Chrome

Hi gents . Restoring a 79 6 pot . The alloy casings , ie clutch cover etc and 2 on the rh side are very dull . I’ve spent ages polishing these but they still not great . The later models look as if the covers have been nickle plated or chromed . Is this correct or should I be able to get a mirror finish with polishing ? Thanks Mark ( UK)

Hi Mark
none of them had been chromed in OEM. SOme I know had theirs chromed, however it is risky at the chrome plating might drop of later. I had mine trowalized which gave excellent resulst and made them somehow a bit more resistant against water-staines and oxidation.



It is finally up to your taste, though my idea is that the polished/ trowalized last longer.

all the best
Holger

Mine 1982 had engine covers originally chromed as far as I know.

Holger. I googled 'trowalized' since I've never heard this word. Did they put it in a machine with vibrating medium?

My covers had the chrome badly peeling off and the underneath pitting and discoloration of aluminum was terrible. The bike had been sitting in bad conditions for a very long time. First the shop removed the plating chemically, then they polished them and then chrome plated. They look fantastic. On the other hand, I do love the look of polished aluminum, but was afraid that the discoloration on aluminum will stay. I got one of the covers back with just removed plating and polished, and it look great, so perhaps you could ask the shop to do that first and then decide what to do later. It would definitely be easy to continue polishing to high shine after a preparation done first by a shop. The old plating must come off first anyway.

Thanks for that info . The alloy casings do polish up but not like chrome which is why I’m thinking of having them done . Hey I looked that word up and not heard of it over here not even in Essex !

Mark, hi
Ive spent ages in the past trying to get a really good mirror finish on alloy, was not bad but never really looked stunning. But I could not believe the results when I tried a couple of professional polisher / fiinishers. Last piece I had professionally polished was a rocker cover on a CBX: I had spent many hours, but was not happy with my end product, so sent it to Stephen Smethurst in Salford (used him before): finish was beautiful. Sadly he's not cheap, but he is very, very good at what he does. Check out his web site www.aloh.co.uk/samples/

He did a complete Z900 engine for me about 8 years ago and it still looks box fresh - can recommend.

Also heard good things about Sutton Soda Blasting, but not used them yet.
Cheers Tim

Hey thanks Tim . The exhaust silencers are very solid so I’ll get them re chromed for sure . There’s a local place advertises chroming and metal polishing so I’ll go see what they say . I think the alloy used in the casings isn’t like the pure aluminium of some old British bikes so although a nice finish is possible it’s more a grey chrome as opposed to the mirror chrome I’m used to . I’m trying to keep the 79 bike original but the later models do look better with polished cases . The bike doesn’t have airbox covers either which also look lovely chromed .