engine polishing

im going to try and get ltd rider to tell us how he got his engine to look so darned good,,,,,ltd rider if you please....

I am jealous of his bike. It looks so good, even up close,

Thanks for the kind words.
Lots of members have done some awesome work on their motors, polished to a mirror finish.
I wanted my motor to look like new stock, like it would have looked on the showroom floor. And they weren't mirror-shiny back then. So my motor's nothing like the one pictured at the top of this page.
The cast aluminum surfaces get rubbed with a scotchbrite pad (green) and Mothers Metal Polish. Get in-between the fins by folding the scotchbrite pad to fit. Buff it off with a soft cloth. Use a pencil or popcycle stick to force the buffing cloth between the fins.
The machined aluminum surfaces get rubbed with Mr. Buffer on a soft cloth, then buff it off with a clean soft cloth. It leaves some kind of surface residue that keeps it shiny for months.
After that, just keep the oil and grime off it with Simple Green and rinse with water. The less your motor leaks, the cleaner it will stay.
A fridge with cold beer, a stool, and some good tunes, and you can make an afternoon of it.

ltd, I'm assuming you first removed all the clear coat that was on the engine originally? I tried your method on mine, and it didn't make a lick of difference because of the remnants of some type of coating. How would one remove this substance - paint stripper?

None of my motorcycles had any coating except the 1974 H2. The rest of them, you can polish real nice by hand.

Norseman wrote:

ltd, I'm assuming you first removed all the clear coat that was on the engine originally? I tried your method on mine, and it didn't make a lick of difference because of the remnants of some type of coating. How would one remove this substance - paint stripper?

Oh yeah... don't forget to remove the clear coat! :pinch:
I used wet sandpaper on the machined (smooth) surfaces. Start with 600 grit, sand in one direction. Go to 800, and sand in the perpendicular direction. Then go to 1200 in the other direction. If your clearcoat was like mine (blistered), it'll come right off. You can do the same on your fork lowers... they'll buff out shiney!
I used a wire brush and coars steel wool on the cast surfaces.
I've never re-applied the clear coat after polishing because the shine is pretty easy to maintain.

Interesting, none of mine had clearcoat. Forks, yes. Engine, no.

I thought mine was clearcoated. Had like a yellow film on it. Wet sanding removed it.

thanks for a fast reply ltd rider...i rubbed my covers with mothers and the cast parts with the green scotch brite pads,with little effort i can see a huge difference,,,thanks for the tips

thanks for a fast reply ltd rider...i rubbed my covers with mothers and the cast parts with the green scotch brite pads,with little effort i can see a huge difference,,,thanks for the tips

thanks for a fast reply ltd rider...i rubbed my covers with mothers and the cast parts with the green scotch brite pads,with little effort i can see a huge difference,,,thanks for the tips