freeside
New member
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2007
- Location
- San Jose
- Moto(s)
- 2001 KTM Duke 2, 1993 Suzuki VX800, 1973 Yamaha RT3, 2008 Suzuki V-Strom
painting aluminum
Reckon,
Most of the pieces that I need to paint right now are aluminum, and mostly cast.
I've got the aluminum prep of the parts down:
1- glass bead blast
2- scrub out very thoroughly with soapy water / or boil the part if it's an engine case
3- Submerge in 140 degree alumiprep solution. Or scrub out with alumiprep if I can't submerse the part.
Now I've got a spanking clean aluminum part, such as final drive casing, top triple clamp etc (these are the parts that I'm not anodizing).
I've been doing massive research on painting aluminum and still am having a hard time figuring out if I can get decent results that last, using an epoxy primer with urethane topcoat. (I haven't dropped the massive money yet for the high end products pre-treatment / multi-stage primer products).
I've read up on MILSPEC aircraft aluminum treatments and they are more than a 5 step process using expensive treatments.
Any suggestions on a quality method of painting aluminum that won't break the bank?
I'll be doing my engine cases soon and like you said in your previous post, I don't want a many layer, thick coating on the engine. Figured I could get away with a similar quick solution on my other parts...
Please advise! Thanks for taking the time with all your recent posts BTW.
cheers,
-Stephen
Reckon,
Most of the pieces that I need to paint right now are aluminum, and mostly cast.
I've got the aluminum prep of the parts down:
1- glass bead blast
2- scrub out very thoroughly with soapy water / or boil the part if it's an engine case
3- Submerge in 140 degree alumiprep solution. Or scrub out with alumiprep if I can't submerse the part.
Now I've got a spanking clean aluminum part, such as final drive casing, top triple clamp etc (these are the parts that I'm not anodizing).
I've been doing massive research on painting aluminum and still am having a hard time figuring out if I can get decent results that last, using an epoxy primer with urethane topcoat. (I haven't dropped the massive money yet for the high end products pre-treatment / multi-stage primer products).
I've read up on MILSPEC aircraft aluminum treatments and they are more than a 5 step process using expensive treatments.
Any suggestions on a quality method of painting aluminum that won't break the bank?
I'll be doing my engine cases soon and like you said in your previous post, I don't want a many layer, thick coating on the engine. Figured I could get away with a similar quick solution on my other parts...
Please advise! Thanks for taking the time with all your recent posts BTW.
cheers,
-Stephen