| Author | Message | ||
     Saintly |
I stripped the powder coat off my lower triple tree with a wire wheel and proceeded to polish it by hand with aluminum polish and a cloth.    Looks pretty good, but my hand sure is sore from rubbing it. Maybe next weekend I'll do the top tree. | ||
| Tx05xb12s |
That's beautiful work! Time well spent. Thanks for sharing with us. I may just have to try my hand at polishing something. | ||
| No_rice |
i thought this was going to be a thread i didnt want to open  | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Wow! Your "parts" sure are shiny!  | ||
| Molly_hatchet |
aircraft stripper....u wont have to rub it all day...unless u really want too..then well...yike.. | ||
| Molly_hatchet |
is the rye bread part of the process cause i havent tried that yet. | ||
| Saintly |
aircraft stripper....u wont have to rub it all day...unless u really want too..then well...yike.. It wasn't the stripping that took all day, it was the polishing. Besides a gallon of aircraft remover was $24 at the auto parts store, while my bench mounted wire wheel was free to use today and only took 10 minutes to rid the tree of its dull silver powdercoat. | ||
| Saintly |
is the rye bread part of the process cause i havent tried that yet. Well, now that the cat is out of the bag. The seedless rye is the key to the really high luster! I cant stress enough that it be seedless, as the seeds will scratch the hell out of the soft aluminum. | ||
| Houharleyguy |
Looks good, but I have E-Glide full of shiny bits to polish & maintain.....I keep getting rid of shiny bits on the XB. I am thinking the next bike will be totally wrinkle black and flat powder coat....nut'n shiny at all! Kevin | ||
| Tdiddy |
I used the aircraft stripper on some of my bmx bike's a few years back to make it easer to check the welds for cracks. That stripper is very strong stuff. Powder coat just drips off with very little elbow grease. I left the frames raw for that factory look. Dark grey sandblasted texture. I still like that factory look. Damm, now I'm looking at my Lightning and thinking about what I should strip the paint off of. | ||
| Bake |
Get a polishing wheel for the top tree! | ||
| Molly_hatchet |
well the rye bread works ..looks damn nice ...i might have to try that myself...rye bread..who knew...what other kinda secrets ya'll hidin. | ||
| Mortarmanmike120 |
Damn Fritz, looks good. I'm going the same route actually. So far I've polished the seat rails, chopped tail and a spare swingarm that I'll swap out later. I've wanted to do the trees but haven't gotten around to taking the front end apart yet. I'll probably do that when I replace the fork oil. Here's a trick I discovered for polishing. I gently use a paint stripping wheel like you get at walley world. Not the super strong abrasive kind, the softer type that is like a scotchbrite pad. I few passes with it and the part is smoothed to about a 400-500 grit. I use it gently and at somewhat low speed so that it doesn't dig deep. Then I follow with a buffing wheel. I was wondering how the trees would look polished. Mine look like wadded up grey chewing gum they've got so much filler/powdercoat on them. Thanks for the example. | ||
| Mikexlr650 |
how did the pipes come out? checked out a guzzi down at rockwell on saturday, they appear to use the same supplier for the exhaust pipe's as buell. at least before they switched to the newer "dimpled" coating. | ||
| Hellonwheels |
LOL I though it was going in a different direction.... Looks good I am on the fence it i want everything shinny or flat black after the paint job, | ||
| Sjh |
I have done the same thing with my ABS trees. There are some pretty heavy casting marks to remove, but they do polish to a very high luster when finished. I do not think I would have had the patience to do it by hand. I have did all the polishing that I am going to be doing. Everything else will be powder coated or chromed due to the massive labor and maintenance. This is what I used, it works very good and is a must for PM wheels http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=0 19&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&viewitem=&item=2900 83039738&rd=1&rd=1 | ||
| Tx05xb12s |
question - Now that you've got such a pretty finish, how are you going to keep it that way? Can you clear-coat polished aluminum so you don't have to keep polishing it periodically? | ||
| Saintly |
Looks good, but I have E-Glide full of shiny bits to polish & maintain.....I keep getting rid of shiny bits on the XB I'm normally not a "shiny happy people" person, but the lower tree on this bike was badly scuffed from tie down straps which were used on a trip back from deals gap last year. It was a choice between Fugly, replace w/new, re-powdercoat, or polish. Polish was free, so it won out. how did the pipes come out? Have'nt gotten around to them yet. question - Now that you've got such a pretty finish, how are you going to keep it that way? That's easy. I sell the bike & let the new owner do the upkeep! | ||
| Tx05xb12s |
No really, can you clear-coat polished aluminum to keep it shiny, or will the clearcoat get cloudy or turn yellow? | ||
| Eman |
Mastrionni Bros bread, huh? Good stuff... | ||
| Jimduncan69 |
Fritz, looks great! so are you going to do mine next????? Phil, yes you can clear-coat polished aluminum but you have to use a self etching clear-coat. if not done right it could get cloudy or yellow. at least thats what my buddy told me, and he does it for a living. he is the one that painted my bike. | ||
| Saintly |
No really, can you clear-coat polished aluminum to keep it shiny... No really, I'm going to sell it! . . . . Mastrionni Bros bread, huh? Good stuff... Rotterdam's finest! (Message edited by saintly on February 19, 2007) | ||
| Buellfighter |
Hey Saintly, I here ya brotha!! My freakin hand, forearm and shoulder took days to stop hurting from the hours of stroking my fork legs to polish them from a knurled finish to highly polished. Plenty of jokes going around at my shop as I was "working" it!  | ||
| Luvthemtorts |
Saintly, You mentioned selling your bike. Are we still on for the end of March? | ||
| Saintly |
Saintly, You mentioned selling your bike. I'm selling my "03" I'm keeping the new "07" and we're still on. | ||
| Luvthemtorts |
Right on man. See ya' then. | ||
| Liquorwhere |
Phil, You can clear powder coat or clear liquid paint the polished parts..the clear powder coat has a tendency to be a bit orange peel looking over polished surfaces as well as dulling the shine a bit, but it will be well protected, I am not versed in the liquid clear techniques or results..maybe someone is... | ||
| Buellfighter |
I polished the fork legs and triple tree on my S1 a few years back and haven't experienced any dulling with them like I do with the PM wheels and engine cases. I'll polish my wheels and cases and within two to three weeks they already are dulling. All I use on my triple clamp and legs is a clean rag. Have not polished them since the original job. I believe the legs and triple clamp could be a better quality aluminum and might not need coating? | ||
| Saintly |
Ok, after two days of rest my hand was back to normal. So, I did some more rubbing. This time it was on my headers:        It's tough to photograph them now due to the glare. They look like chrome!  This turtlewax polish is great stuff! The rye bread makes a perfect applicator too!  | ||
| Mikexlr650 |
did you do the whole job with the compound or start out with sandpaper? |
