My friend just bought his first bike, 97' GSXR 600 with full yosh pipe. its got a blown fork seal, minor faring damage, i couple minor things wrong. SO!, being that the bike is being left over at by house, in my garage i took the liberty of striping the bike down to polish the frame and swing arm, rebuild the carbs, rebuild the forks, replace the cracked faring in prep for paint.

So first off i removing all the fairings, air box, carbs and started sanding. keep in mind I've never polished a frame before . after hours of sanding i decided to skip ahead just to see what it will look like... i got out the buffing wheel and the jewelers rouge and commenced polishing. OMFG!!! it was like i was brushing my teeth! i couldn't believe how easy it was to do. all it cost was $25.00 at Lowe's Ill Post some pics when its done.

 

Thats Dope man, I polished my CR once and it looked sick until the first time i rode then i had to redo over and over again finaly i said screw it, took to much time out of my day but i bet its sweet on that bike.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hks85 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> after hours of sanding </TD></TR></TABLE>

What grit did you use on your actual frame to smooth it out?

 

Can you list what you did step-by-step for this "easy" method?

 

I search the Internet and ironically i read an article a guy made on polishing his old *** all aluminum Harley. he said use 600 grit but since we ride sport bikes with anodized frames you have one of 2 choices. 1 you sand sand sand with the roughest wet sand paper you can find and 2 you buy a bottle of Anodize Remover for $11. I can find a place the sells it so im sanding. once you get the anodize off, start smoothing up to 600 grit. (MAKE SURE YOU GO UP TO 600, OR YOU WILL HAVE SCRATCHES ALL OVER YOUR NICE SHINNY FRAME) Next you will need a drill, a 1/2" Arbor $5, a 6" polishing $5 wheel, and Jeweler's Rouge (medium and super fine)$3 each. the hard part is sanding all the anodize off and smoothing out all the pits. After that when you start using the finer sand paper, it starts moving REAL FAST.

 

I have polished the frame on my CR and the Swingarm on a KX. I used a really fine grit sandpaper starting at about 1000 moving up to 1500, then I used a rubbing compound and finally finished it off with mothers polish, all of this was by hand mind you, but it looks dope.

I want to see those pics.

 

here ar some pics (NOT DONE)

Bike Striped

Before

After (needs more work)

& Thing To Come...

 

How do you keep it from getting tarnished again? Clear coat? Because polished aluminum gets dull fast.

 

Im using a polish (Specially made for aluminum) that has a Silicone in it. The silicone helps protect the metal from scratches, as well as the elements. this protects it from corrosion. Clear coat would be great but i know nothing of clear coating metals.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by azhatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">all of this was by hand mind you</TD></TR></TABLE>

You guys doing this by hand are nuts. Like he says, drill+arbor=easy. Let the drill do most of the work, just make sure you keep it moving. Oh, and you might want to get two wheels, one for each compound. Get the spiral sewn ones.

And put some duct tape or something on the end of the arbor. Don't ask me how I found that out.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mos &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You guys doing this by hand are nuts. Like he says, drill+arbor=easy. Let the drill do most of the work, just make sure you keep it moving. Oh, and you might want to get two wheels, one for each compound. Get the spiral sewn ones.

And put some duct tape or something on the end of the arbor. Don't ask me how I found that out. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I meant the sanding part. Im removing the Anodizing with a wire wheel in a drill and a nylon wheel in a drill. The rough spots near the back of the frame are smoothed completely by hand, all the way up to 1000 grit. i said 600 before but 1000 doesn't take much more time and looks better. As for the arbor, im using a bolt on arbor that clamps the buffing wheel. and i do have a wheel for each compound. The bike will be done with the polishing tomorrow.

What did you mean with the duct tape?
do you know of any faster way to get out pits in the rough part of the frame? im just doing it by hand, 150 grit wet sanding...

 

if you want it super clean use a bead blaster with glass beads. the glass beads leave it super clean and will get into all the rough spots and it wont damage the surface or make it any rougher. I sanded my frame by hand like AZhatch did and the final wet sand is the bomb. talk about bling to the ***** grabbin bling. Oh the only down side to using a bead blaster is tape off the areas that are critical where you dont want the beads to go to but i love the bead blaster.

 

i dont need a bead blaster for that. the polished picture you see above was only sanded down to 320 grit before polishing the bike is almost done. all i need to do is fine sand the swing arm and buf it.

 

Very nice, want to polish mine next?

 

sure, not for free... lol

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hks85 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I search the Internet and ironically i read an article a guy made on polishing his old *** all aluminum Harley. he said use 600 grit but since we ride sport bikes with anodized frames you have one of 2 choices. 1 you sand sand sand with the roughest wet sand paper you can find and 2 you buy a bottle of Anodize Remover for $11. I can find a place the sells it so im sanding. once you get the anodize off, start smoothing up to 600 grit. (MAKE SURE YOU GO UP TO 600, OR YOU WILL HAVE SCRATCHES ALL OVER YOUR NICE SHINNY FRAME) Next you will need a drill, a 1/2" Arbor $5, a 6" polishing $5 wheel, and Jeweler's Rouge (medium and super fine)$3 each. the hard part is sanding all the anodize off and smoothing out all the pits. After that when you start using the finer sand paper, it starts moving REAL FAST. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Where can you get the "Jeweler's Rouge"? Ive got everythig else for polishing. And if you can set me straight on this... just apply one coat of jeweler's rouge and that will bring out the shine? Thanks

 

i want to polish the lip of my rims but living in the south sucks becuase of the humidity. the moist air decolors the polish and leaves nasty looking dry wet spots.
is there anyway I can prevent this? Will it help if I took it the body shop and have them spray some clear over it?

 

I went and bought an arbor and polishing wheel and used mothers alluminum polish, I had already wet sanded and polished by hand, but it had never looked like this before. Thanks for the tips, it's worth it hks85

 

NICE!!!
************************************************** *
"Update"
The GSXR-600 is taking much longer then i expected because I've stoped working on it being that its not my bike. All that needs to be done is the swing arm, so not much more. the owner (my friend) has no time right now so yeah... as for my 99' 900RR, the anodizing was striped, the frame is done being wet sanded with 150grit to remove all the scratches, and the swing arm is almost done being wet sanded. i got about 45min more to do then i can start going up (220, 400, 600, 800, 1000) and then move on to polishing all in all IT'S SO CLOSE TO BEING FINISHED!!! within the next couple of days it will be done

ill post some good pictures when it is...

 

I've been using this polish that i bought from Kmart, can't remember the brand but it was like $4 or $5 and it leaves a silicon film in it to help keep it looking good. just go to walmart and read the back of all the labels. I know walmart sounds like a lame place to buy stuff for your bike but they sell all the top brands and sell them for cheaper.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hks85 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I've been using this polish that i bought from Kmart, can't remember the brand but it was like $4 or $5 and it leaves a silicon film in it to help keep it looking good. just go to walmart and read the back of all the labels. I know walmart sounds like a lame place to buy stuff for your bike but they sell all the top brands and sell them for cheaper. </TD></TR></TABLE>

basically youre saying that when the frame/swingarm/sub-frame/whatever you are polishing has been stripped and sanded well enough you can pretty much use any type of polisher?? Ive got some compound, buffing wheels, and arbor but this damn compound is so ******* hard i cant put it on a wet wash cloth..lol... if you could help me out on this id greatly appreciate it I think when you get done you need to make a post w/ a step by step instructions on how to do it w/ pictures so we will know what to look for... just my opinion

 

dont go cheap on the polish I have and will only use Mothers....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EFz6er &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">don't go cheap on the polish I have and will only use Mothers....</TD></TR></TABLE>

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NitrousFed900 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">basically youre saying that when the frame/swingarm/sub-frame/whatever you are polishing has been stripped and sanded well enough you can pretty much use any type of polisher?? Ive got some compound, buffing wheels, and arbor but this damn compound is so ******* hard i cant put it on a wet wash cloth..lol... if you could help me out on this id greatly appreciate it I think when you get done you need to make a post w/ a step by step instructions on how to do it w/ pictures so we will know what to look for... just my opinion</TD></TR></TABLE>

the polish you have (i think) is called jeweler's rouge. it smells and looks like a huge crayon in a plastic case. what you want to do is spin the buffing wheel and put the stick against it with light pressure got 6 to 10 sec or so. when you buy the rouge, there should be a list there for what numbers you use for what kind of metal. the brand im using is from Lowes and im using #3 and #6. the #6 is the Ultra super fine. when you are done fine sanding and are ready to polish, wrap the nut on the arbor with duct tape for the love of god TRUST ME. the nut will end up hitting the metal and you will need to sand out the scratches all over again.

as for the polish (like mothers) the only thing that will be used for is to keep it looking good, not to polish the frame after sanding. and yes walmart sells mothers, Meguiar's, turtle and a bunch of other crap. just read the label to make sure its for Al and there is something in it that will keep it looking good like silicon. good luck!

ALSO, a polish i have had very good luck with, that i highly recomend is called BlueMagic Metal Polish. You can see it in the first picture of the gsxr600, its in the rear seat, blue container with a pink sticker on top

 

Sears sells polishing kit for $10. It comes w/ 3 different size buffing wheels, 4 rouges and an arbor.

Also, to strip the anodize coating you can use easy off oven cleaner.

I haven't done this project yet, after reading this post I might get started on it this week.

 

MY BIKE IS DONE!!!!
its almost 1:30AM and im tired, but i will post a pic in the morning