Buffing and polishing...Bohemian style ;)

Becareful clamping in the vise. If you get to tight you can cause distorion in the chassis and put too much strain on the motor. My local Menards was moving from one building to another, they had a whole bin of drill clamps for 75 cents. I bought 5 or 6 of them at the time. Now I've got one in the basement, the garage, and on my bench in the back yard for when I work on stuff outside. 2 are left for replacement when one breaks.

 

Oh dummy me, my drill's got a lock button too...I can't seem to find any drill clamps at the hardware stores near me (Lowes, Home Depot, Sears). I saw one DIY post that mentioned using a hose clamp...

 

Ok, I just got back from my first attempt at polishing the brake drum using the mounted drill and final drive housing free handing the drill. This may be obvious to some, but watch out for the chuck, or where the chuck might be when the buffing wheel grabs a corner and runs away. I gave up trying to grind out the nicks and just figure it'll give an otherwise shiny piece "character."

Maybe I should have just sprung for the <$50 grinder at the Depot... next time.

Also, it might have been a good idea to cover the brake drum with a thin towel when reassembling, the axle pinch clamp put another nice scratch in the drum.

 

More Buffing and polishing...Bohemian style

Started cleaning up the front end today. Here's what the forks looked like before. The both looked pretty much the same.



After a couple applications of aircraft stripper they looked 100% better, but I could still see some blemishes in the finish....so as much as I hated to..I fired up the buffing wheel. Here a side by side of before and after buffing



While we're at it... what do you guys do to your buffed aluminum to seal it so it doesn't start oxidizing??? I haven't worked on the motor in about a month and when I took a look at it all the polished covers were getting hazy with light oxidation on them :twisted: At least I was able to clean them up with some mag polish...

 

I haven't sealed mine - I just hit it with mothers a few times a year.

 

Has anoyone polished other items like the grab bar or the triangular brackets that hold the rear pegs?? Would this technique work on them as well?

 

Dude those parts look amazing. I am truely truely impressed, i never thought that they could be polished up that well. You have inspired me and i plan on stopping by harbor freight on my way home from work.

 

Yes and yes.

 

Hey Mad, I've heard of people using pledge furniture wax to seal up the finish. Of course I'm sure that it would need to be re-applied a few times a year. Thats what I plan to use on mine unless, someone can give me a better idea. Also if there is a better method that comes along, pledge would be an easy buff off to replace it with.

Cheers
Ken

 

I have a side-by-side comparison of my triangle brackets in my gallery.



Didn't do the wet sanding, just aircraft stripper and course/fine polishing wheels on a drill with compound. Wet sanding probably would have taken out the small imperfections that are visible, but it's WAY better.

 

You're absolutely right about that Chaz. You can still do too. If you sand through that top layer it will polish up nice without the blemishes... Nicely done!!

I actually just did my passenger brackets yesterday and put them on Ebay .... gotta get funds to continue on my xj project

 

I HAVE to do this!!! Great, just another project for me!!

 

Here's a short video I did showing how easy it is to buff with a buffing wheel. I'm no authority on the subject and there's a lot of other vids on how-to, but this will give you an idea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDKM5OTvJXs

 

How did you get the YICS emblem to come off of the alternator cover?

 

You can use a heat gun or a propane torch and warm up the the cover on the inside where the emblem is (you might even be able to use a hair dryer but it would take longer), then I used a very small screw driver to pry up the end just a little . Then I used a large screw driver with a wide blade and carefully pry it off. If you're real careful you might be able to reuse the emblem, but you'll have to flatten it first. I'm planning on making some custom emblems to fit in mine so I wan't too concerned if the original got wrecked in the process.

 

Ah, ok thanks for the info. Any polishing I do this year will with the parts on the bike, so I won't be attempting what you described. I'll just tape it off. But now I know how if I ever want to, anyway!

 

One other thing I'll pass along to anybody my inspirees you WILL want to come up with some sort of 'blast shield' to help control the dust and fibers from buffing. Here's what I made out of some scrap wood and a piece of inner fender I had laying around.





Ain't the prettiest contraption but it works pretty good. The hole in the back is cut just big enough so I can take my shop vac hose and put in in there. Then I have the shop vac running while I buff. You'll want to get some gloves as well since the parts are going to get pretty warm while you buff them....

 

<most embarassing compared to my garage.

 

Where does one get aircraft stripper?

 

I was able to pick up both spray can & a liquid pint at Autozone. I'm sure you can ask for it at any place like a NAPA too.

Cheers
Ken