cool bee...way to buzz...

 

Looks good ! What do you use to keep your frame, swingarm, and wheels clean ? I'm using the mother's powerball which works pretty good. I'm think about picking up the mini-ball to get into the tighter places.

 

I do it by hand with mothers aluminum and mag polish, its in a little tub. I dont have to worry about scratchin the paint if i miss. And it gives me an excuse to get away from the wife and spend a little extra time with the bike.

 

Okay, but did you pay someone to get it to the exposed and polished look or can it be done at home? I've no experience in this polish aluminium stuff.

 

Not sure the frame and wheels and swingarm were polished when i got it, so im honestly not sure just a lot of work to keep it clean

 

You pretty much start with sandpaper rough enough to take the old finish off quickly, and then through 3 or 4 stages of sanding with finer and finer sandpaper you get something nice and smooth and metally, and then you wet sand your *** off with 1000 grit and then 2000 grit, and eventually it just needs polish to be kept pretty. I'm trying to say it's a lot of work.

 

Thanks for the info scooberhawk. I never knew how they did that, and I bet that is a lot of work. Im glad mine is already done.

 

Hey bumblebee, yeah polishing is a shitload of work, and it's a pain in the *** to keep up. It's not difficult, just hard work and very tedious and time consuming. If does look awesome when kept up but I would not recommend it on a bike that sees any regular use. I did a gsxr600-frame, forks, swingarm, subframe, and one of the wheels and that took me a almost a year to finish just all the polishing. It does get easier as you get better at it. The wheel lips are pretty easy because the metal is already smooth. Once you get thru the paint (probably wetsand it w/400 and 600/800)a little wetsanding w/1000 and 1500 and 2000 and some mothers and they'll look like chrome. The idea is the remove any scratches left by the previous grit. Until you do you don't move on to the next finer grit. It just requires patience and a decent eye.

 

Looks great I like the yellow.

 

Nice wheels! I did mine like that just the way described on this post. Only took me about an evening for each wheel to sand and polish. How did you mask of the two tone on the paint and get such clean lines?

 

looks like a duc 996 tail but extended a little very, very nice! really like the scheme of the whole bike, just maintenance from here on out.

 

I never realized how much cleaning was involved, there are so many small spots that stick out like a sore thumb if you miss them. I try to do it once a week, agood cleaning for a bout an hour to keep up on it. But it is so worth it. This is the best bike ive ever owned.

 

I like everything except the grips, please put some black ones on, just for my benefit .

 

Too clean... get out & get that thing dirty!

 

nice bike that tail cowl really sets it off

 

Didn't I see that bike for sale on ebay last month? Were you the one that bought it? Looks good, much better in your photos than on ebay, if it was that bike...

Aluminum should be clear coated once it's polished, that's what the automotive industry does with polished auto wheels... I think they actually use a clear powder coat, since paint won't stick to bare aluminum. Then, you can clean it with soap and water.