Anyone out there in HAMBland ever use rattle can engine enamel on an air cooled motorcycle engine? I was going paint the sporty evolution motor in my little chopper a funkey duplicolor gold, but I'm worried that it might blister at the higher temps an air cooled engine runs. I don't care for the grey powdercoat on the engine now.
Your sporty is gonna run 190-225 ish but alot hotter at the exhaust manifold. I would search for a high temp enamel. if your duplicolr has a 500 degree temp rating your probably fine, also you might get away with painting just the cylinders. FS
PJ1 is about the best i've seen. they have a gold frame paint and im pretty sure its rated to 500 degrees what are you gonna do seat wise?...killer bike by the way
Seat will be unsprung. Gonna Wedge me in there between the tank and the fender. The seat pan is done already.
i've heard negative things about painting air cooled motors as far as it hurting the cooling,i'm not speaking from experience,just what i've read.And yes i know harley has black motors.I've got a pan and a shovel and that evo sporty looks a lot better then any sporty i've had.Who's frame are you using,paughco maybe?Very nice looking bike,the back fender really sets it off for me.
Black is OK because it conducts heat... or something... radiates it better maybe... Chrome is bad because the backside of the chrome reflects the heat back into the engine. I swear, I'm not making this up!!
Boy are you in luck.....Quickrod has a business detailing bikes, I used to work for an H-D dealership, and Quickrod's cousin works for Dupli-color. When I worked for the dealership we had MANY customers that wanted the blacked out motors and we did this quite a bit....using the Harley rattle can. Quickrod does touch ups to complete motors using a rattle can. His cousin not only works for Dupli-color but rides and races vintage off-road sponsored by Dupli-Color. Some tips: Follow all directions to the letter on the can...especially the temp that it should be sprayed at! I have had to use heat lamps in the shop on a whole bike motor and have used an ELECTRIC oven to do small part for the desired "Wrinkle" The key is to make sure everything is CLEAN. 1. No grease 2. No fingerprints 3. No solvent residue 4. No silicone based fluids/residue (brake fluid, armor-all) And as I said before bring the paint up to the proper temp to get the desired wrinkle (if you are going the wrinkle route) I know you didn't say that you were going to wrinkle the motor but the cleanliness is the ticket for all stuff to stick. What color are you going to go with....the reason I ask is that Harley came out with a silver that looks and feels like bead blasted aluminum that is killer. I used it on my shovel cases and you'd swear it was cast aluminum but the cool part is it doesn't absorb the dirt or stain like raw cases. For cast aluminum or black wrinkle I use H-D paint. For my vintage Non-H-D hillclimber I used PJ-1 paints. If you want something specific from Dupli-color send me a PM and I'll see what Quickrod can do. Bye the way Burndup is 100% correct on the chroming vs Black and the issue about heat buildup with paint is also correct but it is minimal. Just don't paint it with a brush and have thick areas of paint and you will not have any heat build up problems.
Hey thanks Curly, those are good tips. I thinking about using a gold colored Duplicolor engine enamel on all the cast parts of the motor. Its an '01 Sportster engine and it isn't bare aluminum, its got a grey powdercoat. I considered black but I like the gold and I was going to keep the paint on the thin side.
That is one of the coolest sporty's i've seen in a long while! Do you have any close pics of the rear engine/tranny mount? I am trying to picture how you did the rigid rear and where your cuts & welds are. Are you going to polish outside of the fins? FWIW - I shot my old bigtwin evo with emron and that held up.
Woa! Nimrod. Give us a run down on the build? Welded tail section? Fork? Tank? Now, THAT is a Sportster...
I used the original frame tubes under the motor from in front of the front cylinder where they merge to just above the two lower trans mount bolts. I used the original head (neck), the back (adjuster part) of the swingarm, and the junction behind the gas tank (which I should of just fabed, it looks bulky). The rest of the frame I fabed, Its got about 40 degrees of rake, and rides about 3.5 inches high, wheelbase is a few inches longer than stock just do to the rake. Only aftermarket parts are the oil tank ,head light, and the chain drive sprockets (which I still need to machine a little to fit). I used the stock tank, narrowed it at the back and bottom 2" each, fabed the bottom and tunnel, and reused the stock filler. even the bars are made from the original ones.
That is a perfect looking skoot! Wheel size, height, tank, etc.. You nailed it. I was considering stretching and cutting my 03'sportster frame, but went the easy way out and got a pauhgco. I like the little mods you did on the rear to use your factory brake, nice.. Those little details make that bike. Very nice..
Thanks for the info, pretty neat idea. One more? - when you welded the frame did you use a frame table to keep it all square?
The Jalopy Journal
