I polished up my 650 engine case about 7 years ago when I did my first rebuild. I was a little timid at that point and didn't use sandpaper. I just used various buffing wheel compounds. The finish was pretty good none the less. I didn't do anything to protect the finish though. Fast forward 7 years and it was like I had never polished the case at all. This time I was far more aggressive with sandpaper and buffing compound. I cant do that kind of restoration too many times so I decided to coat the case in clearcoat.
The clearcoat is GL Clear Laquer Spray Paint that I bought for redoing the saab wheels. I bought one can as a test. I originally tried it on the xs1100 engine case after doing some polishing there. It has held up extremely well. There is a trick to the application. If you do a light coat, as you would normally do with paint, the finish is dull. You have to really cover the piece in clearcoat just to the point you start seeing white buildup. If you do that, it dries with a very nice clear and deep finish. If keep spraying once you get the white buildup, it will start to glob and will eventually start breaking out in air bubbles which is no good.
Hopefully this clearcoat should buy a few oxidation free years.
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