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Polished GS Enkie wheels?

  • Thread starter Thread starter fat_sac
  • Start date Start date
F

fat_sac

Guest
Has anyone polished their GS aluminum wheels? I want to polish mine, but the so called bike customizing shop I just called told me they wouldn't do it and I should leave the wheels alone b/c they have a clear coat on them. I don't want the black paint or satin clear on my wheels. I want them polished. Has anyone done this? Paid for it or done it on your own. Tell me about it please. I want to polish my lower fork tubes and engine too.
 
You should just strip the clearcoat off and go to town! I polished (not that great, but better than before) fork bottoms. Keith has polished (and powdercoated the middle IIRC) his mags. Engine bits are routinely stripped and polished. Sounds like you found some lazy shop-dudes there....

Should be some good polishing tips if you search the Appearance Mods section.

I do remember asking once about polishing the textured portion of the early 80's mags and I honestly can't remember the outcome. I doubt now if I would have the energy to pursue it anymore, much less do it well.
 
Last edited:
I psuedo polished mine...but lost interest. I left the black powdercoat on the inner parts of the wheel, but polished the lip and edges. Looks pretty good. Check the photo here, and a close-up. You'll have to forgive the water spots...been a little rainy here lately. Anyway, It was very labor intensive. The edges have machining ridges left on them from the factory that must be removed before you can really get a shine on them. Power tools do not work that well. They remove too much mat'l quickly, and the edges will round over. I sanded by hand, starting with a 150 grit paper, and working through 400 grit. I maintain with mother's polish. Its not a mirror finish, but much better than stock. I can't imagine cleaning up the stock sand cast wheel. There are a ton of Tight corners, that just don't sand easily. Good luck with that :) Let me know if you want any other details...
 
I basically did the same thing you did. I found that a dremel works like a mofo if you use the 180 grit polishing wheels.
 
Like this?

site1035.jpg
 
WOW so thats what they look like under all that grime!Looks good Keith,how long did it take and what tools did you use,mine look ok I just half a$$ed them for now but the shine is back.Don
 
I am in the process of cleaning up and polishing all of my engine covers, the footpeg mounting bracket and the fork legs. Mine were all very corroded from sitting in a snow drift for 2 seasons before I bought it. I started by stripping the parts with "Aircraft Stripper" from spray cans (Walmart, Checker, Autozone). It works awesome! Then I sanded with small discs of green scotchbrite on a drill to get off the major corrosion (you may not need this step). This was incredibly time consuming.

After that I am polishing with 3 different Dico polishing compounds and 3 different buffing wheels on the drill. I don't know if this will turn out the best, but I shall see. I will probably try clear coating them with spray can clearcoat afterwards, so that I don't have to keep polishing them. This may be a mistake, but time will tell.

I cannot imagine trying to polish the motor fins, but if you think you have the patience go for it. You should do some other parts first to see how it is.

I want to do the wheels all polished as well. My brother has a Kawasaki GPZ1100 with very similar wheels. He asked some shop in the Phoenix area about it and they said they would polish them and I don't think it was all that expensive. I will post the estimate if I can find out.

Anyway, good luck.
 
Enkie is the name of the manufacturer that makes the wheels for Suzuki
 
yogib said:
WOW so thats what they look like under all that grime!Looks good Keith,how long did it take and what tools did you use,mine look ok I just half a$$ed them for now but the shine is back.Don
Click to expand...
I had the wheels polished at a local shop while they had them for powdercoating. The wheels had a machined finish that was too much work for me anyway.
I've kept them looking good with drill mounted buffs/compound, along with the polished forks, cases, signals, etc.
 
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