Clean and Polish – Part II

In a continuation of the Part I post, I continued with the cleaning and polishing of the Clutch and Generator covers. The same procedure was followed as done in Part I.

Both covers were in pretty bad shape, but the generator cover was really washed out and oxidized.

A couple of hours later, both were looking much better.

Still a couple of things to do behind the clutch and generator covers before they can be reinstalled to the engine, but things are looking promising.

Clean and Polish – Part I

I started trying to improve the appearance of some of the engine covers today before they go back on the engine. I started with the smaller pieces of the signal generator cover and the secondary drive cover to see how the method would work out.

The first step was to pry off the old DOHC emblem and then hit the pieces with some Aircraft Remover to try and get through any clear coat that might still be covering the oxidized areas.

The Aircraft Remover and a bit of light standing started to make things look better right away.

The remainder of the work was a sequence of different buffing pads from Chemical Guys on the Porter Cable 7424XP random speed, orbital buffer and the Vintage Aluminum and Metal polishing compound that I bought at a local motorcycle show a while back.

I used the same polishing compound with the different buffing pads rather than one pad with multiple compounds. Each pad from Chemical Guys has a different cutting and polishing composition. It worked well, but I may try some different strength compounds as well on the bigger pieces.

As indicated in the Biker Wax directions, a lot of black residue was generated with the Vintage polish.

After going through the series of five buffing pads, both pieces were really starting to look good.

The new emblem really helps too. The emblem is just laying on top for now. These pieces should look really good along with the other covers once they get reinstalled to the engine with new Allen head bolts as well.

Thanks for looking.