A lot of work

[mack]

God this is a lot of work. I've been at this for 4 hrs a day for over two months and all I've accomplished is to get most of the coon and mouse fecis off the bike and remove and clean most of the rust off the chrome. Some of the aluminum looks like the fecis has stained right into the metal. I've been trying to sand it out of the worst places but man this is butal. My own fault though, should never have left it this long. Took the advice and am having the stainless brake lines custom made, seats and back rest are in being re-apolstered, am having a mechanics stand made so I'll be able to pull the engine and get started on the frame. Probably wind up hand sanding that too. By the time I'm ready to reassemble I'll have forearms arms like popeye. Be able to torgue the bolts with my fingers.

[tarzan]

I woukld use pait stripper on the frame and any parts you are going to paint or clearcoat.

[crazy steve]

...Some of the aluminum looks like the feces has stained right into the metal. I've been trying to sand it out of the worst places but man this is brutal......

If you have an air compressor and a small angle head die grinder (best) or an electric drill (still ok, just slower), get some 2" Scotchbrite 'surface prep' Roloc discs for it. Use the 'medium' (maroon color) for the nasty spots, then follow up with a 'fine' (blue). Cleans/preps aluminum great. They can be a bit pricey unless you really shop (try Ebay), but are a HUGE timesaver over sandpaper...

These also take off paint/rust quickly.

'78E original owner

[mxmikie]

drop it off at the powder coaters....... cheaper in the long run

[tarzan]

I clean up aluminum stuff with the stripper,it will remove the clear coat and clean the metal under it.Then all you have to do is decide how to finish it.And it takes way less time and energy than sanding.

[mro]

Not trying to high jack ... but
How well do the pads work removing scratches in aluminum???

mro

[mack]

I'll try anything

Ok , I'll try the stripper route on the aluminum, I have some of the 4 inch pads for a drill but I find it's too hard to articulate in the tight spots. Should work good on the frame though. I don't know about the scratch removal part but up to this point I've been using 400, then 800 grit emery paper and finishing with 2000 grit and it leaves no scratches at all but just way too much work. Hopefully the stripper will delete the requirement for the 400 and 800 grit. This will save me a lot of time and some tennis elbow.

[mro]

Sanding aluminum I've done.
I've found that on the XS some parts will polish up great and then another will have a load of imperfections that keep appearing

On one clutch cover I spent about 3 hours on it and it came out great.
Sanded up to 1000 grit and then polished.
Another one I have temporary suspended operations on after I realized I had spent over 8 hours and it still looked like $hit. The bad about making shinny parts is that every scratch and ding becomes real noticeable. And in the case of the last clutch cover little things more like waves instead of scratches kept appearing. That one if not recycled may have to go and get painted...


You should have a near mirror finish with 2000

I was just curious how well those pads work in comparison...
and how long a pad lasts?
wet/dry paper cost verses pads?

mro
BTW, hope your not breathing the aluminum dust

[crazy steve]

Roloc vs Sandpaper

...I've found that on the XS some parts will polish up great and then another will have a load of imperfections that keep appearing

On one clutch cover I spent about 3 hours on it and it came out great. Another one I have temporary suspended operations on after I realized I had spent over 8 hours and it still looked like $hit. The bad about making shinny parts is that every scratch and ding becomes real noticeable.
You should have a near mirror finish with 2000

I was just curious how well those pads work in comparison...
and how long a pad lasts?
wet/dry paper cost verses pads?

The Roloc discs have it all over sandpaper IMO. Waaay faster, removes oxidation down to virgin metal super fast, removes the old clear coat or paint, smoothes the rougher castings, just outperforms sandpaper across the board. Unlike sanding discs, these won't remove too much metal so it's much easier to control. They don't 'clog' up with aluminum either like sanding discs do. They also work great at removing old gasket material.

Cost? I've been buying them in bulk off Ebay for about .42 each ($42 per 100 including shipping). Keene abrasives seems to have the best deal (no affiliation, just a satisfied customer)...

As to how well they hold up, that depends on what part you're doing. Generally speaking, one large polished part (such as an engine cover) = one disc of each type. When prepping a part, use a new disc to get into all the nooks and crannies first before you wear the edge off it. That's where these really shine (pardon the pun), as you can get the hard-to-get-to areas pretty easily. If the part was originally polished, it's pretty easy to prep it for final polishing. If the part was painted, then I'd recommend starting with coarse Rolocs (brown) to remove the paint and smooth the metal, then going to medium then fine before final polish.

Please note that I'll only recommend these for aluminum; for stainless steel, you need something much more abrasive. 400 grit aluminum oxide sanding discs work well for that (Keene has these too). Although for large flat aluminum parts such as the timing/alt/clutch covers that are heavily corroded, these will work great for getting down to virgin metal fast.

I know what you mean about poor castings; I just got done polishing a bunch of stuff for my '78, and some parts I had trouble with. Yamaha (and most Jap bikes) used 'recycled' aluminum and they didn't seem to worry about the quality of the metal on 'less critical' parts. Non-homogenous metal with soft spots or contamination is an issue and if you run into that, replacement is the only cure although that's no guarantee the 'new' part will be any better (although for what it's worth, this doesn't seem to be a problem with Harley parts; they must use 'better' metal). I polished all the brake calipers/mounts, the top tree, and the hand controls and had issues with the handlebar stuff. The painted castings can be pretty lumpy too; I have hours and hours into getting some of this stuff smooth for polishing. The calipers/mounts in particular needed many hours with files and Roloc sanding discs (240 and 320 grit) before final smoothing with the Scotchbrite to get out the scratches.

I'll note that I'm doing my final polishing with a buffer and compounds (dirty, nasty work; I'm black from head to toe after this) so I cut off my 'prep' at 400 grit as the buffer will remove any remaining scratches. If you're doing this all by hand, this stuff will be about the same as doing all your hand work up to about 600 grit; at that point, you'll still have to use finer paper to get the final finish. But it's still a huge timesaver.

I also polished the brake rotors, but that's a whole different process....

I'm going to take a shot at polishing the wheels, but we'll see how that goes. I expect I'll have to get some special buffs for those (more $$) but it may be more work than I want to do. I've got a spare wheel to try this on.

I'll attempt to post some pics of these parts if I can figure it out.

'78E original owner

[crazy steve]

Oh yeah; I forgot to mention one thing. For files, Nicholson makes aluminum-specific files that won't clog up like regular files; worth every nickel if you're working aluminum....

'78e original owner

[tarzan]

I started in on a virago last winter.I thought,I'll just sand out the cast surface and polish,what can it take?10-12 hours?After over 40 huors with sanding discs,scotchbrite wheels ,cratex rubber impregnated media sticks and then rouge and buffing wheels,I realised I still had probably 10 hours to finish it,I bought another wheel to paint.I figure I'll get back to that wheel someday and finish it.I have all the right stuff to do the work,but like you said,it is a ton of work.lol

[mro]

it is a ton of work

Ya, but the results can be pretty nice.
Pic of a 79SF i finished up recently....

[mro]

it is a ton of work

Yup, but the results can be pretty nice.
Pic of a 79SF i finished up recently....




mro
(and yes, I like pics )