Frame finish

[adam.m]

When I bought my Fireblade, the Frame members under the tank were pretty highly polished.
The rear section of the frame was still painted with the original silver.
So I decided to have a go at polishing the painted bits to match the rest of the frame.
I sanded the paint off with 180 on my orbital, then went to 400, 800, 1500 to get a smooth finish and polished it with some mag polish and a drill mounted cloth wheel.


It came up pretty shiny, but still not as mirror like as the origonal parts.


So I then invested in a spindle for my buff, and some larger cloth buffing wheels, and metal polish bars.
Had another go at it, but its still not as crisp as the original shine.


Im wondering if there are 2 different alloys ? Or maybe I will have to sand back the whole frame to get an even shine.


Other options Im considering are a brushed metal finish, with clear over it, or powdercoated.


Any advice would be appreciated.

[hyofighter]

Maybe go down to 2000 before polishing . Worst bit about polishing is its a never ending job . Id considered polishing the frame on the vfr but after taking the anodizing of the muffler and going the whole process to polish it which came up a treat but there was a lot of sanding and resanding im glad I never did the frame . Nickel plate it

[adam.m]

Nickel plate would be better than chrome ?

[Hagarr]

Nickel plate would be better than chrome ?

Nickel plate then top coat of ceramic clear.

No more having to repolish just clean the bike as normal with a detergent and it will be as good as the day you had it plated.

[hooligan]

Didn't oldskool ceramic coat his frame in a bright silver/polished look on his bandit?
That looked great.

[adam.m]

Ok thanks.

So if I decided to go the 'painted finish' maybe in a mat black, will paint stick to alloy ok if its etched first ?

[Redmohawk]

Didn't oldskool ceramic coat his frame in a bright silver/polished look on his bandit?
That looked great.

He sure did and it looked very nice up close