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What are some opinions on coating aluminum parts after they are bead and soda blasted to slow/prevent oxidation. Whether I should at all... Thanks
My understanding of the rough castings finish on our airheads is that they disrupt the air flowing past them and provide air cooling.
Those nice pictures posted above by Gary Phillips are one side of the coin. I've always thought that the best way to get a nice vintage bike is to buy a new one you like, care for it over time, and grow old gracefully with it. However, the other side of the coin is to drag home something that looks like this:What are some opinions on coating aluminum parts after they are bead and soda blasted to slow/prevent oxidation. Whether I should at all... Thanks
Those nice pictures posted above by Gary Phillips are one side of the coin. I've always thought that the best way to get a nice vintage bike is to buy a new one you like, care for it over time, and grow old gracefully with it. However, the other side of the coin is to drag home something that looks like this:
After a lot of time and effort to get it clean, it is tempting to use some kind of clearcoat to keep it looking nice. I don't believe in that. There are some very high quality clearcoat materials available today, but I think eventually they will all have a problem. If the alloy starts to look nasty under the clearcoat, it is a lot more trouble to strip off the coating and then clean and polish than it would be to simply keep up the bare surface with routine cleaning. Once the neglect and "white rust" are cleaned away, it should be easy enough to maintain.
Autosol has a protective spray that seems promising, but I don't have any long term experience with it yet. At least it isn't something difficult to remove. I've started using their products and like them.
By the way, the thing I have found that works best for the mess in my picture above is something I laughed at when I first saw it recommended. That is WD-40 and brass bristled brushes. I found out that it works amazingly well and is about as cheap a method as you will find. To reduce the necessary elbow grease, I also like brass cup brushes from Forney used at slow speed in my Dremel tool. Rotary brass brushes by themselves will color your alloy with a yellow/gold tint. But -- if the rotary brass brush is kept wet with a bit of WD-40, that won't happen. Ditto if the brush is used with a small amount of Mother's Metal Polish or Autosol Metal Polish Paste. I scrub till there's a lot of black crud on the surface, wipe with a cheap paper towel and repeat till no more black stuff scrubs up. Then I give it a light spray of WD-40 and scrub some more with just the paper towel. Autosol also makes a spray cleaner, but I have found that WD-40 works as well and is cheaper to use.
So, I probably have my alloy shinier than most would like, but I figure it will dull out with use and exposure. It's all a learning process, and look what I had to start with.
I will 'fess up and say that after I got my alloy parts scrupulously clean, I hit them with some silver Rub 'n Buff to get the color the same on all the pieces of the engine housing. However, like the Autosol Protective Oil, the Rub 'n Buff is easy to remove if you want the bare alloy back.
HTH
Ray
Yes, but this is drifting away from the OP's question about preserving the finish once it is clean. I kind of gave my opinion on that earlier. I think once it is clean, routine maintenance will keep it up if there is no clear coat or paint applied. Here's what it looks like if it sits in a barn with no routine maintenance:Ray great job, any pictures of your other aluminum parts you have cleaned with this method ?
Thanks
The problem, IMO is that "clean" shouldn't mean "shiny" aluminum look. The original was a "clean" aluminum, but not shiny.