Polishing the Engine Covers in Situ

[bikerface]

Hi All

My engine covers are pretty bad, allways have been really.
Was wondering if anyone had had much luck doing them in situ?

[seth]

You can but you'll not get a very good even finish.
Get the powder coated black then bike only off the road a few days .

[bikerface]

If I take off the covers do I need to replace gaskets?

[seth]

Yes you'll need new gaskets

[RickC]

I work with a guy who is a talented motorcycle mechanic, he swears by
just using black RTV silicon sealant on engine cases, that being said I use gaskets.

The cases have a varnish coating, if this hasn't been removed, it is worth using a non-caustic paint
stripper to remove the remains of the lacquer, some of the ceramic coatings look pretty good nowadays if
you wanted to get them fixed and not have to worry about them again, a neighbor had some cases ceramic
coated and it looked like polished alloy to me.

[Andre]

Besides the gaskets you also need SUZUKI BOND "1207B" or alternative at various points (see Service Manual)

[Cykik]

I did mine  while they were in situ using a flexible drive (Machine Mart) & polishing mops.

[northern]

I polish all 3 covers, but unfortunately aluminium used by suzuki, is not the best one, so it's not easy to keep them bling without continuous buffing. And if you have crash-bars, it became much harder. For example, my car have uncoated polished summer wheels, ad it's material is holding it's shine much better (usually refresh it once a year, before putting them on).

On my 14, I decide to paint them. Only issue, I use wrong paint - it's soft, and damages easily. Next year, I will redo it, and will use etch primer and propably 2K clear coat as top layer.

[spizzoil]

you can use the same gaskets ive used mine three times now just be carful on the big one as the magnet means you have to pull a bit hard and watch your fingers the case can snap back ,when you get your cases off and gaskets give them a good clean and the faces off the engine and here is the top tip off how to use the gaskets again and again use a heat gun on the gaskets each side this gets rid of all the oil and helps get ride of any sealant you have used hope this helps