Polishing Aluminium.

[DjDante]

My dad and I have spent a lot of time on my little ZZR250 trying to polish the outer rims of my wheels properly.

We stripped the paint off, then took to it with metal polish. It looked good for a while, then we noticed some pot marks which looked ugly. So we borrowed a high speed drill a strange cloth like circular bit on the end, and used a cutting compound. This helped shine the wheels a lot more, but still not perfectly.

Does anyone know of a way to do this ourselves? as we really want to get stuck into my big ZX9R with the polishing. If it doesn't work we will have it done professionally, but would rather save the money and do some other work to the bike.

[Phil]

there is a how too some where on the site, neilp is the queensland polishing guru, his tips are around somwhere.

when i did mine (as i said in the other post) i stripped the paint, then used 800 wet and dry, then 1200 wet and dry. last step was the rags and autosol.

i also used a dremel to make sure the line was perfect, the zx9 has that cast bit in the middle and it provides a good contrast when your sanding close to the line.

all up i spent close to 70 hours on mine. easy to look after so far as well.

[DjDante]

I was thinking about painting on gloss once i got teh shine perfect. Thats what was suggested ot me a while back.. to use the same gloss that is used on 2 pack paint.

[Rossi]

Valve seat cutting compound is the way to go then a shit load of elbow grease and Solvol Autosol polish

[Aussie Ninja]

A UK mob at MandP.com sell polishing kits with lots of different buffing wheels and cutting compounds. Might be worth a look. Mabye you could find an Australian stockist.

Edit: Had a look myself. Here's the link.

http://www.mandp.co.uk/productInfo.aspx?catRef=507035

[Plaz]

heard some reports about the clear coat yellowing after a while......but never ssen it, might be something to keep in mind

[Nanna10r]

After you save a bunload of coinage by polishing the stuff yourself you may be able to afford to get it nickelplated, its the only way i have heard of that doesnt require continued polishing.
Cheers Brett