Rear foot pegs, associated parts and other shiny bits

[fj11.5]

I have a small advantage ,  pipes are just sitting in the shed ,, so just need to polish them up , and swap them onto the ambulance

[movenon]

Priorities, ride first, polish later....

No money for priorities, only polish and cheap beer on hand..... 

[Pat Conlon]

........Next some white compound then semi chrome.... Then side plates........ Then ??

Very cool George...you're doing it right to get the deep luster out of those stainless tubes....overall, in the long run, using the grey cutting compound is less time consuming than sanding off the paint, then having to progressively sand out all the scratches....
Sure is nice having the right tools huh?   Do be careful when you get to the soft aluminum pieces.

Good job... Cheers!

[movenon]

It kept the air compressor running alright. It didn't take to long to polish them up to where you see it now. Thanks for the help.
I stripped one of the AL sides off today and will start on it tomorrow.
Got the shock mounted and started cleaning up the swingarm. Taking your advise and not stripping/polishing that, just clean it up and shine a bit.
George

[X-Ray]

Today's project. About 30min work on each with a 1/4 " air grinder with polishing wheel. Used some grey stainless cutting compound. Next some white compound then semi chrome....
Then side plates........ Then ??
George

Is this what our FJ headers look like under the paint??  I took mine off today to get started on the oil cooler mod, and was thinking about redoing the hi temp black paint I did a few years ago. But now I'm thinking of going the silver ceramic coating look. Theres a few places around me that do this a lot. will have to ring them next week and check the pricing.

[movenon]

[quote
Is this what our FJ headers look like under the paint??  I took mine off today to get started on the oil cooler mod, and was thinking about redoing the hi temp black paint I did a few years ago. But now I'm thinking of going the silver ceramic coating look. Theres a few places around me that do this a lot. will have to ring them next week and check the pricing.
[/quote]

Only certain years and truthfully I don't know the exact years. Mine is 1990. That was a special coating the Yamaha put on. Probably designed to radiate more heat off. I remember along the way reading what Yamaha called it. It was one of there selling points. I don't push mine that hard and I just like the shinny look.
I would think the silver ceramic coating would look great and probably be more maint. free. But that's only "thinking", I have no real experience with the coating.
Polishing these up will require more effort to keep them shinny. You could sand off a small section of your pipe and see whats under the coating.
I took one day and sanded mine with 320 to start/ then 400 and to 800. Next day I polished with S.S. compound. And that's where you see them now.
Are you done with all the good weather yet ? Please send it back home .

George

[ribbert]

[quote

I took one day and sanded mine with 320 to start/ then 400 and to 800. Next day I polished with S.S. compound. And that's where you see them now.


George

I still say you're making hard work of it.
1200 wet/dry under a running tap then straight to the rag wheel, I grade of polish only, absolutely no scratching.
If I were going to fit them I might have used a couple of grades of polish and spent a bit more time on that.
My fairing screen which is as clear as glass went straight from 1 grade of wet and dry, to 2 grades of polish and that's plastic.

[movenon]

I didn't have any scratching to speak of. The pipes benefited from some smoothing out. I started off with 1000 and went to the compound but it seemed like it took a lot of time just to get the black coating off so I dropped back to 320/400/800. I spent most of the time with the 320 getting the coating off after that I just hit it with the lighter grade stuff for a few min and on to compound. I spent about 4 or 5 hours removing the black and about 3 hours polishing.  I will spend another day probably shinning it up a bit more with white compound and semi chrome. Good "enuf" for a street runner.
later in the summer I will have to pull them off again to replace some badly needed valve stem seals. Then I will have another opportunity to dress them up again !
I also have 2 AL. F1 mufflers to work on if I get the time.  Its still cold here so I am not motivated to go out in the garage for long periods. In another few weeks we will get some sunshine and things will warm up.
George

[fj11.5]

Don't you guys have wood heating in the garage  / shed

[ribbert]

George, are polishing by machine or hand?'
Noel

[movenon]

I got a 30,000 portable propane heater out there but the garage is over 1200 sq feet X 10' tall, it takes a long time to warm it up. If I have to spend next winter here I will install a 50,000 BTU natural gas overhead infrared heater so I can spot heat my work area. I love wood heat but it makes a mess and takes time to stoke up. Not to mention when its time to quit you still have to monitor it.

Noel, I used a cheap 1/4" air grinder from Harbor Freight. Turns 20,000 RPM Max. I ran about 90lbs air pressure to cut the speed down. I think if you were to nit pick you should run the wheel at around 8-9000 RPM to best cut Stainless. The buffing wheels were from Harbor Freight also they were about 2 inch's in diameter.
If you don't have an air compressor capable of driving an air tool continuously for a few hours then I would recommend you convert/use a bench grinder with a 6 to 8 inch rags wheel or locate a 3/4 plus hp electric motor and put an adapter on the shaft. Try to use some compound designed for S.S. if you can. Sorry about the long answer .
George

[ribbert]

Spot on George. This is my weapon of choice for polishing. As with any polishing, sanding, grinding, painting etc the biggest tool you can practically use is going to give the best results, a smoother more uniform finish. It will also make the job a lot quicker.

Dremels are for working on chess pieces or doing your own dental work in the mirror.



Noel

[fj11.5]

cool, i need a bench grinder  ,, hell george, thats not a shed its a workshop,  my largest shed is only 4  x 3.5 meters, the wood heater only needs to be just going or it gets rather warm, , in the process of moving house, , new place has a full size double garage  , a 10 x 5 meter shed,  plus an old open barn thing,  so no shortage of space with my two sheds as well 

[movenon]

A bench grinder works good. That would be my preference. You can use almost any motor that you can bolt down. They make adapters that attach to the shaft with a spiral cone on the end to use spin on pads. Look back at Pats post he has some links there for suppliers. The longer the shaft out the motor the better. Take a look at dedicated metal buffs and you get the idea. Years ago I just used a washing machine motor for polishing. Restored a bunch of 55 - 57 Chevy's and they had a lot of S.S. to polish. That was a long time ago. That's why I had a large bar of SS compound on hand.
George

[ribbert]

A bench grinder works good. That would be my preference. You can use almost any motor that you can bolt down. They make adapters that attach to the shaft with a spiral cone on the end to use spin on pads. Look back at Pats post he has some links there for suppliers. The longer the shaft out the motor the better. Take a look at dedicated metal buffs and you get the idea. Years ago I just used a washing machine motor for polishing. Restored a bunch of 55 - 57 Chevy's and they had a lot of S.S. to polish. That was a long time ago. That's why I had a large bar of SS compound on hand.
George

Nobody loves good quality tools more than me and I enjoy making, adapting and recycling old components into new equipment. However, these days many cheap, crappy non precision tools provide excellent service, especially for home use.  Bench grinders are so cheap it's no longer worth fiddling around making something up. I have angle grinders everywhere so I don't have to change wheels. Even cheap routers, rotary hammers etc. last forever and I use them for work.

BTW, I have in my past made many a workshop tool with washing machine / fridge motors and bearing blocks. Many of them would have the Work Safe guys going for their heart pills these days.

Noel