Cox Babe Bling

To answer your question, yes, the backplate can be leverled. I have done a couple in the past. I simply put a piece of 400 sandpaper on my workbench on a flat spot and put a couple drops of oil. I then sanded it flat by going in a cross sanding pattern. A few strokes this way, then a few strokes the other. I hept doing this till it was flat, as seen by the sanding marks. For my application I left it as is, but for yours, once I had it flat, I would switch up to a progressivly finer sandpaper till you could polish it up.

Also, may I ask what you used to polish up your very nice looking engine?

I'll take a peek shortly and possibly post a picture for you, but I do fear that my engine in question is on a plane at my cottage in storage till I get out there this spring. So, if it is there, I will not be able to get you a picture.

That's a BEAUTIFUL engine Xeta!

Thanks roddie This is one I want to keep and display. My Precious heh heh

@NEW222 Mothers Mag & Aluminum polish. It's awesome stuff! Does wonders for old plastic as well, seriously. I've heard their Billet polish is finer, but haven't tried it. Really shines up beautifully.

balogh wrote:Beautiful engine as is...I would not tamper with the backplate thickess because this is a high stress component due to the engine being mounted on the firewall with the backplate lugs.

I agree, it is not wise to remove a lot of material from the backplate.

However, a good fit between the mounting surface and the backplate is essential for the durability and stress tolerance of the backplate. So, removal of high spots is beneficial, but one needs to take care not to remove much from the middle area.

So that bright shine is the ”natural” color of zamak? Good to know, as I happen to have a couple of backplates with corroded finish. Thanks for sharing the beautiful result of your work Xeta!

ikuraprime wrote:Really shines up beautifully.

That's quite the understatement. I don't think I have ever seen one so shiny before. If you did not mention polishing it up, you could have passed the backplate off as being chromed! Wow does that thing shine.

It's called Zamak? I knew I read there was zinc in there but didn't know the name. I worked with what I had, 400, 600, 1500 sandpaper them Mothers Mag. It looks so good at first you want to stop. But holding a mag glass you see the scratches. Kept at the Mothers until they were mostly gone. Wipe on Mothers with q-tips or paper towels, and wipe off and buff. Paper towel turns black. Switched to toilet paper :0 for fine results at the end. Then wash soap and water. Mothers Mag is pretty cheap, lasts a long time and once you have it you won't want to be without it. Think I first bought it for some old Magnalite cookware. Have used it for tons of stuff since. Serious miracle worker.

Hey! Just in case you might want to know, I tried removing the anodizing on a spare back. You may have heard of using oven cleaner like Easy Off. I bought some, let it soak for 15 minutes. Nothing seemed to be happening. Decided to try the dremel wire wheel and hand sanding. When you want the stuff to come off it doesn't. When you don't want it to it does. By hand just wasn't going to work. or take too long. Googled again and someone said soak for 12 to 24 hours. I figured why not try again. In a small 4oz tupperware I drenched it with Easy Off, covered loosely and let sit 2 hours? before checking. Completely clean!




So why do this? Had the spare and the back is flat- want to try and go 100% mirror finish D'Ohhh! The little things in life.

Interesting idea with great results!  Need to get some oven cleaner

Great. Thank you for the tip. I have a Bee engine that I will try a few things on. I am always jealous of those who post pictures of their Bees that are all shiny and polished up, so I am going to try to do one myself. As much as it will bother me to do that to a backplate, I will definately try it as the engine has no sentimental value to me, will not ever be worth a fortune, and hey, I am still going to run it and play with it, and call it George...... I am not a huge fan of shiny things, but, those shiny Bees do look good, and maybe polished up they may be faster? Lol. I just ordered some polishing wheels online last night, as I have only one or two.

Zamak does seem to polish better than Aluminum. This is after maybe 6-7 polishes by hand. Wiped on buffed off. Could use a couple more if I'm being anal? :0 One last picture? Happy Easter 'cept I'm an Atheist but still, TMI

Wow! Words cannot describe that! Simply amazing. Thank you for sharing that picture. Now I have something to look forward to working on.

It's because of you I put some sand paper on a piece of glass I had (workbench too bumpy) and wet sanded the back mostly smooth. Thank you for that idea!