A Better Way to Polish Aluminum...

[WSL91]

Saw those pads at Lowes last night in 3 packs for 6.00 ie $2.00 a piece I'll take the $.40 ones from Keens in bulk. I'm getting ready to order.

[Woof]

Nice work, very impressive.

[Prothec]

Excellent work! I haven't been able to get as nice a finish on my parts. I can't wait to get an air compressor and get some better tools.

[WSL91]

Well I bought the assortment from Keen as I couldn't find them cheaper anywhere. They were delivered yesterday. This timing cover was in decent shape on the face but had typical oxidation on the sides. The clear coat was miserably thick in places so I ended up using the coarser pads to knock out the clear.

I don't have my compressor set up or have my bench grinder set up for polishing so I used my 18v rechargeable drill. Used 1 pad of each of the 4 colors. Once done I wet sanded with 1500 and 2000 grit and finally hand polished 2x with Mothers Aluminum Mag polish. This part looks like a mirror in person. I would have given up had I tried this by hand with the thick clear coat.

[crazy steve]

Looks good! You'll find that the conditioning discs like high speed better, that drill is pretty slow. But even then, this saves a lot of hand work....

[WSL91]

I'm currently an apartment dweller with the contents of a 32x54 pole barn/shop and 3 tractors in storage. I should be a home owner again late fall/early winter. 1 of the requirements of the new place is a 2 car garage plus a detached shop. I have all the tools but they are in storage and I already receive flack from the Apt manager for tearing bikes apart in the parking lot. I always have them back together within a day or 2 so she can't complain about non-runners and they are always covered and neat looking. First purchase for the new place will be a bike lift. I already have a bike jack for the big Honda but that won't work with the Yamaha's dues to the exhaust hanging under the frame. I have a real small compressor in the apart that I fill a portable tank to take outside and run the impact when needed and fill tires in storage. That compressor would never keep up with the air tools but the 7hp/230v 80gallon in storage will. First bike project at the new place should be the complete tear down of the 79 to sandblast/paint/re-chrome and re-assemble. I'm just getting the mechanical things addressed here. The 82 didn't need a tear down so it was all cleaned up/touched up here except for the wheels/swingarm/rear end which I took off-site to work on and brought back painted

[jwhughes3]

CO2 tank

May be more than you want to do if you will get a bigger compressor soon, but I have a 10lb CO2 tank with regulator and hose that is extremely handy for running portable air tools or filling tires.

If I am just running an air nailer it can run for days, truck tires probably 5-6 large mudders and impacts a fair long time.

Costs about $15 at welding shop to fill and lasts me about a year with light use.


I bought an AirSource brand one intended for offroaders, but you can use welding tanks, beverage CO2 tanks, etc. The regulator is what makes it work. Since the CO2 is liquid and only develops high pressure when released its safe too.

John