polishing advice

limerick79

hey guys....
who likes nice polished frames and wheels like me...

anyone out there know of a lacquer or similiar product that can be used on polished for protection in our lovely climate????

RosieJoe

If you like polished bikes and have the time to spare, have a read of this:

SV650 stripped and polished

HunkaPauwel

@Limerick79

From personal experience, I'll ALWAYS use a high quality car - sorry - BIKE wax. The advantages of it are there wont ever be any yellowing, clouding or discolouration, so showing your pride and joy off in the glorious Irish sunshine wont be a worry either, seriously - IT WONT. Ha! Also, you'll never have to worry about scratching or flaking of a coating from clumsy eejits getting near it, or ageing, (the coating ageing, not the eejits) and then possibly a power washer lifting chunks of your coating off as all you can do is just watch it fall to the ground like a transparent butterfly. If you are unfortunate enough to get a scratch on your polished item, you just buff it out and reapply the wax with no problems in getting a uniform appearance to the finish.

In the past I've seen coatings suffer very minor scratches and within three or four weeks, if the weather was bad, begin to bubble and look awful once the elements work their way beneath the surface. Now, I'm not saying all coatings are bad, and that wax is the only way to go, but you may as well have nothing as have a poorly applied coating, because in the long run it just might turn out to be way more trouble than its worth. One time a buddy of mine accidentally sprayed some wheel cleaner in the local car wash onto his freshly polished frame - no protection, NOTHING - which had some oily smudges on it - it gave it a lovely iridescent effect - NOT what he was after at all - so be careful with your bare alloy.

The downside of wax is you'll probably have to lash it on every two or three weeks, more often in bad weather, obviously - but another pro of using wax is that removing any chain lube off the back wheel rim is much easier - it doesn't necessarily have to be a polished rim for this trick to work either - try it on your wheels if you have an extra ten minutes when you next wash your bike - just make sure they're spotless first. Chances are though, if you've gone to the bother of having some polishing done, you take more than just a little pride in your machine, so pouring heaps of attention on it every couple weeks is no real biggie as you rub that lovely lustre into her! Sounds a bit steamy there, sorry!

There may be some modern products out there that might suit your needs perfectly though and my opinion is based on fairly dated market info and also me being just damned stubborn and set in my ways, but thats my two cents.

Hope my (much longer than intended) rant was of some help to you!

PaudyW

dont bother lacquering, polished my rims two years ago, any time i wash the bike just give them a quick rub with peek or some similar metal polish and they come up like new, if you lacquer, it turns a crappy yellow colour and you cant get them shining without removing lacquer

JohnnyCrash

AUTOSOL;)

bladespin

Don't bother with laquers etc just give it a good polish and a rub of something like Mr Sheen every couple of weeks and you won't have any problems.

KamiKazi

ACF50 after a good polish is all ya need.

JohnnyCrash

Sorry for the hijack but was wondering has anyone on here polished their own rims,frame etc... and i mean REALLY POLISHED!!! i.e. to a mirror finish using all the grades of wet paper etc...
If so,was it time consuming,was it worth it,what did you use,techniques???
Am thinking of trying it out myself so would be interested to hear from anyone who has.
Cheers in advance.

cycocycle

Im rebuilding a Harley at the moment and a lot of the aluminium is fairly scabby. I bought a cheap bench grinder and some mops. I then made an adapter to mount the mops to the grinder.
Its still a laborious process working through progressively finer grades of sandpaper before finally buffing them up on the polisher. Its well worth it though as getting parts polished can be expensive. After doing it you will realise why!
There is no coating that will successfully stick to polished metal. The best way of keeping it looking well is to dry it as soon as possible after getting wet and to use Autosol on it regularly to keep it polished. Road grime,rain etc will attack the finish so you need to stay on top of it.
Sometimes I think maybe all over black powdercoat is the way to go!

honeybadger

i got a project a while ago and after reading this thread and the tread about the sv i think i might go down the polishing road aswell,,can the kits for this be gotten here in ireland or is it a online jobbie to source them:)

cycocycle

honeybadger wrote: »

i got a project a while ago and after reading this thread and the tread about the sv i think i might go down the polishing road aswell,,can the kits for this be gotten here in ireland or is it a online jobbie to source them:)

Ebay is the way to go here.
http://cgi.ebay.ie/Aluminium-Brass-Metal-Polishing-Kit-8-x-1-NFK0-8002-/280518299048?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item4150318da8

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/9000025/c_1/1|category_root|Garden+and+DIY|14418702/c_2/3|19805469|Power+tools|14418763/c_3/4|cat_14418763|Sanders+and+grinders|14418766.htm

Get your various grades of sand paper in any motor factors.

Get a face shield or goggles and a mask as its pretty messy.

Check around online for tutorials and be prepared to lose you fingerprints!

JohnnyCrash

They have polishing kits in Halfords,couple of different types,one for hard metals-steel,stainless etc and one for soft metals-bronze,aluminium etc. I got one yesterday but havnt tried it yet. Did try sanding though on petrol cap,very pleased with results for first attempt

honeybadger

what was the nameof the kit you got johnny,,i tried to get one in my local halfords and all they had was autosol

slavetothegrind

http://www.thepolishingshop.co.uk/acatalog/Bench_Grinder_Polsihing_Kits.html

very satisfying work.

dirty as fook though, whereever you set this up will be mankified.

JohnnyCrash

honeybadger wrote: »

what was the nameof the kit you got johnny,,i tried to get one in my local halfords and all they had was autosol

Its a PoliCraft Alloy,Brass & Copper Polishing Kit €19.99. The code for it on the receipt is 202411

honeybadger

sound for that johnny,went back out there today and they dont have it,ebay it is