Kawi2strokes.com Forum

Getting all my engine covers polished is on my list of things to do. I have had them boxed and ready to ship for months, but I never got around to finding a place to have it done. I'm sure some places are better than others.

Also what kind of paint do you guys suggest for the 2 main case halves? I tried some spray paint last year and it looked horrible. I plan on painting the frame with some good automotive black plaint this year. Should I just spray them while I am at it. Or would that look bad?

That would look bad! I just lightly bead-blasted my cases, (clean them up properly) and left them in their natural state, which is what the factory did! The "as-cast" finish seems to hold up well. I.M.O, Paint doesn't work on cases, when you start torqueing up nuts & bolts, etc. (Yes, factory applied paint, or professionally applied 2-packs will work, but not for a Triple engine with polished covers!)

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"One day, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching." : anon.

If the paint comes out of a spray can, it probably won't be very durable. If you already have the bare frame you should consider powder coat. I did one bike several years ago and I painted the frame with color then clear. I have regretted painting it since then. Any little thing I drop on the frame leaves some kind of mark in the paint. My powder coated frame can take a pretty good beating and it doesn't show. That makes the bike much easier to assemble without hacking up a new paint job.

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Rotortech
Indianapolis
1974 S3

Plus 1 on powder coat, this was 85% gloss, I am very happy with the results

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"Patina" Derived from latin upaytina, definition: Too cheap to fix it

Have you considered polishing the parts yourself? I find it gratifying and not terribly difficult (no disrespect to the professionals - my work is not show quality by any means). I can do a pretty nice job on a clutch cover in about an hour.

If you want the cases to look nice, it will only take a couple fo 1 hour TV shows and some mothers polish.

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Twist the throttle, tilt the horizon, and have a great time. What triples are all about...........

just polish them yourself using a set of polishing buffs

I have polished my own back when I had the GT550 engine. They came out great, but I had a lot more free time back then and I remember it taking several days worth of work. Mine wasn't a well taken care of bike. It has many scratches and stuff on the cases.

I don't want to go the powder coat route for cost reasons and because I have a huge air compressor and automotive spray gun that I never use. I was going to spray my tank and frame with some good automotive paint. .

My case halves were already painted black, I was just going to redo it.. Or should I bead blast them and polish them up to?

I'm at a point with this cobbled together project that all the mechanical bugs were figured out last summer and are fixed or in the process. My next step is trying to make it look good. beside fresh paint and polishing it's getting a cafe seat, a half shell rear fender, new speedo, and new controls. Hopefully it won't look like it's from the Road Warrior movie anymore

Here is what it looked like before I started the engine rebuild. http://imgur.com/a/0AeOP

I would just strip the paint. And then Mothers the cases while watching TV. It will go fast........

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Twist the throttle, tilt the horizon, and have a great time. What triples are all about...........

I polished my own covers for the S3. The bike had been stored/abandoned outside. There was deep pitting in the aluminum. I started each piece with 80 grit sand paper and worked patiently to finer grits till I got to 1000 grit. Each piece to approximately 6 hours of hard labor. If it were not for the numerous pits I could have just used mothers and a rag for about 15 minutes each. YMMV.

Here is a pic of my powder coated frame during the build. I also had the swing arm and a bunch of other brackets done at the same time.


Warning: If you do get the frame powder coated, be sure that the person doing the prep plugs all tapped holes. Any holes that are not plugged will need to be tapped prior to inserting a screw. My guy was good and he only missed a couple of them.

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Rotortech
Indianapolis
1974 S3