I have started to strip down my 1980 XLH. I want to make the aluminum parts look as good as possible. I am thinking of the fender rails, engine cases, whatever.

I have a bench grinder with two buffing wheels and a Dremmel tool that i can put small buffing attachments on. I hope to use the bench machine for the larger parts. For the buffing wheels i have these tubes of "stuff" that you are supposed to apply to the wheel before using it.

I tried a couple of pieces to get an idea about how this will go. The instructions say to not apply too much "stuff" to the wheels, but not much seems to go on anyway.

I am not too impressed with my results so far. Are there some techniques or whatever that i should know about?

I found some sites on the internet (can't find them at the moment), and you can do a good job.

if it comes in a "tube" like toothpaste its the wrong stuff -- it should be bars like this

http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/buffing.htm

you can get the bars at sears or HomeDepotLowes

It also take alot of time to do it right. Good luck. Hold onto those parts tight. I watched my buddy shoot a part accross the room and put a unrepairable ding in it. I think you can get polishing rouge at home depot and lowes if I am not mistaken. I also think sears has polishing kits.

the stuff I have is in cardboard tubes, and it's hard. You just sort of push it out of the tube as you use it.

Got it from Eastwood, and there is some technique and how-to's there, but it seems like they deleted the good writeup I think I read from there...

looks like caswell has some good pointers............

:yikes

The Art of Harley Polishin'

By Dave Murray

There I stood, new bill of sale in hand, staring at my '96 Sporty. She was freakin' beautiful! Well, she was if you stood back about fifteen feet. Her former home had been in a salt-air environment, and she was parked outside. She is the mostly "polished" aluminum model, but now the rocker boxes, engine cases, triple tree, and a set of PM spun-alloy wheels were all gray and salt-pitted. The paint had seen better days, too, but that's another article. Well, Winter was comin' on, and I would have some serious polishin' to do.

Why? Well, if I have to explain, you probably won't understand. It's a Harley thing, although I am sorry to see the Motor Company going to more anodized and flat-black parts. The concept, well developed in the Orient, seems to be that if it looks like Hell when new, nobody will notice when it looks like Hell in a couple of years.

As I write this piece it's the following March, and a couple of days ago I was accused of having had the above parts chromed. Made my day. They ain't chromed, just polished. It didn't take as long as I expected, about 15 hours for the resurrection (one rainy weekend), and maintenance promises to be reasonable. Let me tell you what worked, and how to avoid the pit falls.

Chrome

You don't polish chrome, you clean it. Unlike aluminum and stainless, chrome don't oxidize much, it's pretty inert, very hard, and usually pretty thin. I have tried a bunch of polishes, including the expensive German ones, and have found nothing that will remove scratches from chrome. You live with a scratch in chrome, or replace the part.

If you are real careful not to scratch it, all you have to do is remove the schmutz and the shiny chrome will be (somewhere) underneath. Use soaps and solvents, but keep abrasives far away from chrome. Be very careful to use clean, soft rags, one imbedded metal chip will ruin your day.

Aluminum and stainless

There are hundreds of alloys of both, but all share the fact that they oxidize at the surface. In fact, that oxide layer is what protects the metal from further corrosion. All you have to do is remove the oxide, and get it smooth enough (easier said than done), and it will rival chrome in shine. I actually prefer the softer look of polished aluminum, but I may be conning myself as I can't afford all those chrome parts.

Smoothing

If the part is just oxidized and gray, but smooth, skip on down to "Buffing." But if it is pitted or scratched, it must be smoothed. Ya can't polish pits. Trust me in this.

Wet-sand the part with #600 wet-dry paper using a little liquid dish soap in the water. Sand for a while, then wipe off the dreck, and look closely. If you can still see the pits or scratches through the dark, dull gray, ya ain't done. When you have a uniform, dull gray, you're ready to buff. Don't worry too much about screw recesses and other hard to reach places, they don't show in the finished job if the edges are smooth.

Buffing

The final polish on metal is achieved by buffing it with a rotating wheel which has been loaded with a buffing compound. These compounds are very fine abrasives, usually combined with wax in a bar form. From the coarsest to the finest, they are:

Emery (gray) - aggressive, usually used on steel.
Tripoli (brown) - usually used on brass.
White compound (white) - for fine polishing.
Jeweler's Rouge (usually pink) - the finest, for a mirror finish.
I usually don't use any except emery and rouge. Emery is good for a first cut on stainless, or on aluminum where I didn't sand enough, followed by rouge. Usually you can go directly from wet sanding to rouge.

Buffing is a "feel" thing. Keep the wheel moving and you will see when it is polishing effectively. Wipe off the wax schmutz now and then and have a look. Different alloys require different compounds, speeds, and pressure. You can't really hurt anything, so experiment. If you want to get really anal, do a final hand polish (see "Maintenance" below).

Wheels

Use only cloth wheels. Sisal is too aggressive, and felt doesn't conform to the odd shapes of cycle parts. Look at the side of a buffing wheel and note the ring(s) of stitching. Fewer rings means softer (for polishing), more rings means harder (for cutting). A 6" wheel can have from one to seven rings. Use a harder buff with emery, a softer buff with rouge. Speed depends on wheel size. For a 6" max. 3500 RPM, 4" about 6000 RPM, 2" about 12000 RPM, and the little sub-1" wheels can be turned up to 15000 RPM. Go by the wheel manufacturer's specifications.

Wheels come with a bunch of different hole sizes, so get the right mandrel or bushings. An unbalanced wheel at 6000 RPM will get your attention! The mandrel is the Steel shaft which holds the wheel, and is turned by the tool. You can get sets for use in an electric drill at the hardware store, but you need a drill that turns up to about 2000 RPM.

Start at slower speeds, and work up. You can be too fast as well as too slow.

Use the buff so that it rotates off the edge of the piece. If it rotates toward the edge, well, let's just say you will learn quickly after it throws a couple of pieces at you.

Load the wheel by arranging it so the top is turning away from you, then apply the bar of compound for a few seconds. You will see it melt in. After you load a few times, you will see clumps of compound build up in the wheel. Again, have the top of the wheel turning away from you while you"rake" the wheel. They sell wheel rakes, but I just use an old "Sawsall" blade. Rake between different compounds, too, but it's best to have one wheel dedicated to one compound. Mark the wheel with a magic marker. WEAR EYE PROTECTION! Read that last sentence again.

Tools

Ah, the Tim Allen moment (argh!). Listed below in order of purchase.

Electric drill turning 2" and 4" wheels at about 2000 RPM. I use a Bosch, which was the fastest I could find, and it does a nice job with hardware store wheels. The problem is, those wheels won't fit into all the little spaces. By and large, use the biggest wheel that will fit, as the smaller ones can streak.
"Dremel" type tool. I use a $30 Black and Decker (at Home Depot) as I think Dremel is overpriced. It will turn all Dremel bitts and buffs, which you can get in hardware stores. I usually use the low or middle speeds (12000, 24000). The 1" buffs will fit most places, and there are small (3/8) felt bullet shapes which fit into screw recesses.
Bench mount grinder with two 1/2" buffs on each shaft, a hard pair for emery, soft for rouge. This is wonderful if you can take the part to the buffer. When I had the rocker boxes and front sprocket cover off to install 20 more cubic inches (argh!, argh!) it did a beautiful job. Limited use though.
Sources

Southwest Metal Finishing Supply Co. (http://www.swmetal.com/)
Get their L-1000 liquid hand metal polish, more below.

Quality Buff Co. (http://qualitybuff.com/index.htm)
See "midget buffs" and "adapters" and "arbors" and "compounds."

These are sister companies, and they have just about everything for metal polishing. Call and ask for whatever you need at 903-509-4500.

Maintenance

As I mentioned above, the oxide protects the metal, so as soon as you are finished polishing, the metal starts to oxidize again. I haven't found anything really good to protect it.

Waxes tend to "gray" the sheen, and don't last long in any case. "HarleySpray" from the dealer seems to do as well as the wax, and is quick to apply. You can do the whole bike with it once a week.

About once a month I do the following, which takes about 90 minutes for the entire bike. Use the L-1000 polish you got from Southwest Metal (above). It is liquid rouge. Shake Hell out of the bottle, upside down (careful!), until there is no residue at the bottom. Soak a 6" square piece of clean terry or sweatshirt cloth, then squeeze it as dry as you can. That one rag will do all the aluminum on my whole bike. It turns really black and groty, but it seems to keep polishing.

Polish by hand, rubbing in a circular pattern as much as possible, until the area turns black. Allow to dry and buff off with another perfectly clean rag. If you drop the rouge rag, throw it away and start another. For me, this works better than "Mothers," and is a Hell of a lot cheaper.

So far this seems to be all that is required to keep the polish bright, but I expect that I will have to touch-up the aluminum by machine buffing lightly about every six months.

Miscellaneous

My windshield (yeah, I'm a wuss) came with brush-finished stainless strapping. It polished to mirror finish using 2" buffs at 24000, starting with emery, then finishing with rouge. Tape the Plexi to protect it, as you will run off the stainless (don't ask).

Get a bike lift for convenience and comfort. Tie the bike down to it. Get a roll-around seat.

If it means nothing to you to be sitting by the window in a diner and watching as someone walks slowly around your bike, appreciating every detail, then don't bother with any of the above. If, however, you own a Harley you will probably feel a swell of pride. Remember that Harleys are apt to last longer than we do. We are custodians as much as owners.

Below is a picture of my Sportster after being polished and repainted. (See my article Harley Paintin' for the Under-funded and Under-skilled for more on the latter). Go forth and be joyful!
http://www.chuckhawks.com/DMsporty.jpg

Fantastic job! looks great :wonderlan and I'm pooped just thinkin' about all that work :yikes

Well, it looks like i asked my question in the right place. The Caswell site has an on-line booklet on polishing. Lots of good info in the replies. I have all the info i need, now i just have to do it. I'll be happy to share the fun. If anyone wants to come over and polish it up for me just e-mail me and i'll send you my land address [heh heh].

sure, I'll come up and help






















oh ya we have that border thingy to overcome

Flathead,

Are ya banned again? :frownthre Besides aren't ya alergic to anything with a shine? :bump

every bike I built was shiny when I put it together but thats the last time its shiny

too busy ridin' to shine

And with that he rode into the sunset :tour :chtwo

ok why do they ride into the sunset ?
I think that would fry your eyes out

ok why do they ride into the sunset ?
I think that would fry your eyes out
Let us not forget our foil protection! :shhhh :headb

:hijack man I hope mick don't get pissed at this thread highjacking :shhhh

oh well he seems like a kool dude so let the highjack go on :smiliesig

Ya beat me to the highjack icon, I had my finger on the key :headbang Naw he won't ..............as long as ya get up there and help him ;)

there we go again , trying to get me in trouble with border patrol :helpsign

Not to mention distance! No criminal records and your coming across the border just fine so stop making excuses!

Not to mention distance! No criminal records and your coming across the border just fine so stop making excuses!
Hey Skooter, been awhile since I've been to Canada is it still easy getting across the border? Went up the east coast to the border and had no hassles in or out. Although now with all that's going on I'm sure it's alittle more of a pain.

Would anyone really mind if i get this thread back to where it started? Actually, i might mind. It is much more interesting, if perhaps a little goofy, the way it has gone.

The Canadian border guards are well trained. They can smell it if you are wanting to get some Canadian beer or Canadian women. Then they will not let you in. Those dogs that look like they are sniffing for drugs? On no, they are looking for anyone who is after our precious resources. Ya gotta show up looking straight. Impossible for youse guys.

What do ya think of my use of the word goofy? Did it put you off a little? Ha!

Anyway, to stray back to the main point [as one of my professors used to say], i am not having much luck getting my old, oxidized, pitted chrome looking spiffy. It seems the black from the emery compound likes to bond with the aluminum. So then i have to use a brass brush to get it off. Then the stuff looks shiney and oxidized and pitted instead of dull and o and p. Not much of an improvement.

The secret to polishing aluminum is in the sanding. It's time consuming, dirty and tedious. The results will be in direct proportion to the effort you put into it.. You can get it to look like chrome if you're patient enough. Start with 400 grit and work your way up. The last will be 12-1500 or thereabouts. Then and only then will you be ready for the buffing wheel. Make sure it's powerful enough not to stall. The secret to buffing lies in the heat. Good luck. You have a fine winter project on your hands.