Polishing

[Mxjunkie]

I know many of you would like to know how to polish to make your rides looking just as good as ever! Your not the only ones.
In this thread I will try my best to explain the whole process of polishing and a few little tricks!

This is a very cheap, easy way to polish.. I wrote this up for the few who don't have buffers or dremels..

Supplies needed:
Paint stripper you can get it from wal-mart

Mothers mag & aluminum polish or Black Magic you can also pick this up at wal-mart.

Sand Paper- 180,220,400,600,800,900,1000,1500,2000 grits

Rags- Old t-shirts work wonders.

Steel wool-You can get this in any cleaning section of stores.

Now that we have the supplies listed we can start with the polishing part. (yaaah) Before sanding or even stripping make sure the part is Aluminum! To find out if the part is or not its best to find a place that the paint is worn off and take your mothers, or what have you and polish the area. If it shines then you have aluminum. If not you have steel. Its best to check on the website and check what peices are aluminum and not.

Once you have found out if its aluminum or not you can start to strip the paint off. (If the piece is painted) Take your paint stripper that you bought and spray it on the peice. WARNING- Paint stripper does burn when it gets on you, wear eye protection and gloves!- Leave the part sit for 5-10 minutes and take the steel wool and roughly clean the paint off, This process may need to be repeated till nessary because of heavy coats of paint on differnt parts!

After you are done your paint stripper its time to sand. getting closer dont give up just yet! Its best to judge what type of grit to use my the surface of the part. If the part is fairy smooth you will start with 400, if its rough (cast parts) its best to start with 180 . When sanding sand till it feels easy to sand then move up a grit. Do this till you are up to atleast 1,000-1,500 range. The higher you go the better the shine!

Now for the part you have been waiting for! Polishing! Now that your done the hardest part of the job why give up just yet? Take your polishing product that you had bought and put it on the rag and continue to rub the product that you sanded till you get a BLACK resadue. Once you get this take a clean rag and wipe clean. Continue this process until the whole part is shinny.

Now you can polish your own parts without sending them out and blowing away 30-70 bucks!

Once done your parts should look something like this, if not shinnyer!

[Mxjunkie]

[BlasterEaten250]

will this work on stock 400ex rims? Nice write up btw.

[Mxjunkie]

They are brushed aluminum it will work but in the amount of time you will spend sanding the brushed out you might as well just go buy some 190s

this should def. be a sticky!!

[2004exrider]

What would you say is the best way to get the fine scratches out after your done? Some times i'll polish something and be a little annoyed with them being there

Jimmy

[400exrules]

Originally posted by 2004exrider
What would you say is the best way to get the fine scratches out after your done? Some times i'll polish something and be a little annoyed with them being there

Jimmy

thats what sandings for, go back down to a lower grit, like 250-300 till you can get those deep scratches out, it may take over an hour, but it will look alot better in the end once you get all the scratches out

[Mxjunkie]

Spend more time with 420 or 600 and get all the casting marks out and get the deep straches you may of created with the lower grits, then gradually move your way up in the grits such as 800,1000,1500,2000 they even have a 3000 if your picky.

The key is to spend alot of time with the last steps of the sanding to get it to have little to no straches.




Pappy may be able to help with this but I have herd they now have a clear powdercoat for polished aluminum parts

[Mxjunkie]

For rusted surfaces such as these nickle plated fmf fattys you can also use the sanding steps as well but with the nickle plate only use sos pads or 1000 grit.

Rust causes pits which is an area where the ruts sits and it eats away at the material it literally makes a little hole in the pipe.

As you can see these pipes are pretty nasty the downfall to having nickle plate instead of chrome.

[Mxjunkie]

Once you have gotten most of the pitting and rust off with the sos pad you can start buffing, Obital buffers work wonders as well as using your hand and a towel.

Products you can use during this, mothers, speedys and polishing compounds.