it can be sorted, I'll get the stainless downpipes.

Failing that, I'll have to either go for a good used collector or I might go for a Delkevic collector and a SBS/ Black Widow collector now with the intention of fitting the corresponding downpipes another time.



For the casings, I'm happy to spin the dice for gloss powdercoat black. I like the look and I think if it works, it will work well. I'm going to speak to a blaster tomorrow and if I don't hear the right noises, I'll go to a local bike builder and ask him to prep them for me-

For the forks, I'm going to strip, prep and paint them that aerosol hammerite silver. I've used it before on the front axle carrier knuckle thingie on my old Mille and I've had great results with it. My only concern is whether over that kind of area if it will look sufficiently close to a factory finish or whether it will be obvious that it's a DIY job. One thing is for sure, it's tough bloody stuff. There wasn't a mark on them after a year so let's see.

cantdecide

Now, how bout dem valve clearances....

Sandy Bike Spares/ Black Widow stainless downpipes and collector on the way this week