How to Polish Aluminum: Complete Engine Restoration

This is the process of restoring my vintage Suzuki engine. I use steel wool followed by varying grits of sand paper until I have a nice clean uniform surface. Then I used black polishing compound and a buffing wheel to bring the shine back. Following that I use a wool drill attachment with mothers aluminum polish to get the final shine! I seal everything with a ceramic coating to help it stay shiny.
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[@BayCityRestorations]

Hello everyone, Thanks for watching the video! Here are links to the products I used for polishing and painting the engine. Steel Wool - amzn.to/2A9rEq8 Sandpaper - amzn.to/2WdDpVd Dewalt Buffer - amzn.to/2WdUYnP Buffing Wheel - amzn.to/2L6RSM8 Buffing Polish - amzn.to/2YJJlXF Dewalt Drill - amzn.to/2WA7pcJ Drill Buffing Attachments - amzn.to/2WzcySp Dremel Tool - amzn.to/2Wc1SKf Dremel Attachments - amzn.to/3cf9BNq Mothers Aluminum Polish - amzn.to/2zlsgbA Ceramic Coating - amzn.to/2WFZv1k Rustoleum High Heat Engine Paint - amzn.to/2WG0azQ Engine Degreaser - amzn.to/2L6TV2M

[@DoctorMotorcycle]

Hey Man, from a fellow Builder; I've done 3 GS bike's, the 400's, 425's and 450's share a lot in common. On all 3 of the motors, you can leave out the base gasket, and use a sealer (loctite 510 works best) and gain a half point in compression pretty much for free besides doing the removal of the cylinders. The intake ports can be opened up quite a bit with a dremel and 1 or two good bits. If you have the tools that's 5+ hp for free. In addition, when you omit the base gasket, this retards the cam timing, and makes the bike pull harder in the top end. This is exactly what you want on a small CC bike, as you have to rev it out to get it going anyway. So why not move the peak power another 500 RPM to the right? Flat slide carbs are the icing on the cake. The difference between a stock carb'd bike and a bike with flat slides is literally night and day. Easily another 4-5whp in going from stock to 36mm Mik's and velocity stacks with the aforementioned mods; I say this from experience. Side story, if you've read this far; The GS450 in my background photo was built this way. TM-36 Carbs, Ported/Decked Head, no Base Gasket, GS-500 Intake Cam, stiffer valve springs and a few other tricks. A buddy of mine has a 1250 Harley sportster, Screamin' Eagle Heads ($1000), Hammer 1250 ($700), Andrew's N3 Cam ($300), Dyno tuned with PC-III (500$), open exhaust. From 50-100, he'd have me by 1 bike length, and from 50-110, I was next to him at 110 and out of gearing. A few times I hit 13k RPM on the 1-2 shift, and usually shifted at 11.5k RPM. The bike was pretty dead below 7k but once it got past that, it was like hitting vtec in a honda LOL. The GS twins (all 3, 400-450) are meant to be top-end screamers. Build them this way and they reward you by punching WAY above their weight. Love the build video, looking forward to more. -Doctor Motorcycle

[@BayCityRestorations]

Thank you for this wealth of information! I did not know about the compression gain by leaving out the base gasket. I will look into gathering some of these parts for sure! Do have a suggestion for sprocket sizing as well? Frame, wheels, and other parts have been dropped off at the powdercoater so I have about 2 weeks to finish up engine mods and then I can start the reassembly process! Thanks again for taking the time to share this information.

[@DoctorMotorcycle]

@@BayCityRestorations Stock gearing is about perfect. Not so tall that it doesn't accelerate good and not so short that you can't cruise at 65-70 on the freeway. As with all engine mods, it's good to check clearances when you change the deck height, but generally on the GS twins you can get away with lowering it by .050" before that happens. The base gasket is less than that so you'd be good. Take care, loving the content.

[@jakethetindall6030]

Great job dude! Looks unreal 🔥

[@manicbikesandcars6909]

Amazing work dude! Hooked 🤘🏽

[@rosicroix777]

Saw your BMW scrambler build and it was great . You really did the GS justice and made it look and run better than new . I had a GS450L , ‘87 was an ok bike but can garuntee yours outperformed it and looked 10x better . Keep up the great work and wishing you many years of safe and fun riding .

[@BayCityRestorations]

Percy Barbarossa thank you for the kind words and I appreciate you checking out the videos!

[@ghostridergsmotovlog6700]

Amazing work

[@arielortega8108]

Muy buen trabajó!!!

[@BayCityRestorations]

Question for all watching the video. Would you rather have raw audio or music over the timelapse clips? Keep in mind the when speeding up the clips the audio will be pretty distorted so I thought that might be more annoying than having the music. First time trying out filming an entire build so the feedback is much appreciated.

[@dorianscheenloop5881]

Great video, exactly what I was looking for my own build. Your BMW Vid lead me here, Good work, amazing! IMO The music was a bit to present, maby you can use slightly easier music and combine the raw sound with music. Take a look to the KZbin channel "46works" he uses a combination as well. Keep it up!

[@BayCityRestorations]

Big fan of his work! He does an excellent job filming his videos! Hopefully I can work up to that level. Thank you for the feedback it is much appreciated.

[@LW91]

I don't like music. Better keep original audio

[@beakittelscherz5419]

Def. Audio and a warning bevor loud passages. Bc. Headphones :-)

[@arielortega8108]

Espectacular

[@brantleyhunt8736]

what parts of the engine did you cover when you painted? was it the aluminum parts that you covered

[@dav038]

How did you clean and prep the cylinder head fins?

[@BayCityRestorations]

Combination of wire brushes, Dremel tool and sand paper. Then a final clean with brake cleaner and acetone before paint.

[@adamtolton6554]

Did you tape off polished engine covers before painting or did you leave them off and tape the exposed internals?

[@BayCityRestorations]

I find it easier to put the polished covers back on and tape them up rather than trying to tape off just the exposed internals.

[@gabo42013]

How did you restore the black in the Suzuki circle on the lower engine?

[@BayCityRestorations]

It is a new old stock cover I bought off ebay.

[@bradrennick2919]

What was in the spray bottle for your wet sand?

[@BayCityRestorations]

Water/dish soap mixture

[@nbandpinportugal]

Can you get the high heat engine enamel in silver ?

[@BayCityRestorations]

Yes they make it in silver as well

[@CallMeHalo]

Where do you get your pod filters from

[@BayCityRestorations]

These were off of ebay. I bought them a long time ago for a different bike but never used them and luckily they were the right size for this Suzuki.

[@jaysonplacencia2285]

What kind of engine is that?

[@BayCityRestorations]

It is for a 1979 Suzuki GS425

[@beakittelscherz5419]

This Motor has a Face ! Lol

[@aquilesfiamengueneto]

The paint will hinder heat dissipation...

[@BayCityRestorations]

Put many miles on the bike and never had an issue.