Painting the engine.

Does anybody have any experience of painting the engine? I know that the only proper way would be to strip and have the individual parts blasted and then painted but thats just not going to happen. At the most it would be pull the motor out, de-grease, wire brush, then give it a coat of paint.

Only had experience with some small chips/corrosion areas. I used a small abrasive pen to clean the area free of loose stuff/deposits etc. Then you must use a special metals primer. Top coat was Hammerite smooth silver.

The areas I touched in have remained good so far (Two Years) and you can`t tell them from the original finish.Thats all I know mate.

I painted a bit of a 650gs engine with smooth sliver hammerite after removing the flaking paint and sanding it down a bit around the edges. It was a close colour match, but not exact.

My Engine front cover was in pretty poor shape, as you can see from the photos. So I thought I better get it sorted before winter set in, as I use the bike daily throughout the year for my commute to work.



Here you can see where I have scraped off the flaking paint & started to rub down with a combination of wire brush & flapper wheels.







Once loose paint & corrorosion were removed, I gave it a good degrease with soap & water.
I Then handpainted the bare metal areas with hammerite spacial metals primer.
Once the primer was dry (doesn't take long, bout an hour) I hand painted with hammerite smooth silver (just the one coat, applied liberally). The result, whilst not being cosmetically fantastic looking, does seem to be doing the job of protecting the metal. (see pics).






Ive been out in all weathers, the cover has been exposed to plenty of road salt, has been powerwashed & scrubbed. There is no sign of any deteriotion of the paint.

I know a better job could have been done, by removing the front cover, bead-blasting and spraypainting, but I did not have the time, nor could be arsed, draining the enging oil & faffing around re-setting the hall sensors up on re-assembly (thats a job for a later date).

BTW whilst I had the exhaust off (which was also in poor condition & swine to get off) I gave it a clean up with a with a rotary wire brush on an angle grinder (came up lovely).

Hope this helps
Regards
Paul

Thanks for your help, I'm at your stage Paul and was thinking along the same lines as you.