How do ya polish alum??????????????????

Joined: 20 May 2008 Posts: 4 Location: traverse city, MI

whats the best way to polish alum?

Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 4:02 pm

Distinctive636 wrote:

whats the best way to polish alum?

IDK but i want to know too?

Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 4:18 pm

It's not that hard. I took the ugly seam off a GSXr bottom triple and polished it up a bit. I think it looks a whole lot better....

(it's a crappy pic, but you get the idea)

Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 8:00 pm

bighammer wrote:

It's not that hard. I took the ugly seam off a GSXr bottom triple and polished it up a bit. I think it looks a whole lot better....

(it's a crappy pic, but you get the idea)

Explain what compound crit or papers and some steps please.

Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 10:43 pm

First was a die grinder
filing by hand to clean up the grinder marks a bit and make it flat
220 grit
320
400 wet
600 wet
1000 wet
1500 wet
buffing wheel with a polishing compound

I have an SV650 naked but I'm fitting a GSX-r1000 front end on it. The lower clamp looked sort of ugly-- Nasty rough finish and a horizontal casting seam around it front and back.

I'm hoping I'll really like the clip-ons. It's a different look and feel. I can't wait to get out on the road again. (still a lot of work ot do on it yet, though)

Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 6:37 am

Looks good from what I see

Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 8:14 am

Thanks. The bearings and stuff are the same size so that part is easy. Headlight mounting, gauge mounting, and adjusting cable length, are the more time consuming projects. (OK, polishing the lower triple was a big time waster)

I found a guy to buy my radiator for a higher price than a new one off eBay Wink

so I have a first gen radiator to adapt to fit. I can't remember the numbers, but it's 6 or 7 inches narrower I think.