Sand, Sand, Sand and Polish...

[Dave]

Decided to carry out a few cosmetic jobs on my bike. Decided to remove rather badly applied paint from clutch, alternator and left crankcase cover.  Rather than re-paint, I've sanded and polished by hand and really pleased with the results. Not too shiny, which I quite like (plus I started to run out of elbow grease!).

Here is before and after clutch cover:

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Previous owner has omitted a few gaskets, washers and also had a random sized selection of allen screws which I am replacing with stainless JIS screws. I'm not a bike purist by any stretch of the imagination but I do like the look of the JIS screws:

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Mind you, I am wondering what other items have been "omitted" or "overlooked" by the PO!

Dave

[Nurse Julie]

That's great work and a vast improvement. I love the 'not too blingy' polished finish, that's how I have mine.

[SumpMagnet]

Love the finish there.

As a rider of bikes, not a hider, I have an aversion to mirror polished alloy. The manufacturers never did it, and it just doesn't do it for me.
That. however, is spot on.

[Moorey]

  That's nice finish.

[ST1100]

Nice finish!
Any coating required to prevent oxidation?

[Athame57]

I went down the same path, grotty old paint applied by someone who didn't love it enough to polish it about once a month. I've undone a bundle of bodges too, alas, I'm still finding a few.
Before and after pics:

[Lobo]

Beautiful Dave. Give us a clue on the grades of paper used... the tools... the time. I know there are a couple of other polishing gurus here too and would appreciate a write up as this is something I plan to tackle in the new year.
Ta,
Simon

[Dave]

> Give us a clue on the grades of paper used... the tools... the time.

I originally bought 220, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 2500 grades of wet and dry to get me going.  The first item I tackled was the crankcase cover. However, after stripping off the paint (using Synstryp) I could see the surface was pitted:

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I needed to cut a little deeper so got some 80 and 120. I got 10 sheets of each grade. However, it is clear now you tend to spend more time / paper using the rougher grades to resurface. I didn't use any power tools as I was a little nervous about  damaging the alloy - maybe you could? But played it safe anyway. By the time you have finished with the 220 grade you should aim to have an unblemished surface (although it will look scratched!). I would say 600 onwards it starts looking quite sweet.

Use circular motions when you can. I didn't actually use water with my wet and dry - I left it dry after seeing a few videos on you tube. It worked for me but maybe other people have a different point of view. I didn't really spend too much time on 1000 and above. I wanted to surface to look really smooth but not super shiny.

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In terms of time taken, I did it over a number of days. I think the longest session was about 3 hours. More than that and I started to lose the will to live - short 2 hour sessions worked really well for me. Altogether, it maybe took 8 to 10 hours (including stripping the paint) to finish the above. Most of that time was spent in the early stages (80, 120 and 220) and this is the hardest work. 

When you get to the later stages, you might see area that needs to be revisited (perhaps you have still a scratch from rougher grades or a blemish you want to take out). If you see such an area, you will need to start again moving from rough to fine. Just rubbing harder with 800 or 1000 will not do much at this point.

This is the first time I have done this and really pleased with the results. It's not perfect but looks very authentic and honest.  It will oxidise over time but it really should not take long to bring the surface back up using something like autosol.  In short, it shouldn't require any more attention than any other parts of the bike - like forks or bright work.

Hope that is of some help Simon...

Dave

[Lobo]

Appreciated Dave, something to look forward (?!) to in the NY. No doubt it does no good for the occasional arthritic finger 😂.

[gtmdriver]

I like the 'soft' shine. I prefer that to the ultra shiny chrome like finish.