My 98 bumblebee
#1
My 98 bumblebee
Two brothers slip ons, undertail, custom plate holder, all aftermarket racing faring kit, jet kit, polished frame and swingarm, too many things to list, let me know what you guys think.
#17
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.
#20
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.
#22
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.
#26
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.
#30
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.
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.
Last edited by supermarto; 09-12-2007 at 07:37 PM.