Brake master Cylinder painting

[LetsRide]

I have looked but cannot see a previous article on the forum. so....
my CB400/4 master is very messy with paint lifting due to brake fluid leakage. It needs either to be stripped and repainted or replace with a aftermarket part for £46 (ish).
Has anybody stripped and repainted? What was the painting process and products used? For stripping, I guess I could just use more brake fluid  . Thanks in anticipation.

[Laverdaroo]

I soaked mine in old brake fluid and use a wire brush and the old paint just comes off easily after 24 hrs or so. Etch prime it and paint with  a suitable calliper paint (VHT or similar plenty of options but check it’s impervious to brake fluid)or if you can afford it get it done in black cerecote  it’s by far the best stuff, doesn’t chip, crack or degrade and looks ace.

Oddjob did some a few weeks ago and looks the doo dah’s.
Have a look on his posts…..
By the time you’ve faffed about, been out, bought paint, prepped, buffered it up, prepped again, painted it etc etc, for 30quid or so you get a lovely nice refurbed item to bolt back on and means you can spend the time doing other bits that you’re getting round to.

Before you do anything though I’d take out the piston, spring and check for west as you’re already in it. A rebuild kit is only about 15 or so and readily available but makes sense to do it now. If you’re keen to keep the OE M/C on there I’d do that but appreciate that costs build up and it may be worth simply replacing with a new one and selling your old one one to recoup some costs.


Hope that helps a bit at least


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Oddjob]

This is  a clutch master cylinder I had done recently. The cost was £10 for the body and £5 for the lid plus VAT and was done in BHK-1 coat ceramic. It looks perfect and hopefully will continue to look perfect for many years.



Just look for a ceramic coater near you. https://www.high-pressure-services.co.uk/cerakote-ceramic-coatings/

[Laverdaroo]

Thats the bugger, looks fantastic and means I now have to strip mine and have it done cs 'm quite jealous Iih!


Stop doing good stuff Ken, yer showing me up 

[Oddjob]

Dropped a shed load of stuff off last Friday as well Roo. Still got loads to prep before giving them another load of stuff.

Trying a bit of their powder coating this time as well, dropped a rusty old seat pan off and a couple of hinge bars to be done in gloss black, we'll see how they turn out.

I also dropped off the Marzocchi AG Strada bodies to be done in satin black and the springs to be Cermakromed, they reckon it will resist cracking as the springs compress so giving it a try. When they come back I can finally assemble the rear dampers. Didn't fancy keeping them fire engine red, didn't go with the bikes colour scheme.

[Laverdaroo]

That sounds interesting mate, Good choice rather than leaving them in red, they'd look like theyd come off a MotoGuzzi anchor and nobody would want that!

I sent the pipes up to Nick at Camcoat last week and hoping of good things after looking at your stuff, I did mention that youd been in and I asked if he remembered you and he chuckled and acknowledged your high expectations on finish and that it was a pleasure to do stuff for you. Spoke very highly of you.............which was cool.

He evidently doesnt know you I reckon


Let us have a shufty at your bits when you get em back, I love finished parts back from outfits such as that, unwrapping newly coated parts is one of my favourite things as after all the hard work I get an enoromouse sense of satisfaction out of it.  Yer know!

Daft innit?

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

I have looked but cannot see a previous article on the forum. so....
my CB400/4 master is very messy with paint lifting due to brake fluid leakage. It needs either to be stripped and repainted or replace with a aftermarket part for £46 (ish).
Has anybody stripped and repainted? What was the painting process and products used? For stripping, I guess I could just use more brake fluid  . Thanks in anticipation.

That a pain when leaking fluid damages paintwork.
One of the reasons I now use Silicone based brake fluid it does not strip paint though tbh I haven't tested it for that.

[Seabeowner]

I have looked but cannot see a previous article on the forum. so....
my CB400/4 master is very messy with paint lifting due to brake fluid leakage. It needs either to be stripped and repainted or replace with a aftermarket part for £46 (ish).
Has anybody stripped and repainted? What was the painting process and products used? For stripping, I guess I could just use more brake fluid  . Thanks in anticipation.

The original finish would have been black anodizing. So they have already been refurbed.

[Oddjob]

Been speaking about anodising a lot recently with the ceramic coaters I’m using right now, they also do anodising. I was looking at getting a couple of parts done and he said Jap alloy isn’t really suitable due to its composition, think they called it Zamac or something like that, anyway it’s not pure aluminium and if you try and anodise it then it just melts. Which makes me wonder, if that’s the case are any of those parts we think of as being anodised actually are? Stuff like handlebar switchgear, master cylinders etc or have they been dyed or something like that, it fades quite quickly, especially in sunlight, it comes off rather easily when it gets rubbed long enough, it generally doesn’t really behave like anodising so is it or is it another type of finish we haven’t classified yet?

Something along the lines of passivication like we do after zinc coating.

[Sesman]

That’s snugger as I wanted my tank badges reanodising. Wasn’t that how the original f2 badges were finished? Maybe not…

[Oddjob]

Funnily enough it was about tank badges that I was asking him, he was pretty confident that they’d not last the process and as they ain’t exactly cheap I didn’t feel the need to test the theory. I’ve just sanded a tank badge right down to bare metal and to me it looked like a layer of some sort, like a layer of paint. He did say there were some finishes that looked like anodising but were actually a sort of paint finish but that he didn’t do them.

Going again in 2 weeks so I can ask him to tell me the process again as I’ve forgotten what he said it was called.

[Laverdaroo]

In the Tamiya paint range there is a pigment for painting the inside of clear lenses that is gold, silver, yellow, orange etc. I have some gold in the shed and I'll dig it out to have a look. Obvs its in an area wher petrol is about so maybe fuel proof laquer over the top?

If you were to spray it on first as a primary coat with a modlers spray gun to get the delivery and then laquer the lot afterwards once you've done the letters as required, it would  technically be sealed but you'd have the polished metal underneath with a gold finish from the pigment coat under the laquer?

I'll report back when I've found it.........

[Sesman]

Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like painting will be the default solution as I can’t afford to be experimental with the anodising risk.

[Lobo]

I recently had CB750 Master powder coated - can’t say price as part of a job lot. Very happy though with the result.

Really liking Oddjob’s Clutch master …

[K2-K6]

The original definitely look anodised to me, and it will fade over time.

There's consideration as I understand it, anodised components are usually sized/toleranced in manufacturing to give finished size after treatment as it can change critical dimensions. Likely the bore and internal was masked during original manufacture to avoid this, else it has to be anodised then bored afterwards.

More recently in seeing good quality aluminium (known std in cycle downhill frame) the bearing bores were increaesd and attributed to pre treatment in metal removal prior to final process. The bearings had to be fully located in building afterwards by use of strong bearing fit adhesive.  Not so much, but it was there and likely outside what a mc bore would take.