New project: XS1100 endurance racer

[Mathh]

Holy canoli this is an awesome build, you're a mighty talented dude!

Thank you for the compliment!

[Mathh]

Some pictures from polishing the frame and swingarm. I first did replaced all welded on tabs fromcheap steel with stainless to get those shiny as weel. Than I did the entire frame with some 800 en 1000 grid brushes to get rid of scratches and blue coloring from the welding. Took a couple of days... here is the very last work on the swingarm:



Then I went checking for forgotten spots and degreasing the entire frame and swingarm in order to not pollute the polishing brushes. It's amazing how little the parts have suffered from rust and scratches from moving around and working on it since 2009.

Here is the frame ready for the 3 polishing steps. Coarse , medium and high gloss:



A friend of mine who was a professional car detailer volunteered for the polishing job.That is one of the jobs I decided years ago to never do that again. I hate the mess when doing that. Here he is in full action:

[Mathh]

Between all polishing stages the remaining residue from the polishing paste has to be removed, he uses Talcum powder to do that.



At this moment the frame is finished with all 3 stages:





Now it is time to start with the swingarm and some smaller parts, you can clearly see the difference with the frame





Work on the swingarm will start tomorrow. After that we will test our 2K clear coat on the small parts... We keep in touch..

[Mathh]

Well, it has been a while since I last posted. We have been polishing the frame but as we were almost finished we found tiny scratches that reduced the shine from the polishing. Then we tried the upper and rear section of the aluminum fuel tank: same result (the rest of the tank will be painted). After a number of mails and phone calls our conclusion was that our "high gloss paste" is specifically for stainless steel.









Then life took over hahaha... I discovered a leak in the sewerage system under our house and I decided to replace everything from the beginning to the end with a new system (forgetting that the hardest part was to dig up the old system, partly hidden under concrete under the house, and afterwards closing all holes again.


The front garden looked like a war zone for weeks. At the moment the hardest part in front of the house has been replaced and I'm filling up the garden again. So hopefully I can do most of the rest next week when my old body and weather permits. Back to the polishing job. After a long search we found a real high gloss paste for a " mirror finish specifically for softer metals like aluminum". It comes with a hefty price tag, so that is what I'm going to order after this weekend. Hopefully we can finish both projects soon. Enjoy the pictures....

[DiverRay]

You are a hero for doing the sewer system yourself! I stay away from that job, and pay to have someone else do it. I'll do electrical all day, but I HATE plumbing work.

[Mathh]

You are a hero for doing the sewer system yourself! I stay away from that job, and pay to have someone else do it. I'll do electrical all day, but I HATE plumbing work.

Hi Ray! I'll survive the plumbing itself but the endless digging 4 feet deep is what's killing me! I'm too old for that Luckily the remaining plumbing is 2-3 feet deep....

[DiverRay]

I hope you were able to rent a trenching machine! I know I'm now 70, and no way am I going to dig a 1.3 meter trench!

[LAB3]

I hope you were able to rent a trenching machine! I know I'm now 70, and no way am I going to dig a 1.3 meter trench!

Getting one down the stairs might make it more trouble than it's worth.