painting aluminum parts?

[spdtrplmarcus]

felt that I had fairly good results from refinishing both the rider pegs... pot aluminum went totally to ... and heat shields on the factory cans... am planning on refinishing the radiator aluminum heat shields ... what I have used in the past is first using a fine steel wool and then using from the spray can krylon primer and a semi=gloss black... understand this is not up to powder coating, etc of finishes but for surface that do not take typically direct contact... this has at least for the last year seems to hold up... my question... before doing the radiator shields does anyone have any thoughts or history with this?

[Speed3]

When I paint Aluminum, I etch the surface with Muriatic Acid, then rinse well and let dry. Primer and paint will adhere very well.

[mnhoulden]

BBQ paint....spray on....preheat oven to 200 and cook for 20mins!

[Ferris]

Understand there is aluminium (soft) and anodized aluminium (hard). You may find the primer is the weak link, as they are generally specified for soft aluminium.

In saying that, I painted my cowl's 18 months ago and they've held up really well. Leading edge of the cowl's have been hammered with stones, though chipping is small and right through to metal.

Process: Sanded with P400 wet, primed with Spies Hecker Priomat-4085, followed byTransperent Adhesion Promoter and topcoated with 2K semigloss black.

Our roads here are also shocking, so I'd imagine you won't have any where near the problems we have with flying stones.

Good luck!