Some cool shiny stuff

[Greasey Fingers]

Spent all morning polishing, lol. This just consumes your life by the end of it

 

[dO-bOy]

Mmmmm, I especially love the calipers. Might as well polish the frame

 

[Greasey Fingers]

Nooooooo not the frame, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

 

[Pork Chop]

Nice mate. Looks like you have caught the polishing bug.

 

[corruptmind]

i dont have the patience to get anywhere close to that on a single item

 

[Evan]

What's your process? I would have guessed it would take more than a morning to do all those pieces.

 

[Greasey Fingers]

Yeah I know what you mean its tedious, but im the sort of person that if I get obsessed with something ill do whatever until I reach what it is I want to acheive, lol. In this case it just happens to be polished triple/forks/brakes etc. So I guess you got to really want the polished look to go through the tedious process of getting it...or just pay someone hundreds of dollars and get them to do it, and you would get a more professional looking result that way too.

And yes I definatly got the bug Pork, lol. Once ive finish all my polishing on the bike ill probably get PPS (post polishing syndrome).

 

[XSLeo]

The only problem with such a nice polish job is keeping it a nice polish job.
Leo

 

[Greasey Fingers]

What's your process? I would have guessed it would take more than a morning to do all those pieces.

I started EARLY in the morning You could probably do everything in the pictures comfortably in 6-7 hours I think? Luckily I wrote the process down in the tear down thread, heres the process:

1- Apply the part with paint stripper if painted (be sure to cover or remove any rubber seals)
2- Wait 15min and hose off all paint stripper with water and let dry,get the part as clean as possible using a wire wheel on a bench ginder
3- Start with 400 grit wet/dry sand paper and apply small amounts of wd40 or oil onto surface and work away at it sanding it smooth and get it nice
4- Take it down to 800 grit, and then clean with turps or degreaser and wipe dry
5- Buff it with black compound on a benchgrinder with a buffing wheel
6- Buff again with green compound
7- Remove any wax(buffing compound) with turps and wipe part clean/dry with a rag
8- For a high shine, now polish with a cream metal polish such as 'autosal', just follow the directions on the tube
9- Polish off with a soft clean rag, the harder and faster you polish here the brighter the shine becomes

So the hard work is the sanding part, and thats where you get the results. How well you sand with the 400 & 800 grit determines how good the part will come up.

 

[Greasey Fingers]

The only problem with such a nice polish job is keeping it a nice polish job.
Leo

lol, dont tell me that! Nah im happy for it to dull out a bit and age, but I think you can bring back the shine with a cream polish like autosal?

 

[Evan]

I started EARLY in the morning You could probably do everything in the pictures comfortably in 6-7 hours I think? Luckily I wrote the process down in the tear down thread, heres the process:

1- Apply the part with paint stripper if painted (be sure to cover or remove any rubber seals)
2- Wait 15min and hose off all paint stripper with water and let dry,get the part as clean as possible using a wire wheel on a bench ginder
3- Start with 400 grit wet/dry sand paper and apply small amounts of wd40 or oil onto surface and work away at it sanding it smooth and get it nice
4- Take it down to 800 grit, and then clean with turps or degreaser and wipe dry
5- Buff it with black compound on a benchgrinder with a buffing wheel
6- Buff again with green compound
7- Remove any wax(buffing compound) with turps and wipe part clean/dry with a rag
8- For a high shine, now polish with a cream metal polish such as 'autosal', just follow the directions on the tube
9- Polish off with a soft clean rag, the harder and faster you polish here the brighter the shine becomes

So the hard work is the sanding part, and thats where you get the results. How well you sand with the 400 & 800 grit determines how good the part will come up.

Wow... I think I decided not to do it at about step 5.

 

[Greasey Fingers]

omg just did the LOWER triple what a prick Its a much rougher cast so you need to sand a lot more. I started with a pretty course sandpaper then went onto the wet & dry. Do not try this at home folks

 

[Pork Chop]

Ha ha ha, yeah they suck.
My lower triple had 4 different colour layers of paint on it. I killed a josco abrasive nylon brush wheel stripping it.

 

[Greasey Fingers]

It had 4 layers of paint? Bloody hell, bet you were glad once you got it off. Are you spraying yours black?

 

[Sandrew]

I would have filed off the casting marks on upper tree, otherwise nice work.

 

[Greasey Fingers]

Thanks mate Wheres the casting marks? I could touch it up later if it bothers me.

 

[Pork Chop]

I sprayed mine already. Check 'em out here.

http://www.xs400.com/forum/showthread.php?p=79720#post79720

 

[Greasey Fingers]

Nice That paint really suits it

 

[Sandrew]

Okay, not casting marks, that's another thing, I realize now. Idk how they call those but what I meant was that:

Molding defects or whatever.

 

[frwinks]

after attempting to shine up my cases the other weekend..gotta say..some fine work there Greasey I ended up going for the "brushed al" look