Finish on ZN1300 Peg Brackets

[Van Voyager]

On every 1300 Voyager I've ever seen (admittedly - that's not many) the aluminum (I think it's aluminum) brackets that hold the footpegs and the rear floorboards to the frame have a very poor finish, that is, the paint is all flaked off. On my 86, it appear a PO has painted the brackets, without removing them first, with some sort of black wrinkle finish - which would probably have looked great if the plates were removed and the finish applied properly. I'm just curious if other have experienced the same problem with the poor finish and if they've had them re-painted or powder coated or ???

[Me Again]

The ones on my bike were chromed .Looks pretty good but not perfect

[Mr Jensee]

On the 1200 they look to be anodized aluminum and yes they corrode nicely in the humid climate down here. I have considered painting them but I would love to learn how to professionally polish them along with the engine instead.

[triton28]

Years ago I used to use 2 products for buffing aluminium. One was called Simichrome and the other used to be called Solvol Autosol, although now I buy the latter product and the Solvol portion of the name seems to have been dropped and it is simply called Autosol.
I haven't seen the Simichrome around here for years.
If the exposed aluminium parts are badly oxidized start with some 1200 grit wet/dry and then go to 1500 then 2000 and then polish with the Simichrome/Autosol. Saves a lot of rubbing.
Dave

[Van Voyager]

Autosol works nicely but it's a bit 'coarse'. There are finer polishes available to bring the lustre up. Don't use Autosol on chrome (in particular a chrome exhaust) if you can avoid it (sometimes it seem to be the only thing that works) as it will scratch chrome.

[trikebldr]

The factory finish on those brackets was a wrinkle-finish black, and all of them flaked quickly because the aluminum was not roughed up enough for it to stick. Wrinkle finish is not just a name for a finish, but also a description for how it is effected. it's one layer of paint being applied over a previous layer so that the second layer shrinks up and causes the first layer to wrinkle up under it. So, you can see how the process tends to pull the first layer loose from the base metal. Without a deep 'tooth" for the paint to bite into, it will lift off.

Most that I have seen have been either polished like chrome, or sandblasted and repainted a flat black. Walnut blasting, or soda blasting, will yield a very nice soft aluminum finish if you don't like the chrome look, but it must be clear coated to keep it looking uniform.

[Van Voyager]

Thanks for your note Trikb!

I wouldn't have thought the wrinkle finish is original but in hindsight it make sense, the bike I have is very low mileage so it seems odd that PO would have painted the brackets. Also the finish on the coolant overflow tank cover is also wrinkled and it wold seem odd that a PO painted that.

I've seen wrinkle paint that come out of a can in one coat. Not sure how durable it is. I'd like to get the brackets powder coated - I think they can do that in wrinkle these days too.

[Van Voyager]

I finally got around to pulling and refinishing the peg brackets - left and right rears and the right front bracket. It's no wonder the paint flaked off easily - the quality of the aluminum casting is very poor and quite rough. I spent a bit of time wire wheeling off the original finish (not convinced it was original) then had to use some paint stripper to get the more stubborn and unreachable bits. Ideally, I would have liked to have them powder-coated but didn't have time for that. I opted to paint with several coast of primer then several coast of gloss black case paint -which I baked. I would have preferred a semi gloss black - thought I had some but coudn't find it so had to go with the gloss that I had. The result looks much better than what I started with (apologies that I didn't take before/after photos) but I'm not under any illusions that the finish will be very durable. One of these days I'm going to get my own powder coating setup in place - until then, paint will have to do.

It's weird how a small bit of flaking paint distracted so much from the look of the entire bike for me - probably no one else would ever notice.

[jorgeno]

Nice work
I agree, don’t like to see flaking paint. I powder coated mine and some other parts. It’s important even if it’s only me noticing it :-)

Before

After

[Van Voyager]

Sweet! The bike looks familiar (same colour as mine )

Your bits look a bit more of a semi-gloss finish which is what I would have preferred.