Vapour blasted mag wheels, with polished highlights!

Greasey Fingers · Oct 26, 2012

Well I got a bit of time today and polished up my recently vapour blasted wheels. Havent heard from pork chop on here for a while, but I hope you see these mate! This was inspired from when you got yours vapoured

The one on the left has been polished, but not the one on the right. This way you can see the difference, its only some details that are polished as you can see.

WARNING: This job is not for the faint hearted, next time I will pay someone to do this :yikes:

l4ne4 · Oct 26, 2012

very cool. i think id trade my spoked wheels for those.

16VGTIDave · Oct 26, 2012

Looking good! :thumbsup:

Greasey Fingers · Oct 27, 2012

l4ne4 said:
very cool. i think id trade my spoked wheels for those.

its a deal :bike:

thanks guys, its great all that hard work got some appreciation, lol. Because I wont be polishing another set :laugh:

Greasey Fingers · Oct 27, 2012

Just doing my back one today, Ive finished the polishing part. I timed how long it takes for those who are interested. Just the polishing (wet/dry 400 grit) has taken me 1 hour for both sides of the wheel, im not bothering to take it to 800 grit for the wheels as that would add another hour. On my engine sidecovers I did go to 800 grit, but I think these look just fine at 400 grit. So I still need to buff it on the bench grinder using buffing pads and wax buffing compound. Then finish it off with a cream polish (autosal), so your looking at around 1.5 - 2 hours per wheel

l4ne4 · Oct 27, 2012

ok so Ill wait until you are completely done to trade you =)

but seriously I am anxious to see the final product!

Greasey Fingers · Oct 27, 2012

Sweeeeeet all done!! Its easily a 4 hour job for the two wheels. This time I polished the little yamaha logo and 'japan' cast on the back wheel, was worth to do I think. Last photo is the polished logo and second to last is unpolished so you can compare.

Usually photos make things look better, but in this case the wheels actually look better in real life. Its hard to capture the right angle of light on them to represent a natural look like you would see with your own eye in person.

Conclusion: Imo it was definatly worth the 4 hours of hard labour invested :thumbsup:

Richmond · Nov 13, 2012

Does anybody have pictures of these wheels mounted because they look sick!

Greasey Fingers · Nov 14, 2012

Richmond said:
Does anybody have pictures of these wheels mounted because they look sick!

Thank you! Here they are mounted

Btw I put standard size pizza cutter tyres on them so they look a bit thin but I actually wanna keep this bike looking old school so im ok with it. But if you put fatter tyres on they would look great for sure. The tyres I had fitted are dunlops, K81 back/TT100 front, both in standard size as recommended by yamaha for this bike.

l4ne4 · Nov 14, 2012

Looks great!!

16VGTIDave · Nov 14, 2012

That is one nice looking bike! Well done!

frwinks · Nov 15, 2012

looks great :thumbsup:

Wonder if there's anyone in Ontario doing vb

drewpy · Nov 15, 2012

that's looker for sure. now to keep them that way

Greasey Fingers · Nov 15, 2012

Lol thanks guys, I put a fair bit of effort into this but ive been enjoying it. Drewpy, im worried the wheels will corode with a raw finish like this do you know of a way of keeping the corrosion away. I think I remember you mention something you use on the polished metal parts on your bike?

Oh yeah just to show you guys how she looked before, heres a pic before I started work on it :yikes:

drewpy · Nov 16, 2012

ACF50 is aircraft grade rust inhibitor. just soak in a cloth and wipe on.

not cheap though but can be used everywhere and it creeps too

cjxs · Nov 16, 2012

Greasey Fingers said:
The tyres I had fitted are dunlops, K81 back/TT100 front, both in standard size as recommended by yamaha for this bike.

What size are yours? I'm asking because I bought the same set of K81 for my tracker and I wonder if they'll look as thin. Mine is 3.50 front and 4.00 rear.

Greasey Fingers · Nov 16, 2012

drewpy said:
ACF50 is aircraft grade rust inhibitor. just soak in a cloth and wipe on.

not cheap though but can be used everywhere and it creeps too

just had a look on ebay, after postage ACF50 is about 200 bucks for 4 litres :yikes:

But im guessing that would last forever?

Hi cjxs, from memory I have a 3.00 on the front and 4.1 on the back (only sizes available here otherwise I would have put fatter on), so yours will look slightly fatter on the front and slightly thinner on the back I guess.

drewpy · Nov 16, 2012

you don't need 4 litres, a litre will last 4 years and cost about £30, or they do am aerosol for £14

16VGTIDave · Nov 16, 2012

FYI, Rust Check is basically ACF50. At least it was a decade ago when I was in aviation and spoke with one of their chemists. Love that stuff.

Dave

cjxs · Nov 17, 2012

Greasey Fingers said:
Hi cjxs, from memory I have a 3.00 on the front and 4.1 on the back (only sizes available here otherwise I would have put fatter on), so yours will look slightly fatter on the front and slightly thinner on the back I guess.

Thanks for replying! I actually have 4.1 front and 4.25 rear, it's just that the seller told me those are the new versions of 3.50 and 4.00 respectfully. So I guess they'll look alright then :thumbsup:

Vapour blasted mag wheels, with polished highlights!

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