Engine

*Gleam*

Back at it

Finally got some time on the XS this weekend. Moving into my house and generally living it up has kept me away from the shed - especially as its all located up at my parents place! It was good to be back  8)



So after blasting the engine, I gave it a clean with some Jizer, and then carefully hand washed it with some soap to get any crap off.



Then I left it to dry for a few days and masked it up best I could



Cracked out the BBQ paint and went at it...



I was pleased with how it went on - painted really well! I'll keep popping up this week and putting more coats on / turning the engine round to get into all the fiddly places!

Also my dad has got an paint gun and compressor so had a go with the bodywork...



OOooo!!! That's VW's "Diamond Silver". Cant wait to have it back on the road! but I doubt the painting will be finished any time soon ::)

Polishing

Picked these up from Agbrigg Chrome platers in Leeds, £60. (Other rocker covers included). Turned it round in a week, though he rang me after 2 days to say it was done.



Really chuffed with the result! Cant wait to build the bike back up now I have all these polished and chrome parts. Need to pull my finger out and get painting, though house moving issues have slowed things down alot.

It certainly wont be this month :(

Chrome plating

Picked up my Chrome plating on Saturday. I used Agbrigg Chrome platers in Leeds. The bloke there Shaun is a biker too and so pretty sympathetic to our needs! He said that it would be a few weeks, but it only took him one week!! This was most surprising as I had previously rung Prestige platers in Mexborough and they were talking 3-4 months!!!

I wasnt sure on the level of finish that I needed to have the parts in, so most stuff I had done to a fairly high standard myself. He said most people bring things in a lot worse state so I was OK. He has a big polishing and sanding wheel and gave me an idea of the level of finish that he can achieve there too. I also took my stainless pipes in a pretty rough state, and he cleaned and polished them up to a mirror finish. I was so impressed that I took all the other ally covers off the engine for him to do as well.

There is about 20 parts in this box but didnt want to unwrap everything.



The pipes:



This has certainly pulled my completion date forward - just need to paint everything else now!!

Blasting Cabinet

OK so after initially ignoring good advice I finally got round to building a cabinet for the blaster.

I say "I" but I mean me and may dad as he is a master DIY carpenter! Basically constructed the whole thing out of what we had laying around.



Made a hole in the top for an inspection lamp





And a plug in the bottom to sweep it out.



Ta-da!





It has affectionately been dubbed the "tardis". Its 3' sqaure and 4' high, which is probably too big, but better that than too small. Blasting went well, I had previously used fine glass bead which gave a good finish, though not very aggressive. However I now had some more intense sandy type stuff.. (I have no idea what my dad bought!) and it does the job well, leaving a rougher finish which will take paint well.



Its fairly slow going, but I suppose that's to be expected with something as large as an engine - lots of nooks and crannies to blast at! But now I'm set up I will just keep going in and having the odd hour on it.

Fingers crossed I dont fuck the engine!

Blasting testing

So, I had a go blasting the engine outside, and just like I had been told, I blasted through a whole 25kg bag of glass bead in no time!

I sat the engine on a bike lift, and put the whole lot on a big sheet of plastic with a very crude wooden fence around. This allowed me to recycle some of the sand, but then I kept blocking up with large lumps and rain soon ended play altogether.

Even so, when the things was working properly I was getting good results! Only managed the head and a few fins, but I'm pleased with the results.









So... next task is to build some sort of cabinet that will allow me to recycle all of the glass beads. Also I'm thinking of a gauze type filter to remove large bits of dirt etc...

It was a bit of an experiment, so I'm not surprised by the results. Got a good finish, but needs a bit more preparation for actually using the blaster.

Blasting back

Picked up my parts from my uncle who works at Broadblast in Sheffield. They typically do more industrial type stuff, but throw in the occasional bike frame for good measure. I got him to undercoat the frame, fender, and electrics box.


He used some serious North Sea oil rig 25yr guarantee primer so it will never rust haha! Also blasted up the other bits and bobs;



So now I can sort things for Chrome plating. But first I want to blast the engine. My plan is to basically blast it as a complete unit, so I have been bunging up all the holes etc.



I want to do it myself so I can be a bit more careful with where Im pointing the blaster, so I added this little beaut to the shed;



Its just a DIY 10 gallon tank that you can pick up off ebay, also bought a bag of glass bead that will hopefully give me a good finish! Just need to test it on some scrap now and see what kind of finish I can achieve...