Polishing

[Bones]

Had some spare time today so thought I'd do some more fiddling with my gixxer rear wheel upgrade. Got some new wheel and sprocket carrier bearings to replace the seized ones in it, but thought I might try and do a Pat and polish the sprocket carrier first. Never actually done any decent polishing before so it was a bit of a learning curve for me. The part in question before polishing.



I've got different coloured blocks of polish compound but wasn't sure what colour to use, so I googled it and decided to use the white one with the course wheel on the drill. Half way there.



A couple more beers in between and hey presto, all nice and shiny.



Gave it a final polish with the soft wheel and fitted the new bearing, seal, and sprocket.



Probably should've polished the part the bearing fits into as well, but then where does it end. I think I'm entering dangerous territory here

[ribbert]

OK Tony, that is brilliant, great job, I'm impressed.

If you are going down the polishing path, get one of these, they are cheap and make the job 20 times easier. I'm sure you have a bench grinder. It is much easier taking the job to the tool.
They also let you get plenty of heat into the job and the bigger the wheel, the smoother and more uniform the finish.
I have used those drill mounted wheels in your photos. They do the job but make hard work of it.



This is a loose unstitched calico wheel.

On alloy, I wouldn't bother with the rough (stitched?) wheel first, they scratch. The alloy is too soft and it just marks it, which you then have to polish out.

I find the the loose rag wheel and green polish the best combination for a one step polish.

That is all I used to do this:



I tried a whole range of polishes to see if there was any improvement to be had after the green, but nothing seemed to improve it.

Great job, just remember, now you've got to keep it that way. Once you're happy with the finish, put some car wax over it to protect it, it also repels grime.

Noel

[Steve_in_Florida]

We have a set of aluminum rims for a Porsche 914 at the shop that I started polishing yesterday.

Our stainless steel polishing wizard on the bicycle side, Dianne, got me a set of buffs and polishing compound for the task. The kits came with red, for precious metals, and white, for the aluminum. She recommended I use the red, but my initial results were best with the white. Later, a visitor from another shop told me about a purple compound that I should start with, then finish with white. (He claimed he'll cut me off a piece to try. Hope he remembers.)

The buffs themselves fit on an air powered die-grinder head, for maximum RPM's. Dianne says that speed is the key, and I should use the largest diameter buff available (and is appropriate for the area being polished), as the edge speed is faster.

Lots of compound and lots of RPM's are what have been recommended to me. Start with a small area, buffed to the shine desired, and radiate out from there. Be careful not to dig grooves, as they WILL show up. Sandpaper can be used to smooth any rashes or imperfections, but you have to use progressively finer grades to minimize the scratches.

The question of how to preserve the shine was posed; Car wax being the solution.

On some of our bike parts, you must first remove the clear coat just to get to the metal. That's where our famous stripper services come into play! (chemical paint and varnish stripper, something containing methylene chloride)

Yes, polishing seems to be a sickness, and it's catching!

Steve

[ken65]

looks good bones. 

now get those nuts replated.

they look old.

[X-Ray]

Shit, back into the shed for me, Bones is gunning for Best Presented at next years rally!

Looks great, where did you source the wheel etc from? I've got to take my wheel out and get it repainted, its looking messy.

[1tinindian]

I did the same on my gixxer wheel.

Its much better than the OE Paint,

[Bones]

OCD must be setting in because I had to pull the sprocket off to polish the bit the bearing and seal fits in, it was bugging me because it didn't match. gave the nuts a bit of a touch up as well and now looks finished to me.



Ray, I got the wheel from the Haigslea swap meet for $100.00 but have had to buy all the extras from eBay which is working out expensive, luckily been doing a lot of overtime so been busy buying parts while the extra moneys there. all I need now is a bent valve stem and new tyre and its finished.
                                                               How I bought it



                                                              How it looks now



One thing about the Gixxer wheels, and even the stock ones is once the paint is off the outer edges of the wheel the surface underneath is already shiny, so it takes little effort to make it look good.

[ken65]

that looks the ants pants,  will the new wheel make you bike as fast as mine?? hehe

[Bones]

Faster Ken, any mod you do makes your bike faster, doesn't it??

[ken65]

your correct bones , nobody mods there bike to lose performance.  
In fact the only mod ive done is the timing advance mod you did for me and turned it into a 10 second quarter miler, hehe.

[stua1959]

Hey ken , if you do the coil relay mod you will easily get into the nines

[FJscott]

Hey Leon,

I like that look of the polished outer, painted spokes. how did you remove the OEM paint? stripper? abrasives?
Scott

[1tinindian]

Hey Leon,

I like that look of the polished outer, painted spokes. how did you remove the OEM paint? stripper? abrasives?
Scott

Paint stripper.
The spokes are just glass bead blasted natural aluminum.
A wire brush will be easy maintenance when the wheel needs cleaned.

My 91 wheels are done the same way.

My plan is to put this wheel on my 93 FJ project. as my 91 already has the FZR rear wheel.

[FJscott]

That wheel looks great. I have 2ea FZ1 wheels that are Black that I cant decide whether to leave them black, or polish the outsides as you have done.
I didnt know your center section and spokes were bead blasted and left natural. I like it.

Scott

[ken65]

Hey ken , if you do the coil relay mod you will easily get into the nines

Good tip stua, but the problem im having now with a 10 sec 1/4 miler is the grip puppies tearing off.
As it is now i can barely hang on.