Cleaned my cambelt covers today+bit about my bike...

[urbanfireblade]

I was checking the belts and pulleys this afternoon and thought while the covers were off i'd see what i could do to make them nicer. A simple wash in hot water and washing up liquid and they look loads better! Shame the previous owner(s) did nowt to look after it. :(

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b151/urbanfireblade/Resized2.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b151/urbanfireblade/resized3.jpg

Gonna wire brush the engine next to get rid of the loose flaking and spruce it up a bit!

[Dookbob]

They certainly look tidier after the scrub up.

[urbanfireblade]

Puts the rest of the bike to shame! :chuckle: Haha. Spent all my time doing the mechanical stuff, i haven't yet started to make it look better. But thats soon to change!
I was gonna spray them gun metal grey, that was until i washed them and saw how clean they came up,

[utopia]

Those stainless header pipes would come up shiney, you know.

[belltj]

Bit of Autosol or peek polish do the trick there!

ohh and plenty of elbow grease!

[utopia]

Bit of Autosol or peek polish do the trick there!
ohh and plenty of elbow grease!

....and hours/days of hard labour.
or, alternatively, begin with a scotchbrite wheel, a wire brush in the electric drill, or a few lengths of emery cloth.
The original finish isn't that smooth, so you can attack it with gusto.

[Nickj]

Inspired by the shininess and having changed back tyre yesterday I gave my bike a clean too.

For the pipes get some webbing, 4-5 cms wide. Tack some strips of scotchbrite type pad onto the webbing, you can get this in a few grades but some green and brown does OK. Now just wrap the strap round the pipe with some fine-ish abrasive and start pulling.
You can get the main parts that show mostly gleaming quite quickly.

\on;y problem is once you start you're committed to fiishing LOL

[urbanfireblade]

I've gone and painted the exhaust pipe using heat proof black paint now. Much easier! I can polish it another time, for now tho black is much better than that brown.

[belltj]

Well the sun came out today as opposed to noah's ark!

so i decided to get the autosol and peek polish out...ohh what a job it has done on my down/header pipes...they look superb now!

it does take a bit of hard elbow grease and time but its worth it in my opinion, they look nice and shiny now!

basically removes all the general crap and oxidisation that has occurred from riding, etc etc!

even on the welds on the pipes where you get unsightly brown rings (cue the puns) it really brought these areas up to a shine! and looks very shiny!

the peek polish is just an added extra over all the coats of autosol i applied...i feel it gives it that extra shine that the harshness of the autosol does not give!

get yourseld down to halfords and get a tube about £6 ad peek from B&Q mine was on offer at £2.50...i stocked up!

[urbanfireblade]

I done mine yesterday too! I took the exhaust off and used my Scotch wheel in my air tool at work to clean it up, then a polishing wheel on a lathe. Looks much better, ill put up before/after pics tonight.
I couldn't get the header pipes clean at the front, too risky breaking through the exhaust pipe as it's heavily pitted but the rest is shiny!

[Nottsbiker]

I done mine yesterday too! I took the exhaust off and used my Scotch wheel in my air tool at work to clean it up, then a polishing wheel on a lathe. Looks much better, ill put up before/after pics tonight.
I couldn't get the header pipes clean at the front, too risky breaking through the exhaust ipe as it's heavily pitted but the rest is shiny!

You could have tried with some fine wet and dry or some scotchbrite ;)

[Thirdway]

On the Street Triple I used wonder wheels. Very easy to apply and brought up a lovely gleam. Not site if it would work on the Monster.

[urbanfireblade]

Pics i took look a bit bland thanks to another 'grey cloud' day. Have to use ur imagination!:p

[urbanfireblade]

Here's one, alot better than the horrid rusty colour.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b151/urbanfireblade/Exhaustpolishedwork30.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b151/urbanfireblade/resized3.jpg

[belltj]

makes a great difference!

[urbanfireblade]

Resprayed my crankcase sides today at work, looks alot better than before.
They really let the bike down in the state they were in. Cambelt covers may be next, i'll have to see what it looks like when these are back on the Monster.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b151/urbanfireblade/resized201.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b151/urbanfireblade/Resized253.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b151/urbanfireblade/Resized254.jpg

[urbanfireblade]

Here they are on the bike, been out today up at Whiteways Cafe, bike looks much tidier parked up with these painted.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b151/urbanfireblade/Crankcasepainted25.jpg

[Mark Taylor]

Really nice job mate - looking bang tidy:thumbsup: I love to see a bike that's proper cared for.

[banditloon]

:thumbsup:

Next job to add to the list for mine then....

[slinemfc]

Here they are on the bike, been out today up at Whiteways Cafe, bike looks much tidier parked up with these painted.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b151/urbanfireblade/Crankcasepainted25.jpg

Looks great. What did you use to paint them? I could use some of that on mine.

[urbanfireblade]

I used Simoniz 5 wheel steel car spray paint. Spent alot of time looking into the best stuff to use and believe it or not this stuff was coming out top time after time, its easy to apply, doesn't chip or flake and has a hard finish whereas the high temp paints never seem to cure even when baked at 250 degrees in an oven you can still put a fingernail indent in the paint finish, and Simoniz is more petrol and oil resistant than the proper specific engine paints! Go figure!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/160341205314

Here's the best price i found, fast delivery too. I bought 2 cans but managed to just use one even after giving them 3 or 4 coats each. So far they're still pristine, unmarked, as good as the day i done them. :)
I spent an afternoon looking into what to use and most ppl who used the proper paint were pretty miffed with the outcome, common complaints were it never cured hard, even when baked on as per instructions, fingernail could easily mark the paint, and oil/petrol would eat away at the finish, quite a few ppl even redo-ing it with Simoniz and couldn't believe how good this stuff was. Even found a guy who did a full blown test on about 10 different engine paints, documented the results in a chart and Simoniz was in the top 2.
I scrubbed my engine covers in a bowl of washing up liquid to get the oil off, then bolted them onto a wood board, made plugs for the oil filler and other parts i wanted sealed, blasted the old paint off in our grit blaster cabinet at work, used a tack cloth to remove any dust and then gave them 3 or 4 coats, about 10-15mins inbetween(had an extractor on to suck any dust away), last coat i put on heavy until it had a gloss look and left to dry for 20mins before putting outside in the sunshine for half hour, then i left them at work on my desk over the weekend to cure ready for fitment on the monday evening.
You can get the silver paint but i wanted a gun metal grey look so went for the steel wheel paint.
I'm chuffed with the outcome, Simoniz 5 wheel paint is really good stuff,

[gary tompkins]

Really nice finish on a budget - well done :cool:

[revver]

I take it you dont need to use primer first with this stuff? (nice job looks great but you will have to do the other bits now)

[urbanfireblade]

Everyone who hasn't done it says u need to, but everyone who has done it says you don't! Depends who you listen to, i didn't, mine was grit blasted so keyed up the surface that way, tack rag got rid of any dust before i sprayed.
If i done it again i still wouldn't use primer, but its up to you.

[Mark Taylor]

I used Simoniz 5 wheel steel car spray paint. Spent alot of time looking into the best stuff to use and believe it or not this stuff was coming out top time after time, its easy to apply, doesn't chip or flake and has a hard finish whereas the high temp paints never seem to cure even when baked at 250 degrees in an oven you can still put a fingernail indent in the paint finish, and Simoniz is more petrol and oil resistant than the proper specific engine paints! Go figure!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/160341205314

Here's the best price i found, fast delivery too. I bought 2 cans but managed to just use one even after giving them 3 or 4 coats each. So far they're still pristine, unmarked, as good as the day i done them. :)
I spent an afternoon looking into what to use and most ppl who used the proper paint were pretty miffed with the outcome, common complaints were it never cured hard, even when baked on as per instructions, fingernail could easily mark the paint, and oil/petrol would eat away at the finish, quite a few ppl even redo-ing it with Simoniz and couldn't believe how good this stuff was. Even found a guy who did a full blown test on about 10 different engine paints, documented the results in a chart and Simoniz was in the top 2.
I scrubbed my engine covers in a bowl of washing up liquid to get the oil off, then bolted them onto a wood board, made plugs for the oil filler and other parts i wanted sealed, blasted the old paint off in our grit blaster cabinet at work, used a tack cloth to remove any dust and then gave them 3 or 4 coats, about 10-15mins inbetween(had an extractor on to suck any dust away), last coat i put on heavy until it had a gloss look and left to dry for 20mins before putting outside in the sunshine for half hour, then i left them at work on my desk over the weekend to cure ready for fitment on the monday evening.
You can get the silver paint but i wanted a gun metal grey look so went for the steel wheel paint.
I'm chuffed with the outcome, Simoniz 5 wheel paint is really good stuff,

I used the same stuff on my GS1000 back in the 80's - got a great result too :thumbsup: