Polishing tips?

While I'm waiting on the slew of parts to arrive for my bike I was gonna start doing some cosmetic work. Any advice on aluminum/chrome Polishing? Seat cleaning?

 

You definitely wanna search for Polishing Bohemian Style. MadBohemian's polishing is incredible.

 

If you want the chrome look to the aluminum, you can accomplish it by wet sanding in ever finer grit and then finishing on a buffing wheel with soft metal buffing compound. Best to have it off the bike, although you it can be done on the bike using a attachable drill buffer. First you need to remove any clear lacquer that the parts may be coated with. You can use aircraft stripper or your method of choice. Then which grit you start at depends on the condition of the part. If there are minor gauges, you can first lightly file them out first. But a normal part you can start with 400 or 600 grit. Then go up as follows, 1000, 1500, 2000 grit. Then I use the soft metal compound on the buffing wheel. At that point it looks like chrome. But I give it a rub down with Mothers Aluminum and Metal polish and and another turn on the buffing wheel. You will find that maintaining that shine is easy. Just hit it with mothers and a terry cloth every two or three months. It has special waxes to help maintain the shine and prevent oxidation. Don't use silicon type waxes. They will dull the shine. I have bikes that I have done the fork lowers and engine cases and still look good after a 3 years.

 

The key is to remove the original clear coat. Often the grey mottled corrosion is behind it and it is some pretty tenacious stuff.

Aircraft Paint Remover works the best; but you need to remove the various covers from the bike. You stand a chance of damaging gaskets, etc., if you try to use paint stripper with the parts still attached. Most of the things you'd want to polish have to come off for maintenance anyway.

As for sanding, you can generally start with 1200-wet unless the part is heavily etched from corrosion. Starting with 400 or 600 will just make more work unless necessary to remove deep blemishes or scratches.

 

Also, each time you switch to a finer grit you'll want to go across the last grain to ensure you polish out all of the previous grit's lines. This is difficult on some parts, but if you don't get it all out, by the time you are done any spot where you didn't get it out will look dull compared to the rest of the part.

polished


buffed

 

if the stitching on your seat is faded, go over it lightly with a black magic marker, that should last most of the summer

 

I use pledge on my seats. Learned that from some car restoration site. Yes, it is slippery at first. Maybe for the first hour or two of riding. So have to be careful at first. But it leaves it looking like new and stays that way. I haven't had to hit my seat up again in over a year. And for that first hour or so after it has been applied, it will leave a nice lemony smell.

As a matter of fact, I use it on all my rubber parts on the bike as well. Seems to bring them back to life. At least cosmetically.

 

We used Pledge back in the day when most car seats were vinyl. If you were on a date and you liked the girl, make a quick right hander and she was in your lap. If you didn't like her, sharp left and her head was banging off the passenger window.

 

LOL, love it bmarzka!

 

I heard guys give this advice before. Personally I approach polishing with the same technique that I use for color sanding/buffing clear coat. I NEVER change direction of my sanding strokes. I have found that that produces cross-hatch patterns that take longer to sand out. If you are using a wetting agent and are vigilant while sanding you should have no issues. Like I posted in my polishing thread, sand using wet/dry paper and a wetting agent, I prefer WD40, although I have sanded some parts with a trickle of water from a garden hose running on the sanded part while sanding. When sanding, if you get particles under the paper you will hear it, (as you get more experienced, you'll feel it as well). Simply stop, flush the surface and the paper, and resume. This is the technique I use, not saying the other ways are wrong, just maybe not as right... BAHAHAHA... j/k
Post some before and after pics too!

 

Not to sure about Mr sheen on the seat, polished one on my first ever bike
, 100 yards down the road and braking at a junction nuts collided with the petrol cap. Lesson learnt the hard way- never again

 

Very true Cap. Not sure what Mr. Sheen is but sounds similar to lemon pledge, . One way to avoid the slippage with pledge is to not ride it for a day or two. Once the oils are absorbed and the rest wiped away, the traction is normal but the seat stays looking great. As a mater of fact, I use it on black rubber or plastic parts. For example, on my van's rear step it has a black plastic traction step insert which had milky white film from exposure to the elements. I did two or three applications within a day and it has been nice for months now. Same thing with the air box (and brake boots, grommets, etc..) on the SECA and KZ. Brought it back to life. Very nice on tires too. I could use other products like Armor All, but it doesn't seem to last anywhere near a much . I don't know, I haven't used Armor All or those types of cleaners in years. But this method seems to even look better than made for purpose cleaners. Maybe those products have improved, don't know.

 

If your planning on polishing a bunch of aluminum buy yourself a bench top buffer i use mine all the time. I started with 1/2 hp model loved it so much i went bigger. I used to do all the superfine sanding i can scratches out from 600 grit sand paper but it takes longer so i usually go over it with 1000 or 1200 then polish. I Have turned my little buffer into steel only no aluminum does wonders on bolts and chrome nuts that have rust. If you are doing aluminum that has no corrosion don't sand it just buff it i can do a set of forks in less then 1/2 hr. Before and after on brackets took 20 min or so for both after stripping