Whats the best way to paint an engine?

[Matthew Duncan]

Looking for some advice on how to painy a motorcycel engine/gearbox.

Its for my MotoGuzzi, and its an aluminium engine that has been soda blasted. looking to paint it silver, with ether gold or black barrels ?

Any advice?

Thanks,

Matt

[drewpy]

Its all in the prep.

got to be grease free and no touching with bare hands.

warm casings up slightly and paint in the proper humidity and temp as on the can.

I have tried yambits engine silver and its rubbish. personally I would leave it bare and rub in acf40 and keep clean.

barrels can be painted with Pj1 if you can still get it, fuel and oil resistant when treated as per instructions. failing that BBQ paint form B&Q has been great and used it on the Gilera exhaust, again I heat treated it using a blowtorch

[jimmy]

Lidl have been doing Hi Temp spray paint for £2.50, keep your eyes peeled

[feliks]

Since you've already got it soda blasted, that's half the work right there. So:

1. Clean well - I used Spray-Nine - semi diluted - but any grease remover / cleaner should work well, I let it soak for a few minutes then scrubbed with a brush to get all of the parts I couldn't wipe off.
2. Etching primer - nasty green stuff - DO NOT breath it in! - This is the only way to get paint to stick properly to aluminum.
3. Engine enamel - I used Duplicolor brand, and had excellent results. You bake it in the oven when you're done, or you can run the engine through a few heat cycles to cure it.

[feliks]

Here's the page in my build thread where I painted my engine:

[dt502001]

If you want it to last Mat then spend the money on a quality paint,and bake it on.It's all in the curing of the paint that will make it hard and last.

Aircraft paint seems to be the toughest paint I have ever seen,and time will tell about felixs paint about how it lasts but it did turn out nice.

As allready stated prep and cleneness is key to getting the paint to stick,even though it bee soda blasted there is always crap in the air so wash down with thinners and dry,paint quickly.