The building of "Bones"

[Fred Camper]

I have seen lots of posts about wax verse clear coating and since clear will not hold up for 5 years of riding and the maintenance of removing clear is significant, if you can avoid salted roads and polish and wax once a year then my current opinion is that polished is easier to keep up over a 10 riding period. Yet I personally have little data to support this opinion...

[HOTT]

Speak to me of this clearcoat?

I maybe wrong but I thought you were clear coating your bare metal. The Scotchbrite generally makes a good 'toothed' surface for clear to hold on to. I find on the motor it is pretty (not completely) resistant to gas,and engine heat doesn't discolor it. It also makes it easy to wash and rinse under the carbs. I would try a sample to see if it's what your looking for. Degrease with soap and water. Lay at least two good heavy coats with reducer, touch up as needed over the years. I too am not a big fan of clearing polished aluminum. I've used PPG, Sherwinn Williams Ultra Coat, Ditzler, and ACME (personal favorite cheap) two part clears, all work well.

[wingless1]

agree on the clears: if you're putting it on a scotchbrited surface free from grease and oils (scrub clean with hot soapy water, then acetone or other strong solvent) you will get excellent adhesion and long life. Good quality 2 component acrylic (good) or acrylic urethane (better solvent resistance) clears will do the job. The temps of the engine won't get high enough to matter and the only chem that will bother them in case of a splash is brake fluid, though a puddle of gas left for a while will discolour them.
Touch up of a scratch/stain/chip/flake a few years down the road consists of cleaning, degreasing, scotchbrite the area, re-clear the area, ride-about the same as re-waxing.
have no experience putting it on polished surfaces, but, without a texture, I doubt it'll stick.
I use a variet of automotive clears-basically whatever they have on hand as they all seem to work very well. Usually I go with either one of the big 3 companies' stuff in this order of preference for clears: basf, dupont, ici.

[rainstromrider]

Speak to me of this clearcoat?

I maybe wrong but I thought you were clear coating your bare metal. The Scotchbrite generally makes a good 'toothed' surface for clear to hold on to.

I'm with you HOTT. All aluminum is bare, and all steel is cleared!

if you can avoid salted roads and polish and wax once a year then my current opinion is that polished is easier to keep up over a 10 riding period.

Like I said before, this is my pornstar. When's the last time you saw one of them out in the rain? And their supposed to be a little more maintenance And honestly this bike will never see a salt spec! Rainstrom is the workhorse

[rainstromrider]

Who was it that said there's not much left...Fred!

This is all off the donor motor, but I think I have a problem!
http://www.ngwclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32989

[rainstromrider]

Parts bike to the rescue! Good usable heads! Back in business!

[Hoosier Daddy]

Posted on the other thread "Oh $#@%!!! " glad to hear you are back in business! It just dawned on me, because of that guy in Paw-Paw, I am now one of those P.O.'s!

[Major_moto]

Its tough on the physce to make all that progress and then almost be set back. Glad to see you are back in business - hope everything else is goes smooth for you!

[Gregor]

I am especially impressed with your improvised sockets.

[rainstromrider]

I am especially impressed with your improvised sockets.

Thanks! Gonna make another one tonight for a valve spring compressor adapter to go on a c-clamp, you know what they say about "necessity"

[rainstromrider]

Posted on the other thread "Oh $#@%!!! " glad to hear you are back in business! It just dawned on me, because of that guy in Paw-Paw, I am now one of those P.O.'s!

Don't sweat it! I'm sure you ran into a few things on "little sister" she was my first adventure into bike rescue My mechanical knowledge has tripled since then (doubled since starting "bones" ) I'm still embarrassed about the welding on my improvised mufflers

[rainstromrider]

Having a ball, welded me an adapter for disassembling the valve springs. Going to polish the intakes and exhaust, but not port. I figure I can only make improvements that way. Getting a bit redundant... Disassemble, check specs, de-crud, grind/polish, reseal, reassemble!

[robin1731]

Going to polish the intakes and exhaust, but not port. I figure I can only make improvements that way.

Not necessarily. It is very easy to make an engine run worse if you don't have experience in port work. If you think you do want to "polish" something just do the exhaust side. Leave the intakes alone. Less likely to hurt it that way.

I'll be very honest though. If you don't have experience in this your better off just not doing anything. I've seen more engines run worse than better when someone just wanted to tough "them up" a little.

That's my .02. And years of performance engine work.

[duke182]

x2 on the intake
you want a little roughness in the intake to help mix the air and fuel.
if you decide to work on the exhaust side, concentrate on polishing and try to avoid removing material excessively.
the smoother surface will help the exhaust gasses to pass through more effecently.
unlesss you can afford to experiment on several heads or have access to someone with lots of experience, i say leave the serious porting to someone else.
good luck with whatever route you choose.

[Hoosier Daddy]

X3
Rough intake runner walls help atomize the fuel.
The most I did to Bombers heads was to clean up the casting flash, especially around the oil drain back holes at the bottom of the heads.