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Polishing How to.
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Posted by: 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!
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 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 whipe 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!
Posted by: Bush0102
good writeup son. I dont have anything that you can polish, but have your mom give me a call...i have something she can shine up.
Posted by: Jay99400ex
Yeah I bet it's pretty dull, since you never use it 
Posted by: FoxRacing81
Another easy way to check for aluminum or steel is using a magnet. Place the magnet over the part you want to polish. If it connects, its steel. If it doesn't connect, its either aluminum or stainless.
-mx
Posted by: Kilabanshee
Nice write up josh!
Posted by: Mxjunkie
quote:
Originally posted by Kilabanshee
Nice write up josh!
Thanks, I figured I'd save some people a couple bills.
Posted by: Eddiesanders250
too late i already sandblasted it and glass beaded it. i dont think you can polish that. how does buying a polished aluminum part compare to polishing it yourself??
Posted by: Mxjunkie
quote:
Originally posted by Eddiesanders250
too late i already sandblasted it and glass beaded it. i dont think you can polish that. how does buying a polished aluminum part compare to polishing it yourself??
depends on how good and how much time you put into it, i looked into cases for my banshee and it was insane how much they were, i have about 5-10 dollars in mine and it took be 2-3 hours
Posted by: theTman
im tryin josh!!!!!
Posted by: Kilabanshee
Travis, Why polish that up when you'll case another jump and snap it anyways? 
Posted by: Mxjunkie
quote:
Originally posted by theTman
im tryin josh!!!!!
little more work and it will turn out really nice, anyone else feel free to post your polished parts 
Posted by: sampleez
thought you'd never ask so u don't use a buffer of any kind? here's a hmf i did, and the clutch cover off my yfz. since that pic i also polished the pipe. the cover is fixin to get pc'ed cause magnesium is too hard to keep up!
click on 'em
http://img69.exs.cx/img69/1015/00000058ki.th.jpg
http://img181.exs.cx/img181/3116/10009842kz.th.jpg
Posted by: Mxjunkie
quote:
Originally posted by sampleez
so u don't use a buffer of any kind? URL]
I usually do but you have to remeber not everyone has access to one so I tryed to make it as simple as it can be.
Posted by: theTman
quote:
Originally posted by Kilabanshee
Travis, Why polish that up when you'll case another jump and snap it anyways?
i didnt break anything when i crashed u focker
Posted by: jsmith2232
After working in a die shop for a few years i've learned that all you need to polish dull looking aluminum is.
1. Never dull ( in a silver can) it's a pre soaked cotton/abrasive polish. it does a nice job cleaning and de oxidizing the aluminum
2. 25,000 rpm die grinder with a 3 inch buffing wheel, rub "faboulous" aluminum polish on it and git er dun, it's in a hard stick form. polish and wipe off with a soft rag and it looks like chrome...
i did this with a set of rims i bought recently and from top to bottom it only took me just over an hour and with very mimimal hand work. they looked chrome when i was done.
Posted by: stonerider250x
does the shine come off when u wash the quad. i kno it does when i just put motheres on my bumper and grab bar. does sandin it make it keep the shine?
Posted by: stonerider250x
also what type of paint remover do yall use. i have aircraft remover that i bougth from walmart but it aint strong enough to get the stock paint off the levers and such
Posted by: GreenBuds420
can u leave the parts polished or do they need to be painted?
Posted by: sampleez
i use strip x metal stripper. it comes in a big metal container, and i think it was by all the house paint.
and i don't paint over the polished part, because it makes it dull looking. i'm getting some clear powder coat here shortly, and i'm gonna try that over a polished part to see what happens.
Posted by: Mxjunkie
quote:
Originally posted by stonerider250x
also what type of paint remover do yall use. i have aircraft remover that i bougth from walmart but it aint strong enough to get the stock paint off the levers and such
Are you letting it set, then doing the process over till the paint is off. Also steel wool takes it off once you use the stripper.
Posted by: Mxjunkie
quote:
Originally posted by GreenBuds420
can u leave the parts polished or do they need to be painted?
Yes you can leave them polished, but you have to stay on top of them or they dull, usually 2-3 weeks and you should repolish everything, DO NOT SAND, just use your mothers and what have you and polish it back to a shine and ride on.
Posted by: stonerider250x
yea i let the paint remover sit on the part for like 15 min then i even tried a wire brush to get the paint off still didnt work...ended up haveing to just sand the paint off.
u gotta also rember thos this is the paint that came from the factoryu and has been on there for 14 years...prolly gonna be pretty tuff to get off
Posted by: FreekShow
Stripper works best when it is used when it is warm outside or wherever your using it.
Posted by: 4trax250x81
Another good type of polish that I like is:
Califorina Customs, its a two-step polish. The first step is aluminum deoxider (green liqid), this deoxidies the metal and preps it for the polish. THe second step is the purple paste/polish. This stuff works the best, They qurantee it!! The website for it is: http://www.californiacustom.com/
Try it, you wont be disappointed
Posted by: TCracin440ex
i polished my timming plugs with a dremel and some polishing compound...once i got done with the dremel i put some mothers on them then i used my buffer to get it extra shiney....here is a pic...they were cleaner but i got bored n decided to go riddin after i did it....
not to bad for my first time polishing....
btw good write up....this should be in the how to forum...
Posted by: derekhonda
yay
Posted by: TCracin440ex
damn...talking about polish crazy....i like the way polished parts look...but wow
Posted by: Warnerade
derek...dont forget who polished those case covers for you
Posted by: derekhonda
yeah i know, you wanna repolish them for cheap? they need something done to them.
Posted by: Warnerade
get a picture of each case so i can see how bad they are...Hit me up on aim when you get them...but ya ill do it for cheap, just let me know when your ready
Posted by: Metzroth
when you guys sand before using polish do u sand always in one direction? It seems like if i sand in one direction there are fine lines and if i sand in circles there are swirls, is this just because i wasnt using fine enough sand paper? I'm going to do my side cases when i have to replace my timing chain. Also putting in a timing advance key. I'll have both side cases off so I might as well polish them. Also going to do my brake resevoir/cap and entire throttle assembly. Might do my motor mounts as well. Also going to do my DG nerfs. In everyones opinion are DG or AC nerfs better. I had AC on my old EX and now I have DG. They seem like a better design (instead of mounting to the motor mounts they have there own support and mounting bracket also made with thicker tubing).
Posted by: Mxjunkie
Sand in the same direction, flow with the part, it gives a better finish and it doesnt look all foggy/swirley
Posted by: Mxjunkie
I need to get my camera hand non shakie lol
Posted by: Mxjunkie
Bump!
Posted by: Pappy
i dont mind doing small parts, but much larger then these and i loose patience
Posted by: Pappy
ofcourse adding some color to enhance the polish doesnt hurt
Posted by: Iliketogofast
Wow pappy, nice. What do you use to color it, a little paint brush? By the way, anybody got tips on cleaning of some of the rust and shining up my chrome Fatty?
Posted by: Iliketogofast
I've got everything apart for a rebuild by the way, so I'm gonna take it all out back and sandblast it, then polish. Alllll of it...
Posted by: Iliketogofast
I'm even taking my frame to a carwash... 
Posted by: tp300ex
quote:
Originally posted by derekhonda
yay
did u just use the stuff on top?
Posted by: Pappy
quote:
Originally posted by Iliketogofast
Wow pappy, nice. What do you use to color it, a little paint brush? ?
no paint brush, all color is powdercoat
Posted by: Atkins
Thats crazy Pappy, I would never have the patience to tape those off.
btw Pvt. Maggots going out of business.
Posted by: Pappy
what happen to maggott?
Posted by: theTman
yea...wheres that maggot been? havent seen/talked to him in a long time
Posted by: Pvt. Maggot
Well long time so see..didn't figure you guys would miss me hah I'm not building a quad or bike at the moment..so I haven't really been on. I'm building a 1986 GMC s15 with a small block But hell no i'm not done with polishing..pm me and lemme know what ya need 
I might be powdercoating soon as well. Take it easy guys.
Posted by: Mxjunkie
bump the sidecases look purdy
Posted by: BlazingYamahaYz
quote:
Originally posted by Mxjunkie69
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!
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 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 whipe 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!
Is that the stock side cover? If so holy cow that looks nice. I would love to polish everything up but unfortunatly hate having to constantly re-polish. You guys have done some nice work though!
Posted by: wanta450
can some one tell me if my throttle cover on my 450r is aluminum
Posted by: Warnerade
its titanium...honda wanted to save weight.
Posted by: Mxjunkie
quote:
Originally posted by BlazingYamahaYz
Is that the stock side cover? If so holy cow that looks nice. I would love to polish everything up but unfortunatly hate having to constantly re-polish. You guys have done some nice work though!
yup its a stocker, heres it before
Posted by: 86-250Rnut
I dunno how u guys can make aluminum look like chrome in 2 hours. i just spent 2 hrs iwth my 180 grit jsut trying to get it half way descent and just started with my 220. im useing wet sand paper and am going in same direction when i sand. and still dont look as good as yours, will it start to take shape when i get to finer grits? and does the aluminum polish help it shine alot?
thanks for the help,
mitch
Posted by: Mxjunkie
finer grits are the key to the shine!
Posted by: OKTRX450R
Make sure you read the label on the can of stripper...most paint strippers are NOT to be used on aluminum as they weaken it. You should be using Aircraft Stripper instead, it is intended for aluminum. Read the labels...do a few searches there are tons of sites with polishing articles and actually the consensus seems to be if hand sanding you should alternate sanding direction by 90* each time you change grit...I too did my kick starter and went the same way with each grit and I think it looks great. I did some other parts and alternated, maybe a little shinier but hardly noticable.
Good write up...and you should edit it for the magnet idea...
Posted by: 86-250Rnut
yes i was kind of worried about the super strip eating the aluminum. but i kept reading the labels and didnt find anything that said dont use on aluminum so i dont know. but it stilll kind of scares me that i could eat it. Do you think i shouldnt have used it?
Posted by: Mxjunkie
Bump
Posted by: Sjorge300EX
I'm thinking about doing my side cases on my 300ex this winter. That should make it look good. So basicaly it is Strip Sand Polish?
Posted by: Mxjunkie
Yep
Posted by: Sjorge300EX
i have a supertrapp exhaust could I polish the can?
Posted by: ZeroLogic
yes you can
Posted by: Plante400
could i polish a powercore 4? i imagine i could... i did my throttle cover for fun and it came out pretty good...
Posted by: ZeroLogic
quote:
Originally posted by ZeroLogic
yes you can
Posted by: JR3
anything bare aluminum liek exhaust shine up real nice.
Posted by: Chino886
What do you guys use to seal it after you polish it? I haven't found anything that I like yet.
Posted by: Mxjunkie
if your lazy get zoop seal, its like a clear coat for aluminum
Posted by: pastfast125
anybody ever seen the infomercial for ready strip? It's a green goup stuff thats safe on like all surfaces, looks pretty cool, anybody ever used it?
Posted by: Mxjunkie
Never herd of it, it sounds kinda like zipstrip that we use in autobody 
Posted by: Sjorge300EX
they throatle assemble is aluminum right?
Posted by: killen them all
i have used brasso works good on stuff that has been polished
Posted by: Mxjunkie
quote:
Originally posted by Sjorge300EX
they throatle assemble is aluminum right?
Yeah I belive so, take a magnet and see if it sticks.
Posted by: Rip_Tear
Sweet thread, I guess I'm going to have to polish a few of my parts now... I'm going to powder coat a bunch of stuff, and I was wonder if I polished a few pieces and then clear coated (with PC) them if it'd be worth it, or does it not look so good?
Posted by: luvmyex
quote:
Originally posted by 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!
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 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 whipe 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!
Seems like alot of trouble to me.Mothers is only to touch up
I agree with everything till the polishing.I did this without cleaning the part or anything in less than 5 mins. And that includes changing 3 buffing wheels. The "BEST" way to is on a bench grinder with compounds and buffing wheels. Just saw a nice lil kit at Home depot that would get you started for $9. 3 wheels and 3 compounds. emery,tripoli,and white rouge. It will almost elemanate sanding.
Posted by: luvmyex
like i said probably 3 mins time let me see ya do that with mothers
Posted by: quadmaster88
Pappy it looks like you just powdercoated the whole thing and sanded off everything and taped it off and did the yellow... is that correct? how would you go about sanding in between letters on like my K&K brake block of and resovoir? since theres not a lot of rubbing or anything between there do you think it would be safe to use automotive paint or even spray paint to get in between the letters and do a chit load of sanding?
Posted by: Pappy
quote:
Originally posted by quadmaster88
Pappy it looks like you just powdercoated the whole thing and sanded off everything and taped it off and did the yellow... is that correct? how would you go about sanding in between letters on like my K&K brake block of and resovoir? since theres not a lot of rubbing or anything between there do you think it would be safe to use automotive paint or even spray paint to get in between the letters and do a chit load of sanding?
i had to look back to see what i did that was yellow, and its just a yellow cast from not using the flash. the reflection is from one of the shop lights.
for those parts i polished them fully, then cleaned them free of compunds. then taped them off and pc'd the trans red areas. its all tape work, no sanding off powdercoat.
i usually only do that kind of work for myself, it doesnt pay to do it for others. fine detail work takes lots of time and time costs money.
alot of the parts on the market topday are anodized before being laser or cnc engraved. this leaves a highly finished area next to color and looks sweet. esr has really gotton on this bandwagon.
Posted by: quadmaster88
hmm seems like the way i was talking would work if you just powdercoated that area and not get crazy with it and then just sand it all down and the paint should still be in the engraved part... haha i thought there was yellow on there but i see it now...
Posted by: killen them all
josh help i sand blasted it and used light sand paper i still have to go get some mothers mag but it this good so far w/o the polishing part
Posted by: Rip_Tear
I'd have to say hell yes! Why are you doing it on the motor/all put together?
Posted by: killen them all
quote:
Originally posted by Rip_Tear
I'd have to say hell yes! Why are you doing it on the motor/all put together?
i had it off when i did it i just wanted to see how it looked
Posted by: mine
ok so i did my rear brake leverm,shifter and clutch and front brake levers
i started on the right case but im not shure if there paint on it so is it posibble for me to just sand the paint off with some 60 grit
o this all on a kx 125
Posted by: Mxjunkie
quote:
Originally posted by luvmyex
like i said probably 3 mins time let me see ya do that with mothers
It has all the imprefections in it though, the pits etc. when you sand its a smooth surface and looks nice imo.
Posted by: luvmyex
oh i agree 100% for a mirror finish i would sand it a little . but belive me your not going to polish something with mothers half as good as you can on a buffing wheel and compounds.
Posted by: Mxjunkie
Mothers is easyier to get your hands on considering most people dont have a buffing wheel and such. I'd put compounds if I knew it was pratical in a way.
Posted by: mine
so you say its ok to just sand of the the paint with a low grit or something (just to get the paint off)
Posted by: luvmyex
quote:
Originally posted by mine
so you say its ok to just sand of the the paint with a low grit or something (just to get the paint off)
no use paint remover.STRONG paint remover. then start sanding.and if your gonna use mothers. sand some more.then sand a lil more.then just a lil more sanding.and after you have sanded off your finger tips, switch hands and sand it one last time. then start rubbing till your arm goes numb with mothers polish
Posted by: honda380
hey, i was just trying to polish some junk and found this thread, i tried a lite wire wheel on some small things like a brake reservoir cover, BIG MISTAKE all the letters ran and it doesnt even look that good. where do you guys get this mothers polish your talking about, ive heard a lot about it but i cant seem to find it anywhere. thanks for the tips on polishing, now i can save money instead of buying new parts as replacements for the wire wheel mistakes.
Posted by: luvmyex
if that wire wheel is in a grinder get buffing wheels and compounds. mother at any auto place.
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