*Polished Crankcase Covers*

I posted on the EXriders.com forum about this, and some of you requested that I make a procedure for doing the polishing.
First, get everything you will need. This includes three gaskets, the right cover gasket, left cover gasket, and starter cover gasket. This will be about $25 from Service Honda. I would check into getting your parts sandblasted. I really do not know what it would be like, the aluminum cases might get pitted, but maybe not. I have no experience with that. Ask around, and maybe post on a forum to see if anybody out there knows about sandblasting. Needless to say, it would cut the job time down dramatically. If you do choose to do what I did, use a paint stripper and steel wool, go and buy about a 1 quart can of a quality paint stripper. I found that Dad's Sprayable Stripper worked better than the others I tried. Buy a bag of fine-medium steel wool, and this is very important as well, gloves. You wouldn't believe the strength this stripper has. It is nasty stuff, and if you want a taste of what I mean, put a drop on your hand and wait a bit. It will burn like crazy, and rinsing it with water barely helps. I used surgical gloves, but they got melted to my fingers, so I skimped and didn't use gloves, and hurried up and got done. I would think that there are some special kind of stripping gloves out there that will hold up. So far, we have the gaskets for about $25, and the stripper, steel wool, gloves, and whatever else which would be about $20 tops. So now it is $45 or less, but there is something else, the most important part, a polishing kit! I got mine from Caswell, Inc for about $30 with shipping.

With all that said, I can begin...
First, clean the parts well with some kind of cleaner/degreaser. Remove all the rubber o-rings from the covers, because the stripper WILL melt them, I found this out the hard way. Next, you can start by putting some of the stripper on the piece, and begin scrubbing. The instructions say to put it on and leave it, but trust me, it barely does anything. This paint is baked on, so it will make it much more difficult. You will be able to do one case in a day, depending upon how long you work. Just turn some music on and keep thinking of how good it will look, and it will make time go by faster. There are many different ways to get the paint off, but do what you find to work best.
After the paint is off the cases, the best part comes, you can begin polishing. Do whatever the kit you buy tells you to do, and it should go smoothly. You can watch the aluminum come to a brilliant luster as you are polishing it.

There is only so much time for me to type, and the whole process if obviously much more complicated and longer than this, but this should give you the general idea and a platform to get you started. Just remember to have everything you need (gaskets, stripper, steel wool, and gloves) and be sure to remember te safety supplies here, no kidding. Nobody wants to have chemical burns on the skin, and especially not their eyes, so be careful not to splash the stripper.
Take your time and you will be happy when you are done. It is a big accomplishment, so feel good about a job well done, take some pictures, and go brag about it, you earned it.

Here are some pictures of it.

 


The right cover, starter cover, and oil filter cover were the only things I had done at this time. To compare, I placed them next to the left cover with paint still on it.


The right cover again, closer up. It looks dull here, but it was cloudy when I took the picture.


The right cover finished and back on with new gaskets.


And the left cover back on.

 

I hope it looks as good to you as I think. It took a lot of time, and I had to part with a little over a week of not riding it. Pretty difficult considering I ride it a few times everyday. Well, I feel like I accomplished something, and now it is time to pick the particles of steel wool from my fingertips and get that smell of stripper from my garage.