Unofficial Royal Enfield Community Forum
Royal Enfield Motorcycles => Bullet Iron Barrel => Topic started by: UniqueGirl on April 21, 2014, 02:55:56 am
-
I'm getting ready to pull the head to replace a leaky gasket. I want to polish up the valve covers and the head and I'm looking for any advice. Is there any kind of coating on the aluminum? I was thinking of putting them in my parts washer, then bead blast cabinet to clean them up, then trying to polish them with some attachments I have for my drill. I don't want to damage anything or remove any finish that might be on them. Also if you have a polish that works well let me know.
-
Do NOT bead blast!. You will never be able to polish them. The polishing process is simply replacing big marks/scratches with successively finer scratches until you can't see them anymore. Bead blasting will put relatively large dents in the metal. No amount of polishing will hide the stippling effect.
Unlike Japanese bikes, the aluminum is not coated, so you get directly to the polishing. On a coated piece you would have to mechanically or chemically remove the coating. I use Jasco paint remover. Depending on how bad it is you can start with an appropriate grit of emery paper. I usually start with 400 or 600 grit and work my way to 2000 grit, but if it's not too bad I may start with 1200/1500/2000. Then any metal polish and a buffing wheel on a drill motor/drill press/bench grinder will do the job. You'll be able to find various grits in polish. Start with coarse and finish with jeweler's rouge. the process is tedious and messy, but curiously relaxing. Beer helps.
-
Thanks so very much.....
-
I put mine to a floppy cotton wheel on my buffer. Then finished it off by hand with Mothers. I have recently switched from Mothers to Bombs Away a captain Richards product I found online. For me nothing beats Mothers. Unless you can find bombs away.it works every bit as good as mothers and seems to have a coating that makes the shine last longer
-
Do you have corrosion and pitting or they've
just dulled and are gray? If just gray get a good polish.
Go to your local truck stop and they will have something
like Black Diamond....(or was that white Diamond? )
be careful, once you start it is hard to stop. Follow
Vince's advice, beer....
and a soft cotton cloth- Mike
-
Thank you to all that respond to me. You guys are subject matter experts. I appreciate your knowledge. Ride on....