Polished Stator Cover..

[teet]

Hi all....I recently picked up a used stator cover from knowyourenemy66~aka~AJ because the one on my GS1000 was cracked, and poorly repaired by the PO.... I decided to give it a quick polish after stripping the corrosion, and clear coat off with my SA 3" abrasive discs(like scotchbrite)...and It came out fairly well...went from black to brown compound with sisal then sewn cotton buff..I have yet to give it one last buff with white-jewelers rouge, and a loose flannel buff to brighten it up and take out the really fine scratches...Its almost done

AJ asked me to post some pics for everyone..I'm modest, and wouldn't have..but he asked..so..


Jeff (teet)

Before



Midway



Almost done..

[Steve]

Looks good.

Just a little more to go.

Be careful, though, before you know it, your bike will start looking like this:


.

[teet]

Very Nice....I dont know If I'll go that far...lol...Did you use clearcoat or zoop?..Looks great!!

Jeff (teet)

[terrylee2u]

Every time I see your wife's bike it just looks better and better Steve..
And your buffing job is looking really nice teet!

[teet]

Thanks Terry...a little (actually alot!) more work and it will look as nice as Steves wife's bike....wow..bling!!

Jeff (teet)

[jwhelan65]

Agreed Steve it is addicting...

[lilbilly]

Is that a disc made by Craftsman... What was your cleaning/buffing process?

[teet]

Is that a disc made by Craftsman... What was your cleaning/buffing process?

The disc's I use are made by Standard Abrasives, they are 3" quick change, and come in a variety of coarsenesses. They are very similar to scotchbrite..I start with these usually going from medium to fine to remove the clear coat-oxidation-imperfections, then go to my 8" baldor buffer.

I picked up all of my buffing supplies from Caswell Plating...

I start with a 8" sisal wheel and black rouge compound to remove the heavy scratches from the SA discs

I then go to a 8" spiral sewn cotton buff and brown tripoli compound

and then I use a 8" loose cotton, or flannel buff with white or sometimes green compound to brighten it up and remove the haze(I have not done this step yet in the pic)


The key(s) is to let the buffer do the work, clean the object being buffed continuously throughout the process to eliminate contamination and buildup, and take your time! I have yet to try and seal something after buffing, but that might be my next venture...

http://www.standardabrasives.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Standard/Abrasives/

http://www.caswellplating.com/index.html

Jeff (teet)

[TheCafeKid]

Sealing it with clearcoat or something of the like will only yellow rather rapidly over time. Then, you have to get it off to polish again.

Also, the TRICK to getting that mirror finish is to get the clear coat OFF. Use an aircraft stripper, it works very quickly, and wont require a butt load of sanding that can actually leave hard to polish out scuffing.

When *I* polish, I simply shoot it with the stripper, wash the piece, go over any rough stuff with some 800 grit, then hit it with the sewn buffing wheel and white alu oxide jewlers rouge. Again, as said, let the buffer do the work. It needs to get HOT (and IT WILL! so wear some gloves will ya?) to do its best work. If im being patient, i can generally get a peice so blingy you'd swear it was chromed except for the colour difference. But, im not as patient as Steve most times, and a decent gleem will make me happy...LOL

[teet]

Sealing it with clearcoat or something of the like will only yellow rather rapidly over time. Then, you have to get it off to polish again.

Also, the TRICK to getting that mirror finish is to get the clear coat OFF. Use an aircraft stripper, it works very quickly, and wont require a butt load of sanding that can actually leave hard to polish out scuffing.

When *I* polish, I simply shoot it with the stripper, wash the piece, go over any rough stuff with some 800 grit, then hit it with the sewn buffing wheel and white alu oxide jewlers rouge. Again, as said, let the buffer do the work. It needs to get HOT (and IT WILL! so wear some gloves will ya?) to do its best work. If im being patient, i can generally get a peice so blingy you'd swear it was chromed except for the colour difference. But, im not as patient as Steve most times, and a decent gleem will make me happy...LOL

I was kinda figuring that with trying to seal it...some folks say that sealing really works, but on my cb750 I just polish it up once in a while with some quality hand polish, no biggie.....just takes a few minutes.

Ive tried the aircraft stripper on some honda cases with mixed results...I still couldn't get all the old factory clear coat off. The zuke seems to be a tad thinner on the clearcoat though, so it might come off easier..I'm so used to my routine..lol....

Hot is right!! and wear a face shield/dust mask...I learned the hard way how hard it is to clean all the black dust off your face..and everywhere for that matter..ugh.. My son said I looked like a punk rocker with black eye shadow..lol

Jeff (teet)

[mixongw]

After getting all that aluminum looking good is a lot of hard work. Don't do what I did. I used some Castrol Super Cleaner/Degreaser in the purple bottle. I made nice polished aluminum look like Zinc (gray and dull). I had to re-buff it all again. Later I found out that it contained Sodium Hydroxide.

[teet]

Thanks for the tip mixongw...mark that down on my "things not to do" list...we must have the same luck

Jeff (teet)

[cyclefvr2]

believe it or not , i sand 800 /600 ,360,ect... but what i like is valve grinding compound!, a lil dish soap, and it helps get rid of the oxidation,and scratches, then wash,and what ever else you need to finish it, but i couldnt believe how well it works, i thought it would eat it up but it doesnt! make sure it doesnt have grease in it! though

[nvr2old]

This is an amazing product for protecting the raw aluminum that we all spent hours polishing...

http://www.zoopseal.com/zoopseal.asp

[midnightcafe]

what about a clear powdercoat?