| Author | Message | ||
     Vegasbueller |
I have been looking through the pic archives and I see some riders have polished their frames to an outstanding degree. Will someone be kind enough to post some of the techniques used and a little about the upkeep on such a frame? Thx Nick  | ||
| Ingemar |
Have you ever polished something before? I used to polish aluminum 15 years ago, but forgot about what a hellish job it really is. I started repolishing the rims of my wheels and sure enough after a few hours it began to dawn on me why I didn't like it in the past ... I have yet to finish it and somehow I don't think I will. It sounds really easy though. Basically it consists of sanding several times using a finer grain of paper and then finish it with some pasta that will make it nice and shiny. On the upkeep, right now the frame has a coating and only needs a wash and wax to stay nice. Unless you clear coat a polished object, it will need more work to keep it nice. Ingemar. | ||
| Odie |
Go to Misato's home page......oh yea- wear sunglasses.... | ||
| Glitch |
From what I've heard of the polished frames, if you clear coat 'em, up keep is about the same as a painted frame. Maybe Misato will post how long it took him, I know it wasn't something you'd want to start if time is hard to come by. I think he bought the swing arm already polished. Odie, you my friend, have gone above and beyond, check your e-mail. | ||
| Captainplanet |
Well, I don't find it too difficult to keep the polished bike looking good. Not really much more work effort than the original finish. However, if you plan to polish, be ready for the long haul. It takes a lot of time and effort. I would guess I have about 80 hours of work in mine and I still have some detail work to do. It would be way easier to do the frame if you disassemble the entire bike. To do the swingarm, you have to remove it from the bike. | ||
| Ingemar |
I think the upkeep of polished alu really depends on the area you're in. Holland has got a lot of rain, a moist/damp climate in the summers and salty roads in the winter. It literally took no more than a few days for my rims to loose their shine, and 2 months later it had gotten to a point were I couldn't get the black spots out of it using regular alu polish. | ||
| Odie |
Eastwood sells a product called Zoopseal that seals your polished stuff for up to two years. A little spendy but worth it after the time you have spent....Odie | ||
| Captainplanet |
I have no doubt climate has a lot to do with how easy mine is to keep shiny. After all the Texas Hill Country is motorcylce heaven. All I use on mine is mothers metal polish. I did this last week by hand in about 30 minutes on all the polished parts of my bike. I hadn't done it in about a month before that. High temp expected to be 87 here today. Hard to find a better ride than this.  | ||
| Johnk3 |
What would a polish swing arm cost or what would you pay? | ||
| Misato |
took me a weekend to do the frame, still haven't finished past the upper weld tho. yeah, I dont ride in the rain and it holds up just fine. just have to dry it good when it does get wet. | ||
| Signguyxb12 |
save your self alot of time go to the auto paint store and get cans of paint stripper...can cut the polish time in half | ||
| Misato |
I used aircraft stripper on parts also. But that still takes 2-3 applications of 30min+ each. and its a mess. that powdercoat or whatever they put on is some good stuff. |
