Great Prices on Polishing Aluminum

[Mike Stewart]

I was looking at motocycle parts on Ebay and came across an auction for polishing your motorcycle side case. Well, I emailed the gent for a quote for polishing two Guzzi valve covers (wanted to polish the valve covers and then have them anodized red). The quote was for $50.00 which to me is very cheap... Just the materials for polishing them myself would be over that, not including the time The gent (Orrin) is retired and will polish anything aluminum, no matter how hard it is to polish.

 

Check out his site (look under photos)!

 

POLISHING PAGE

http://home.mchsi.com/~jdm366/wsb/html/vie...home.html-.html

 

HOME PAGE

http://home.mchsi.com/~okm36/wsb/html/view...home.html-.html

 

Mike

[Guest Fonzarelli]

That's very interesting.

 

I am also considering having both valve covers and possibly the side plates (pork chops) stripped and anodized red.

 

The paint that MG uses is not that durable.

 

I think that the polished/anodizing would look great!

[Mike Stewart]

That's very interesting.

 

I am also considering having both valve covers and possibly the side plates (pork chops) stripped and anodized red.

 

The paint that MG uses is not that durable.

 

I think that the polished/anodizing would look great!

Thats what my problem is. The paint around the bolt holes of the valve covers are chipping off. The problem with anodizing the valve covers is that the quality of the casting/aluminum is not that good and may not anodize that well. I think polishing first will make the anodizing look more uniform. This is basicly an experiment.

 

Mike

[al_roethlisberger]

Let us know how it goes Mike

 

I'd prefer mine anodized as well, but when I took my valve covers over to a very reputable(does NASA's work, etc) anodize shop(PK Selective) here ... they looked at the material of the valve covers and said... "sure, we can anodize them, but because they are cast aluminum, they'll come out a nice sooty black, regardless of what we dye them." They said it was because of the composition of cast aluminum material, not the finish.

 

I don't know about the side-plates though, however the looked cast as well.

 

In any case, I had mine powder-coated and while not indestructable... sheesh, that stuff is darned tough... much tougher than the Guzzi paint for sure

 

But for the very same reason that the anodize shop warned me of QA issues, even when powder coating these cast pieces... the crappy material Guzzi uses outgasses like a bastard duing the cooking/curing powder coating process ... and almost is guaranteed to have a few bubbles/blemishes.

 

Both powder coat shops I used tried twice to get it blemish free, then just gave up and did the best they could

 

This is probably why Guzzi paints(liquid) them from the factory.

 

Now, if we could find someone to CNC these parts from billet affordably, then you could anodize some "badass" covers and sideplates

 

al

 

 

P.S.

 

The big problem with polishing aluminum is keeping it looking nice afterwards. You can do/get a stellar job done initially, but you have to stay on top of it for it to remain "show". I see this a lot on the sportbike boards where guys polish their wheels, frames, etc... and eventually just get exasperated because they are polishing all day long. I'd think that if one got a big part polished, you might want to have it clear-coated afterwards to make preserving the finish manageable.

[twhitaker]

I had the valve covers and alternator cover on my California gold plated. I first had to take them to a shop known for polishing HD parts. They polished them and then sent the parts to a plater. The plater started out with a copper plate upon which he nickel plated. This nickel was the surface to which the gold could be added. You can go with chrome instead. The three parts cost $240. The gold added another $220. Looks great but the cadmium on the valve cover bolts left an oxide residue on the covers.

[Mike Stewart]

I just received a picture from Orrin on the progress of the Guzzi valve covers I sent to him to get polished. He said getting down around the bolt holes were a bi^#%ch, but he was able to do it. To polish these it was only $50.00 (the price might go up after this set) I was going to try to anodize them but after talking to JRT this past weekend, I was talked out of it. I guess I have to build a Monster Jackel or some other project that could use these valve covers.

 

Mike

[jrt]

Yeah, sorry about that. You could paint (powdercoat) them, but what's the point after having them polished? They sure do look nice though. I'll bet someone would pay a nice premium to put those on their Jackal/Stone/EV/etc.

 

I found one old round-case valve cover in the garage (where'd that come from???). I'll try cleaning it up and anodizing it in the next month or two. When I do, I'll let ya'll know how it turns out.

 

Cheers,

Jason

[twhitaker]

You might try this.

[al_roethlisberger]

Ah hem... regarding real gold plated parts, well my mama always said that if I don't have anything nice to say... well.... let's just leave it at that

 

 

 

The polished covers turned out great though. I'd hate to have to maintain them though

[Guest Fonzarelli]

I actually kind of like the polished aluminum valve cover!

 

I don't know how it would look with the rest of the Rosso Corsa decor, but I think it might look cool along with polished pork chops.

[Guest Fonzarelli]

Hey, I had another thought!

 

How about Black Chrome!

 

That would give it kind of a racy look.

[Guest rotorhead]

I have polished aluminum parts myself with a fair level of frustration and can vouch for the difficulty in maintaining the apperance. I have as of yet to find a durable clear coat that can be applied by the shade tree mechanic....most of the ones I have used tend to chip after awhile.

 

Any reccomendations on a good clearcoat would be appreciated.

[docc]

try East wood. They supply good quality restoration finishes.