I have a 97 kx 250, I am wanting to strip the paint off the swingarm and possibly even polish it for shits and giggles. What is the best way to strip it? I thought about just trying to soda blast it and leaving it like that also, just looking for some input on the best way to go about it. I need to check my bearings anyway so I figure I will go ahead and try to strip it also.

Tacpayne, on 15 March 2012 - 09:14 PM, said:

I used aircraft paint stripper from autozone. The alum on mine had a ton of marks in it from what looked like when the roughed it up to paint it so I lightly sanded them out and polished it. Turned out great

i used a soft abrasive pad on a drill, just like scotchbrite not too aggresive, and it took the paint off no problem and gave it a pre-polish at the same time.

i highly recommend this stuff from Lowes. I have tried aircraft stripper but this stuff works faster and way better. plus it smells good, enviormentally safe, cleans up with water.

I recommend leaving the inside of the arms and the front cast section painted.  You'll be polishing that after every 2 rides to keep it nice, unless you live in Arizona.

I just sanded mine down, I think from 120 grit to 400, then polished it with a buffer or 0000 brillo.

Edited by Jeekinz, 16 March 2012 - 05:57 AM.

yeah i just did the outer box section up to the welds

I did what Jeekinz did. sanded with 80 to get the paint off and then all the way up to 1500 (wet sanding when you get to the really fine paper) and then polished with mothers aluminum/mag polish. it works pretty good. i also repainted the inside cast section of mine silver, that part is just too hard to get at when the bike is togetther. This is a few weeks after i polished it and i had only ridden once, already needs to be touched up again with the polish:



looks pretty decent, i wasnt going for the bling bling mirror finish i just wanted it to look nice

Thanks guys will be working on it next week

Mine is off the bike to put a couple new needle bearings in.
Was looking at how to clean it up also.
There are some grubby sections where a previous sticker was...nics in the paint.

I was thinking of just getting it good and clean, sanding a bit to roughen up and paint it all grey/silver again.

Jeekins had recommendations to what paint looks right for these swing arms in another thread.  I'm looking for that.

Mine is 1991 KX250 if that makes a difference.

CooHead

CooHead, on 19 March 2012 - 06:26 AM, said:

That's the Rustoleum Appliance paint.  I have it on the RM, been holding up ok, but it's the kids bike and he doesn't ride hard, but he falls alot.  So far so good.

So I got one of those scotch brite disks for the drill.
I also got some Zip It paint stripper from the paint department at Menards.  It's a gel.  It doesn't work worth a darn.  But seems like it's best for wood anyhow.

So.  Tried the disc wheel.  That didn't take long.  Works great and kinda polishes it once the paint is gone.

Like others mentioned, just doing the outside and top rails.  Not doing the inside or all up where it mounts....will paint that.

The scotch brite disc does leave some swirls.  Hit it with the only paper I had....lemme go check....600grit.  That didn't take much of the swirls out of it.  Tried the Mothers Alum and Mag Cleaner on a little section and shined up nice.

Now that I go look:  I do have some 240 and 400 in addition to the 600grit.

So i  will make a solid attempt next time to go through all three stages before Mothering it.

But looks way better already.  The adjusting bolt area will look worse now that the slab sides are so clean.

So it goes, better than nothing.

We are just hand sanding the emery cloth fine grit right?

600 is quite coarse for polishing, if you want mirrored finish you need to go finer with some 1200 or something, and final it with mothers. it takes patience. just remind yourself that it is after all a dirtbike, not a 70's classic.

you could get the swirls out with mothers alone if you have nothing else going on.

EDIT: maybe not 1200, i'm thinking of when i used to flat paint in an bodyshop. around 800 maybe

Edited by ikis86, 22 March 2012 - 07:53 PM.

600 isn't too bad with some WD.

Alrighty then....

I have it all cleaned and sanded and will paint it next time it's warm.
The tops and outsides of the swing arm will stay nice and shiny polished like, the rest will get a coat of silver.

I just got all the new bearings from RonAyers.  Only took one out of the individual bags they came in.
Couple questions:
I had to press out the old bearings with a vise and couple proper size sockets.  How easily should the new, clean, nice and round, non-rusted bearings go in?  The one I looked at didn't "fall into the hole".  Will they require some vise pressure (C-clamp) to put them back in?  I will clean up the hole each bearing goes into.  But, should they fit in there finger tight, or will I need some mechanical push?

Doesn't seem like much grease on em from the factory.  Should I slather some additional wheel grease when I get them in there?

Can't wait to get it all put back together.  Got the kid's KX65 out of storage and running no problem.  Ripped that around the yard a bit   Can't wait to get the full size bike back together.

CooHead.

the bearings are press fit. but new ones go in a whole lot easier than old rusty ones coming out...lol i'm rebuilding a 98 rm250 for my neighbor and his bike has never been serviced other than a top end from previous owner. the link bearings are the worse i have ever had to do on any bike.

So, got that all done and put back together.
When the whole swing arm is together and buttoned up, how tight should it be to swing through it's arc?
The shock is not in there yet (waiting for rebuild).  The swing arm doesn't fall down via it's own weight.  One hand easily swings it through its arc, but it isn't fully free...there is some resisitance.  More than what it all weighs.  Is that right?   Do I have that big swing arm bolt to tight?

I have to imagine it'll loosen up a bit over the first ride.  Not like a couple pounds of friction will be noticed by me.  But I thought maybe it would be real smooth and loosey goosey with everthing new and cleaned up.  Thought it would fall down/extend under it's own weight.

The shock and rear tire assembly are not mounted.

(You might have seen I had a cracked shock clevis in a previous thread.  Glad I found it.  Bought a used shock off ebay and gave em both to the local race shop for a rebuild.  The one I bought is for a KDX250, not my KX250   Thinner shock sahft dia and bushing at the top instead of bearing at the top.  But he was going to see if the clevis could be swaped out.  Or rebuild the KDX shock.  Or see if an old RM shock he has would match up.  Something should work...and I'll be able to ride it).

Coo

Finally got my swingarm finished, this pic kinda sucks but the swingarm looks great

nice job! i know how boring it can be to get a finish like that!

YEa....mine isn't that shiny.  I can't take to much boardum
That said...a little bit of scotchbrighting and sanding and polishing makes a HUGE difference.

my dad rode his ktm 640 through some salty wet roads and he paid me to clean up the wheels cause they aren't coated like the japanese wheels are. BOLLOCKS to that again, polishing is feeckin boring