Engine powder coating restoration?

[stanleychung]

A friend who has a 89 Sportster 1200 is looking to restore the black powder coating that is currently slowly but surely flaking off in and around the engine cooling fins etc. Is complete disassembly the only option? Or are there other ways.

Where do people generally start when looking to resurface the engine...surface just to make it look all new again. It would seem like a huge effort just to repaint the engine. Would have thought to include some engine work while the engine is out but cant think of anything.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[bikke]

Have a 95 sporty that suffers from the same problem, I have just sanded my fins down and masked and repainted using a high heat paint, fairly time consuming but its worth the effort. dont worry bout masking the edges of the fins as once the paint has dried I use 320 wet and dry to sand the edges and that brings back the highlighted edge. Have done this without pulling anything off the bike.
Need to do the odd touch up here and there but thats not such a big deal.
Am in Christchurch if you wanted to have a look at the result on my bike.

[stanleychung]

Hi Bikke, thanks for the info. I think we will end up following a similar path to what you have done. I'll pass the info to my friend and if he would like to see what yours looks like I will PM you. Thanks again.

[Subike]

I did the same a Bikke, cleaned everthing , masked off the areas I didnt want the paint on, used high temp engine enamel over the barrels, then sanded the finns with wetin dry to bing the alloy edge back . That was 18mths ago, and it still looks good.

[chienkld]

Bikke, can you post some images of the result if its not too much trouble? I'm thinking of using VHT wrinkle black paint. THanks!

[bikke]

Will sort some pictures out next week if thats ok chienkld as off to woodstock this weekend. I have used Dupli-color high heat which is rated to 1200 degrees.

[nallac]

When i did the 1200 conversion on my old sporty i painted the Topend with flat black BBQ paint,looked good and easy to touch up
if needed.

[barno]

I'd be keen to see some pix too. My 1987 Impulse needs a little touchup on the engine fins, also the header pipes as they emerge from the engine. It's a medium gray; I spose I could go to black. I've got a few sheets of 400 grit around which might be ok.

I was thinking maybe 250 grit paper on the pipes to loosen the crap on there, then some 400 before a few coats of high-temp paint. Prob also flat black.

Any high-temp paint should be ok? No primer? Would have to be high temp also I guess