BMW Engine Paint in Australia

[Tony T]

I'm asking this one here as I need paint that is close to the original 70's BMW silver for the engine, but it has to be available in Australia.
Can anyone help me with this one, please?
Ta.

[Bigem]

TT, PowerPlus do an enamel called 'Silver wheels'.

It is as close as you will get to the silver used on most bike engines, it does not require primer, and it takes 4 stroke engine temperature no worries.

Autobarn carry it, around $17-18 a can but it goes a long way.

[Rucksta]

The engines were not painted silver.
Original finish is glass bead blasted.

Wet bead blasting replicates the finish .
The hardest part is keeping the blasting media out of the engine and off critical surfaces.

Wet bead or hyrdo blasting buffers the action of the blasting media and helps prevent it from imbedding in the alloy.

I've done it with the engine assembled and orifices sealed and disassembled.

I'm not sure which was a bigger pain but the finish on disassembled individual parts gave better finish as a huge cabinet is required for a complete engine and some areas are still difficult to get to.

Either way needs a strict clean up regime to get rid of the glass.

Some reports indicate soda blasting yields an acceptable finish and any residual blasting media is water soluble leaving less risk of abrasive material left behind in the engine.

If you posted in Olds School you'd get a range of opinions on this.

[Tony T]

Thanks fellas.
At this stage, I want to go down the paint route as the engine has already been rebuilt before I bought it and I don't want to strip it again for a while. I just want to ride the bloody thing!!
It looks like the previous owner took to the cases with a wire wheel or something similar. I've got a blasting cabinet, but not big enough to take the whole engine.
No doubt I'll want to do a proper resto on this thing one day, though.
Thanks again, gentlemen.

[GodSilla]

If you decide to bead blast the disassembled parts, be SURE to place all bolts into their holes and a few turns in.

Ask me how I know this....

[Tony T]

Originally Posted by GodSilla

If you decide to bead blast the disassembled parts, be SURE to place all bolts into their holes and a few turns in.

Ask me how I know this....

How do you know this??




Sorry.... couldn't resist............

[GodSilla]

I had the head, barrels, and engine cases for a Z1A900 Kawasaki glass-bead blasted many years ago.

I asked the bead-blaster guy if I needed to plug the threads in the cases and such, and he said nah, no worries, just blow them out afterwards with compressed air. I took him at his word, he's the expert right?

BIG mistake. They came back with every single fucking hole completely clogged to the gills with those tiny glass beads. And the oil galleries......

Thankfully, (and this is very much pre k'archer days) one of the blokes I was sharing with had an industrial pressure cleaner, the type for cleaning the shit off roof tiles, so I used that to blast the oil galleries clean, so my worst nightmare went away.

I then had to use a 6mm, and 8mm, and a 10mm tap, both kinds for each size, a taper tap and a plug tap, and clean every bloody thread out. Compressed air just pressurised in the holes, nothing came out whatsoever.

It took me weeks to do. I had to use the taper tap repeatedly with clean oil to pick up the glass beads and hold them in suspension so's they would come out, clean it off with a toothbrush in kero, then follow with the same routing using the plug tap, then finish off with kero on the plug tap to get the last of the dregs out. What a nightmare.

However, I had the easiest assembly job ever, not a single thread bound up or was stiff.

It looked great when it was assembled up, I sprayed the major castings in flat black and baked them in the oven (the joys of renting in a share house) and chromed all the sidecovers and the rocker box, but still, it was a high price to pay in labour for taking the turd at his word.

BTW, the turd was in Elizabeth West industrial area, if you ever meet him feel free to snot him.

[McCardigan]

If you do decide to restore, check Shmerel's restoration thread on his R65 cafe for before and photo's. He used hydroblasting, not cheap but look at the outstanding quality of the results, about pages 6 to 8.
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...r+build&page=6


Cheers

[gsd4me]

Originally Posted by Tony T

At this stage, I want to go down the paint route as the engine has already been rebuilt before I bought it and I don't want to strip it again for a while.
It looks like the previous owner took to the cases with a wire wheel or something similar.

If he did that to the outside, I`d be very worried about what the inside looks like.

[Precis]

Originally Posted by McCardigan

If you do decide to restore, check Shmerel's restoration thread on his R65 cafe for before and photo's. He used hydroblasting, not cheap but look at the outstanding quality of the results, about pages 6 to 8.
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...r+build&page=6


Cheers

I got a pair of cyl heads & pistons back from Greg yesterday; price of blasting off 30 years of accumulated road munge and 130,000km of carbon from combustion chamber & ports was $107.58, incl courier charges.
For what are now essentially new heads, I don't call that expensive.
And if I'd had the sense to send him the valves too, he would have recut the seats and lapped them in too.

[guzzimike]

VHT Universal Aluminium is the stuff to use.
I have used it on my Guzzis after advice from Mario at Thunderbikes.
You cant pick it from bead blasted sand cast aluminium.
Don't be talked into anything else.
Don't ask me how I know this last point.

[GodSilla]

Originally Posted by guzzimike

Don't ask me how I know this last point.

Well Tony?

[Tony T]

Originally Posted by GodSilla

Well Tony?

So......... guzzimike........... you reckon I shouldn't try anything else than VHT.
To quote a famous old scientist........ "Why is it so?? "



Happy now, God??

[guzzimike]

Originally Posted by Tony T

So......... guzzimike........... you reckon I shouldn't try anything else than VHT.
To quote a famous old scientist........ "Why is it so?? "



Happy now, God??

Hi Tony,
I used some other aluminium paint (2 brands) & they looked like.........paint.
The VHT brand looked like bare, blasted aluminium. It is also tough stuff and doesn't mark like the others.

[Tony T]

Originally Posted by guzzimike

Hi Tony,
I used some other aluminium paint (2 brands) & they looked like.........paint.
The VHT brand looked like bare, blasted aluminium. It is also tough stuff and doesn't mark like the others.

That's a boring story!
I was waiting for tales of bloodshed and carnage.......

Good advice though, mate. Thanks.
I'll have a look for the stuff tomorrow.