Painted engine?

I just found a beautiful picture of a chromed out engine on an xj750. My engine is black.

Did an 82 xj750 maxim come with a black engine or was it painted? I don't think I am going to

 

Could you post the pic with the chromed engine? I'd love to check it out.

 

The Midnight Maxims came with black engines.

I can't remember if the 750 Midnight was made in 1982 or 1983. The 650 Midnight was only available in 1981.

I don't know about the color of the Seca models' engines.

Does your Maxim have gold wheels and trim?

 

Mine is an 82 and it does not have gold wheels. I may have mispoke about the chrome. It may just be silver. I have attached a the picture I found.

 

does any one know of a good polish for these engines and has any one clear coated them before? i want my engine to shine and i dont want to have to polish it alllll the time. i was thinking make it shine once and coat it with a high temp clear. ive seen some and they look decent so ill let you guys know how it seems to work out

 

i saw tht on e-bay too, it's only a few miles away from me
i think thats just a real clean engine, the whole bike looks clean and stock
i'am interested to see what it sells for
i believe it was on e-bay before, there hasn't been that much snow here for a while

 

Once you get everything cleaned up and polished, it's not hard to keep it shiny without a lot of repeated polishing. The failed clear coat that Yamaha originally used is why some of these bikes got to looking so crappy.

Your MOTOR itself IS painted, at least partially, silver. Depending on year, the 550s had the upper half of the crankcases and the cylinders painted silver; the earlier ones had the head painted silver too, you just don't realize it. 82's and 83's had black jugs and valve cover.

Take a close look at this pic of my '83 550 Seca's engine; you can tell the upper case is painted and the lower is not.



My point being, there are areas on the motor that you don't want/need to actually POLISH as much as thoroughly and completely clean.

Look carefully at this photo; you can see the differences between the painted upper cases and natural lower cases; this is an '83 so the head is natural; and I haven't repainted the cylinders yet, you can see where the original black paint on those is nearly gone. The pickup cover has been restored; I haven't touched the alternator yet which is why it's a bit yellowed still (failed lacquer overcoat.)

 

8O
Great looking bike fitz!

 

Thanks. It's getting there; don't ever believe a low-mileage bike is any easier to put back to fully operational than one that's been ridden more.

Dried-up, cracked and crumbling is as much a reason as worn out to have to replace things.

I had that false miscontusion when I started this one; it's been dismelled.

(thx Norm Crosby wherever you are.)

 

Looks nice Fritz!
I painted my valve cover when I did the valves last time, but now after seeing yours, I am going to polish the lines and "YICS" letters instead. That really dresses up the top side alot!

 

Here's the one on my '81, I think it gives it that "60's hot-rod" feel...

 

Kind of interesting that black was the standard engine color. I guess noone ever got to mine with a paint can. I assume you have to take the engine off to paint it. Is that true? Not sure I want to do that. I am going to clean it up and maybe just paint the valve covers to make it something different.

Love my bike but I paid $800 and am going to have to slowly put another $500 to $1000 into it to make it look beautiful. I would never get that much out of it. So, I am going to have to pick and choose. Of course I say that now. We will see how much I endup putting into it.

All your engines look really good.