polishing frame

[jason white]

Any suggestions on polishin the aluminum frame? Looks like it will be easier to clean.

[yoshgixxer]

to get the best and easiest shine you gotta do some sanding first..you gotta get the frame down to smooth bare aluminum...the easiest thing to do is wet sand it with 600 to 800 girt first and finish it up with 12-1500 grit..wet sanding isnt neccesary but it dose help keep the paper clean when you sand it...using a DA sander will make things 1000 times easier too...

find some one that has a electric buffer for cars for the first polish job...this will help make it easier too...i noticed if you get good polish job on the first shot its easier to keep up on the shine...i usually clean my frame with soap and water with the rest of the bike and re-polish it every 3 or so washes with some mothers

[2000yzf426]

start sanding, i use to polish cast aluminium canoe and kayak molds right from the foundry to a mirror shine, when i did my swing arm i started with 200 and when to 1500. important thing is to so make sure that with each grit you sand all the lines from the previous grit completly out.

heres a pic of my swing arm after a seasons worth of riding when i tore the bike town to get powder coated

[Wes Woodin]

[yoshgixxer]

that had to be chemical polished!?!?!?! no way some one did all that by hand

Looks killer by the way:worthy:

[snookdude87]

I would be worried about taking that offroad and gettin it dirty. It looks way to good.

[saccityfire]

Some places have long cold winters and there's nothing better to do than polish your frame. I agree that the way to go is sand paper and the hardest part is to make sure that you get all of the lines out as you go (Also try to get all sanding lines going in one direction if doing it by hand). If you hurry to the next grit it will end up shiny but will still have scratches that will never come out unless you go back to the offending grit and get em out.

I polished a steel axe head like this and it looked chromed when I was done.

I use SOS pads to clean my frame and it does a great job of shining it up although there is no mirror finish like this bike has.

[yoshgixxer]

i just noticed the lower fork legs and shock shaft have the DLC coating on them...sick

[Stroker06]

That looks awesome!! Was it done by hand or using a DA? We get really long winters here and besides plowing, I would have no problem spending weekends doinng that, but I don't have a compressor or a DA, and would like to achieve that same quality by hand if possible.

I also think they should come from the factory looking like that as a SE model even if the cost was a bit more, rather than just different color plastics and BNG

[Jibba]

WOW that looks trick! Thinking of doing the same, lucky my uncle is a panel beater and has all the gear to achieve this.