Painting an engine without removing it

I've trying to find a write up of how to paint an engine without removing it without much success. Does anyone have any tips or a link for me? I would also like to get my carbs the same color as the engine but haven't seen anyone painting carbs, can it be done?

Why you can't find anything is that no one would do that.
The time you take trying to tape all the parts you DONT want to paint will be longer then removing the few bolts and wires needed to take the motor out! Don't be lazy man. Things to consider
1. how to you tape it all off?
2. How do you clean and prep the parts your painting
3. Over SPRAY!

Get yourself a book follow the steps and you can have the motor out in less then a few hrs including the carbs!

i did mine in the frame and it looks great....here is a link...i mention how i did it on pg 12-13-14 of the thread...looks darn good and it will last till i decide to remove the engine some day for another reason and do a tits job then...imo


kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...it=20&limitstart=240

looks good. What is the reason no one paints the carbs?

people paint em..if you want a nice black finish then clean em really well with some flash drying parts cleaner..and an air nozzle..clean em really well...take a few minutes and tape the parts you want shiny..a tiny screw driver and tabs of tape to wrap bolts ect....newspaper around the area of the seat tank ect..and use high heat low gloss engine paint and do the first coat just barely..do not try and coat the first coat...then let dry and spray the next few coats really light about an hour apart...the last coat is fast wand moves but full covering....it will look really pro when you remove the tape..wait 10 minutes and remove the tape...any overspray can be scraped to soften with a fingernail-chisel-screwdriver..then let it all dry....the scraped stuff will parts cleaner off with a q-tip in a few hours...dont get the area wet for a few rides

I'm touched. Have you ridden it to see how it stands up to the test of heat yet? So many times when engines get painted the paint starts to come off making it look worse than when you began. Not saying this will happen with yours Tri. I would love to have come up and check it out.
Big projects bikes are. Speaking of big, you should see Cassia's belly. Huge!
There are so many things to do with these bikes that painting the engine hardly reaches the top of the list of must do improvements. Start with all the parts you can take off and strip and do. Take the brake calipers and have them gone over/rebuilt and repaint those and go with the newer style brake fluid that doesn't immediately eat the paint finish off of everything. POLISH your aluminum. This makes more of an impact than trying to paint the block and cases. Dress up the spring and bolt for kickstand with stainless. For now try and clean up the aluminum so that it looks good. I don't know about trying to paint the bike with everything on it. Kind of easy to make it look like a gypsy bike. Winter project list of to do things and cost. Plan it out well. I am sure there are quite of few cool things you haven't done to improve the handling /performance and aestetic appearance yet. Post up a picture of your ride so we can all see and comment or post a link to the pictures. I want to see it.
trianglelaguna wrote:

i did mine in the frame and it looks great....here is a link...i mention how i did it on pg 12-13-14 of the thread...looks darn good and it will last till i decide to remove the engine some day for another reason and do a tits job then...imo


kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...it=20&limitstart=240

actually just began polishing the aluminum yesterday. I also got rid of a lot of rust from the fenders and fork with some high grit wet sanding. I would definitely remove the carbs, gas tank, seat, etc for painting the engine... I just don't necessarily want to take the engine off too--I would need a friend for that and I have been doing everything alone. Trianglelaguna's post was what I was looking for.

As for painting the carbs, I haven't found any picture of painted carbs which is why I was asking if it can be done. If I decide to do it, would I have to tape anything off besides the passage to the air filter and to the combustion chamber?

Here is the most recent picture of my bike. I'm still working on some polishing before I take a new one. This is after I put on new exhaust and handlebars.

I've spray bombed a few engines for people.

All the advise here is good so far.

Wheel cleaner spray and power washer.

A tip: Remove/tape off all plastics/rubbers + small fittings, linkage, etc. Plug carb holes with some newspaper. Then spray away. The tops and bottoms + etc of the carbs can just be removed later after drying, and left in some brake fluid or stripper to return them to shiney origional.

Same with engine metals. Spray away after taping/papering off areas, then remove and strip parts to be shiney, then replace. Works real nice.

GL!