Posted by Bob Morey on January 24, 2004
Mike LavalleeI am in the process of customizing my motorcycle. I am "engine turning" and clear powdercoating all of the currently polished aluminum parts. I want to use aluminum leaf on the lower half of the tins to make a 2-tone paint job.The paint and clear coat on the tins will be urethane based.Is this possible? What sizing will work, under urathane clear coat? Where to buy? Thanks, Bob in Albany, NY
Bob MoreyI have personally never done what you're asking but we did engine turned some aluminum parts at the shop and clear coated them. we thoroughly cleaned the parts with a wax and grease remover and then wiped off the residue from the wax and grease remover. then we sprayed an adhesive promoter the metal ( bulldog being one brand) then cleared the parts. because the grinding leaves a rough surface we needed to wetsand the clear and recleared the parts a second time and then wetsanded the parts and buffed them to get a flat glossy surface. as for the type of size to use for your leaf, John hannukaine reccomends using a product called wonder size or wunda-size? either way you shouldn't have any problems with it. I would reccomend that you do your leaf over the first clear coat after you've sanded it otherwise you'll end up with a lot of irregular surface bumps on your leaf. hope that helps. mike
Mike, thank you very much for your advice.I have the engine turning on other motorcycles before. But,I'm completly lost on the leaf application. Again thank you.
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