I don't, sorry. This was purely for my benefit rather than anything else and I don't own a 4rt. You tried Termignoni ?

I have a couple of termis near me and while they appear well made etc I just prefer the look of a beautifully finished alloy silencer.Maybe im old fashioned lol

Yeah, it'll be sorted. One way or another. I haven't spent this much time and effort to fall short. I'll call some people on Monday and get this silencer lacquered just to see what happens to it

Just wondering with the heat from the silencer, how it will affect any lacquer - might tarnish or yellow it?  Don't know anything about temperatures reached on the silencer or the sort of temperatures that can affect the lacquer, but just a thought.

 

Only other issue I can think of with lacquer is if it starts to lift anywhere and starts peeling off in places  -  I have seen lacquer lift when applied to bare alloy such as fork legs, car wheels.

 

It shouldn't be a problem for your anodiser to strip off the anodising they've done, polish it and then anodise it again. As someone else mentioned, not a bad idea to use some of the off cuts to have polished and anodised as an indication of how it turns out

I don't really want to polish it if I can help it. The original finish is if anything more satin rather than a mirror finish. 

 

Spoke with the chap who will be putting the lacquer on who said the heat that it would get to wouldn't be an issue. I'm getting this lacquered - see what happens. This is purely a prototype so I'm not overly concerned.

 

But yeah, If it still doesn't seem to be that near to the original finish I'll work on some test pieces.

Joe, I'm not so sure on lacquer, for reasons as stated by Woody and others. What about getting it Aqua blasted, this give a real nice satin look and finish and then anodised over that, just an idea worth thinking about.

It's not quite apparent what finish we are seeing in the photos showing the anodizing? You only state "anodizing". Is this silver anodizing or clear anodizing?

On RTLs, the silencer "take" a very very huge temperature...no lacquer does support it i think

 

 

Kcnarf.

Its clear anodising.

 

Paul, looking it up last night this is what we'll be doing I think.

I definitely think lacquer is not a good idea, the RTL silencers get very hot. To be honest Joe, to save yourself time and money, get some small (say 100mm x 100mm) pieces of the alloy that's actually used/ to be used for the other silencers. Aqua blast one, highly polish one and lightly polish the other, if you did two of each type, you could then have do one set in clear anodising and the other set in silver anodising. Then you'd be able to compare which is the closest match to the original.

Concerning the prototype, you'd be best off getting that dipped to remove the anodising, so you can test the final chosen test sample on that. Personally, I'd don't think a highly polished finish will look right once anodised and I can't imagine Aqua blasting was around in 1985. But I do know that when I was refurbing my original, the anodising was very difficult to remove (I couldn't get it dipped, as it had been used) and appeared to be silver in colour.

I think, as you said Joe, you've come this far, a little more time and research to get it right, will be worth it.

Nothing will be done unless I'm 100%, without a doubt. I don't want a highly polished finish, the finish is to look the same as original.

 

Ill have to test them by putting them through the moulds I think as putting them in the moulds changed the alloy somewhat by slightly distorting it. Which isn't really an issue

 

Its pretty hard it seems just finding a reliable finishing chap as I've emailed a few with some not even replying and others not to bothered about a few sample pieces.

Perfectly understand Joe, we have also had this problem of finding good and reliable companys. Maybe Telford might be a good place to talk to others, that might have recommendations on who to use. When I had my DID rims anodised gold, the company that did it did a crap job. I had to have them re-done by Talon, unfortunately they didn't get the right colour gold I wanted! :-(

Definitely don't want Highly polished, I had to do my original like that after it was renovated as jj65. It doesn't look too bad, but Not original. I was going to get it Aqua blasted for the nice satin look, but as I couldn't get it anodised (due it being a used silencer and no anodisers will put that in their tank), so I couldn't seal the satin finish.

After all the hard work you've done so far, definitely worth waiting that extra time and getting it how you want it. Telford might bring some answers.

Just a quick one as don't think I'll be on before Telford, the numbers I've got so far are:

 

Russ

Paul

Andy

Big John

Patrick

John M

 

If you I've missed you of let me know so I can message you my mobile.

 

I'll be carrying a blue bag around so you won't miss me, in jeans and more than likely in a grey Diesel hoody. Will be with a blonde haired girl.

 

See you there.

Nice to meet up Joe, very impressed!

Same to you Russ. It was good to put names to faces.

Hi joe, nice to meet you and your good lady. Your doing a great job and when you convince Franck to part with one of his trick silencers, you can start work on one of them. ? Joking aside, well done on tackling this project, you've done something that the experts weren't prepared to do. ?