Gix11

How to "Polish aluminium/alloys" - Submitted by OZKAT (Shayne Parker & Matt Fox)

Polishing for beginners by Shayne Parker (Ozkat). These instructions apply to all alloy parts on your bike and apply to bare alloy parts. You will need wet&dry paper. I usually start with 1000 grit, then 1200 grit then 1500 grit, (put a couple of drops of dishwashing liquid in the water) by then you should have a nice satin finish on the alloy. Then i use 30 micron and 15 micron paper, either Norton or 3M are the most common brands. Any good automotive paint supplier will have it. I use orbital sanding discs in the micron paper. Use the micron discs as the same as wet&dry paper in water. Start with with the 30 micron and when you cant see any scratches then use the 15 micron paper. By now you should be covered in black shit, if your not your not doing it properly. When you have finished with the 15 micron paper then you can start polishing. You can do it by hand or use a polishing mop either mounted on a bench grinder for larger parts or a mop in a drill for more intricate parts. Once you get to the polishing stage i simply use Autosol with the mops, its cheap and available from most auto stores. If you follow these instructions and spend the time on a piece you will end up with a very professional finish, if you try to cut corners it will look like crap. A really good finish on a clutch cover will probably take around 3 - 4 hrs. I've done 1 GSXR1100 frame (never again) wheels, engine covers, swingarms, triple clamps etc. Its very cheap to do and if you follow all the stages you WILL end up with a first class finish. Additional added by Matt Fox: - I use this technique so I know it works. Step 1:- Go to coles and get yourself some East Off oven cleaner Step 2:- Mask off any parts that you don't want to polish, and spray frame, Leave until the alloy turns black. (This is a quick way to remove the anodising) Step 3:- Wipe off with soapy water, make sure you get it all off. When you see the result you will probably shit yourself it does go a little patchy in places but dont stress, you've just saved yourself about three hours of sanding. Step 4:- Start with 400 DRY paper, especially on older frames where there will be a lot of pitting and deep scratches (if you start with 1200 wet you can add about 10 hours to the job). Lightly sand over with a palm sander/orbital (when I say lightly I mean let the paper do the work, don't force the sander) Make sure you get all deep scratches out if you don't this procces will have to be repeated over and over again until you do. Step 5:- as per OZKAT's post (above). Step 6:- To get a true mirror finish, finish of with a polishing wheel and (I use) josco white wax compound. And a bit of autosol which is a whole other post on how to polish VERY quickly using autosol!!! I will put up picks when I get around to doing my 750 frame. Sounds like a lot but it isn't really. If the frame has no imperfections/machine marks in it you can actually go straight from Step 3 to 6 (I did this before I started sanding and it came up trumps but for the machine lines.