anyone have a hand at polishin old azz lower fork legs? the ones on my bike the clear coat has gone and the aluminum is now a dull gray and in serios need of some refinishin work. theyre starting to corrode a little bit due to salt on the roads from where it has been ridden, but im slowly trying different things. right now a dremel and buffing wheel seems to be the best. any help is appreciated in advance

 

Dremel and a small buffing wheel will eventually get the job done, but you might have some uneven places. The pros use a bigger wheel that's mounted to a bench and various grades of polishing compound. I tried to polish the lowers on my old Suzuki using a dremel. I think you can do it better and faster if you have the large wheel. I ended up deciding it was a job for a pro.

 

The best way is with jewelers rouge, a polishing wheel, mounted on a bench grinder. Mine is on an old electric motor, that's mounted to a table. Set the motor rotation spinning toward you and downward to the ground. If you are polishing something like tubing, start at one end and go all the way down the length of the piece, keeping it perpendicular to the wheel. Rotate it towards the wheel abut 1/2 in. before the next swipe. If the wheel looses it's shining ability, just apply more rouge to it. You'll be amazed at how easy it is after you've done it a few times and no it don't take a pro to do it. I get my supplies at the local Ace Hardware.

a couple links on the subject
http://www.dicoproducts.com/buff_instructs.html

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

For the best shine, aluminum needs to have at least a 400 grit sanded finish, prior to polishing.

 

If you are doing this while the sliders are on the bike, start with some 320 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper until you have an even finish, move to 400 grit, then 600 grit, then 800 grit, then 1000 grit. Do not change grits until you've sanded all the scratches from the previous grit. Follow the 1000 with some Blue Magic, Simi-chrome, or similar polish, doing it by hand or with the Dremel.

If you have the sliders off the bike, follow the same procedure with the sandpaper, then use a large wheel as Mark described.

 

WEll

To use the correct tools and products take a look in a eastwood catalog, you need brown tripoli to start and white rouge to finish. FOr buffing wheels I would use a spiral sewn wheel to cut useed with teh brwn , then a loose flannel with the white to color and give you the high luster.


If you are planning on doing it on the bike. ( would'nt) you need to get a small drill or a angle grinder. I see too many polish jobs that look worse when done poorly. The tubes are easy to do as they are close to being a decent flat finish when you start. The items needed are not really exspensive, and will last you a long time, you will find other items to polish like levers, derby covers, out primary. The best way is to buy a electric motor to use, I think they have a starter kit that is less than 200 for poishing aluminum. Go in on it with some friends maybe?? You will like having the proper tools to do the job, as rpm is a major factor in polishing I do small items and send out big stuff. I also do powder coating which gives me killer results. I have a large stove that works great and I love to do the front ends like blacking them out a balck bike with a gloss black front end looks great and the poweder coating is very durable. Once you polish the lowers, you will have to keep them up as there is coating there. Eastwood sells a product called ZOOP that is used after you are done with claims that is stay shiney. I have never used it so I cannot tell much more than what I read in the catalog. Good luck with your project, self done things are always the most rewarding.

 

Get a set of chrome lowers.....

 

I did mine last week. They turned out great, thanks for the advise.

 

Just get the chrome and don't waste your time.

 

Take them off, and use big wheel with red compound, with a cloth wheel and white
compound to finish.
Don't rush, slower is better.
Wipe them down and use a good metal polish like "Mothers".
I used to work in a chrome shop.
Polished a bunch of aluminum. I like it better than chrome.
Even if does take work to keep the shine.

 

I know this is an older thread, but, still worthy of reading and learning from!
Sometimes you have to break down and buy what you need to get the result you want.
Grinder, buffing wheel, aluminum paste from Harbor Freight, thats all you need, besides time, unless your somebody who just wants to polish it up a little and say "Hey, I've always took good care of this bike" line of bs!