polishing alloy on an xj?

how do you guys go about cleaning and polishing the enjine and trans on your bikes? i woud love to get mine looking a little better but am not sure of the best way to go about it. thanks.... james.

 

There are a couple of good threads about polishing the aluminum. I haven't tried it yet but I've read them. Just do a search for polish and aluminum and you should be in business.

mikeg

 

I plan on doing mine for sure. If it is aluminum it can be polished to look like chrome. i will let you know how they turn out.

 

It ain't hard to put a mirror finish on the nice bright alloy used for most parts on our XJ-Bikes!

Peek at my Gallery. There's a few examples you might be interested in.

 

use mothers aluminum mag polish

 

Search for the thread, there's more to it than that, and Rick is being modest. Without going into too much detail (it's been covered) you need to use a heavy-duty paint stripper to get rid of the original lacquer overcoat, and then buff/polish with your preferred compounds. I use the "wheel" buffing compounds followed by Mother's Billet Metal polish, regular Mother's or Solvol, and finish up hand rubbing with some Nev-R-Dull. It will look like chrome when you're done if you want to take it that far. It's not hard to get it MUCH shiner whan when it left the factory. Yamaha didn't buff 'em all that bright before they lacquered 'em over.