Considering Polishing my Frame

Is this a good idea or what... anyone got any knowledge to offer on this subject ? I wont do the rims, maybe send them out for chrome, but I have heard that the R1 wheels become to brittle after the dipping process... whats the scoop on this ?

I did find a good page about what sandpaper to use... 220, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500 and if needed 2000

I think someone posted that tracks don't let you on if your frame is polished (?) I'm going to look into this before I do mine. I personally think the blue one looks amazing with a polished frame.

The chroming process WILL weaken the aluminum, I saw a guy's wheel crack on each spoke at the hub. To chrome something you have to acid dip it, then there is a brass type coating that goes on before the chrome, and the chemical adhesion process weakens the aluminum.

thats what I figured... dang it...

Why not polish them? I just stripped mine and did not polish them cause I like the satin look but you can polish them to a mirror finish.:eek:

Here's the link to the pics of Twisted's wheels. I pulled the thread up so you could see. :) http://www.r1-forum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=143&highlight=stripped+wheels

polishing the frame looks great but keeping it polished is a pain,, so if u do decide to polish it,, don't do to much that it hard to keep clean

Is that yours? Looks sharp:rock

Twisted, Yeah thats my pride and joy,,,, i don't have much money at this time so any aftermarkets are gettign put on hold(may be next month) but i can't stand not making it look better so i decided to polish the upper half of the frame just to be a little different, and i did the front end up with a white number plate and light covers (i'm gonna get some pics of it next week to show):boobies

Bring it on :rock

dude, howthe hell did you get your frame looking so good? hw do you polish the frame anyways?

Found this info here: http://www.extremepolish.com Also I found a cool polishing kit you can buy here: http://store.yahoo.com/azmotorsports/frampolkit.html Remove all the bodywork from your bike including the tank. This will save expensive plastic from any accidental slips of the sand paper. Before you remove the bodywork take note of what parts of the frame are actually visible. No reason to polish something that will not be seen. Then start with 220 grit sand paper to remove the anodizing from every where that you want to shine. What is important is to go always in the same direction with the sand paper strokes. Try to go with the existing "grain" of the metal. Removing the anodizing is a long pain in the ass process. You will have no finger prints left after polishing. From 220 comes 320 to remove the scratches left from 220. The grit sequences I use are as follows: 220, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500 and if needed 2000. Doing the whole bike by yourself with a good part of everyday dedicated to it will take just over a week. If you don't mind investing some money into this project buy an orbital sander. This will greatly reduce the polishing time and wear on your fingers. The only "trick" involved is not to get into a rush to complete it. I really can not stress this enough. If you do not completely remove the scratches left behind from the previous grit you will always have scratches visible. When ever I think I am finished with one grit I always go over that same area again one more time with a fresh piece of paper to ensure I have all the scratches out. I recommend to keep using the same piece of paper until it is smooth so you are using it to gradually remove the scratches left from a fresh piece of paper. Up keep of a polished frame is not. I use a metal polish called "Mother's" but I have used a product from Europe called "Wenol" that was also good. When I get caught in the rain I just dry the frame and swing-arm to prevent any drops leaving rings when they dry. And when I clean the bike I just go over the bike with the metal polish to bring back the mirror shine. :D

R1_CR, that Wenol polish is the BEST. I get the auto glazes for my car and they are top notch. I can't find them in stores so I have ordered them off this site: http://www.wenolit.com/ They have buffing supplies, metal polishing stuff, waxes, glazes and all kinds of polishes and polishing kits.

Props to R1_CR for posting the letter I wrote on how to polish. Kathleen, I do recommend Mother's over Wenol though. Wenol is easier to use but after about a year of using it you will notice 'pits' in your frame. Mother's does a real good job protecting against oxidation.

I have used both mothers and wenol to maintain the shine on my frame,, but i have found a polish that is way better than both,,,its called X-TREEM metal polish. its a big wad of cotton soaked with cleaners. you tear off a little pieces of the pink cotton and use for polishing. i got it a local tire and rim dealer,,,, it works ten times better than mothers and wenol. its kinda hard to find anymore so heres the address thats on the back of the package HULCHER ENTERPRISES, INC. 611 KIMBERLY DR. DENTON , TX 76201 its part #02001

X-treem is the same as never dull both work great and easy

Hey, thanks guys! That sounds like its alot easier to use as well as the fact that you say it works so much better too. Thanks for putting up the address, 321 cya. :) Makes it much easier. Hi R-won! Its very nice to meet you. Welcome to the forum. :)

Thanxs Kathleen! Pretty damn kewl place you guys have here. I was getting a bunch of hits from this forum so I thought I would check it out.

:machinegu WELCOME :machinegu to the chaos

R-won, yours is the the extremepolish site?? This one: http://www.usmcpress.com/extremepolish/extremepolish.htm ? What a COOL site!!! :rock :rock

I had to go and check out the "Our Work" on the site. Those bikes are so polished and shined I thought I'd go blind looking at them. :eek:

*lol* Yeah = www.extremepolish.com is my site . . . If you ever make it to South Carolina we would love to go riding with ya. But if you have any questions about polishing I will try my best to answer them. I polish bikes kinda like a second job to help pay for them expensive tires. By no means an expert on polishing. Thanks for the kind words on our work though. :D

That would be :rock !!! If you guys don't mind the fact I am a beginner. :p And I would need a pair of :cool:'s from the shine off your bikes. I was checking out the pictures of Deal's Gap that you have up on your site. There are some members on here that were posting about it a little while ago. http://www.r1-forum.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=171 One of the guys was so hooked on it he was going every weekend to slay the dragon! :) You guys looked like you had a great time in Daytona!! I was LMAO at some of those pics!! :D Thanks so much for the offer of help on questions about polishing. As you can tell, alot of the members have asked about it and I don't know very much about it at all. :) I can see from all the smileys and burnouts why you need so many tires. What do you do with the old tires? Make tennis balls or something? ;)

You might consider getting the frame clearcoated after you polish it. That will keep it looking nice without having to polish it all the time. That white powder that comes off each time is essentially rust. Unprotected aluminium does oxidize.

Hey SmokeEater - I have heard of some people trying to clearcoat a polished frame with little success. I am not a painter, but I am told the problem is that a polished frame is very smooth. Trying to get the clear to 'stick' to the frame is a difficult task. I have seem some attempts and the frame looks hazy. The next problem comes with the inevitable rock chip. Once moisture gets under the clear you get the oxidation that you were referring too. Aluminum will tend to 'pit' if not kept up but this takes a good amount of time. I left a bike with a polished frame sit for a year with no problems. (Uncle Sam sent me on a one year all expense paid trip to Korea. :( ) Polished frames can be a pain for those who truly hate cleaning their bikes. I normally don't touch the frame but once a month with some Mother's unless I get caught in some rain or poorly placed sprinklers. Rawk . . .

polished frames look cool but I would just hate having to keep it looking good all the time. When the shine starts to go off it looks like crap to me. It's hard enough to keep my bike clean as it is now (stock).

Here's one highly polished R1: Saw this one posted on the net. Shines bright eh?:D Need shades for that glare:cool:

Ok, I am taking everything off my bike tonight. I have decided ! My R1 is gettng polished. I think I will start with just the upper and see how it turns out. Or maybe just the swing arm.

Wow! It must've taken AGES to polish that bike! Throttle: If time is what you got on your hands.. then do it! Else, i'd skip it!

BLING,BLING is all i got to say about that bike man that bike tight work,,, but i'd hate to have to keep that thing polished :cool:

That bike is mostly chrome so (if not entirely) keeping it up would be no different than normal plastic. No Mothers or Wenol just 'dusting' the dirt off whenever you feel like it. Getting plastic chromed is not cheap however. That owner has A LOT of money invested in that scooter. Like to see original ideas on bikes and that is defiantly original.

I started polishing my frame and it seems to have some layer on the top ? I kept sanding and dont seem to be getting anywhere. My buddy told me I might need to use paint stripper on the frame ? Anyone heard anything about this ? Or should I just keep sanding with the 220... Also, I have a palm sander but should I also invest in a orbital sander... whats the difference ? Thanks...

Ok as strange as this sounds use maximum strength easy off oven cleaner or aircraft stripper but the easy off will work

Ahhhh... thats it. That was not mentioned int he instructions ! ha ha... I should of known. U da man twisted ! Thanks for the advice, you just saved my finger tips from sanding.. ha ha.

You are correct about overn cleaner removing the annodizing from the frame. I actually don't bother with it when polishing as you still have to sand with 220 to remove the deep pits from the cast section. I just kill two birds with one stone by sanding it all off. Everyone likes to do it differently and as long as the end result looks good who cares how ya got there. Good luck!

You are right you still ahve to sand but it takes away some of the hassle

I started mine last weekend and just got the first layer of the anodizing off... holy cow, thats a lot of sanding ! I started using 150 grit, the 220 was not getting the job done ! I went thru about 3 sheets of 220.

You will go thru a lot more than three sheets. I hope that the 150 grit doesn't leave some deep scratches that you will have to get out later. Just don't let yourself be rushed as you will have to look at your mistakes everytime you get on your bike. I do a lot of bikes for people who either started and then thought it too much work or do a bike over because of all the visible 'gouges' in the frame. Patience is the key to success when it comes to polishing. Good luck!

Trust me bro.. I am Mr. Patiences ! I have been sanding on the right side for a week now.. ha ha. I already tested it, the 220 will take out the 150 scratches. One question, on the part of the frame where the rear subframe meets the main frame, and you cant get in there with the palm sander very well, you sand that by hand ? Geeze, that is gonna suck. You ever use a dremel or air tools ? Fill me in on the tricks of the trade ! ha ha. I got about 3 buddies waiting on me to get a section done so they can see if they wanna try it on thiers ....

Wish you could see my finger tips. I could rob a bank and leave no finger prints. I have tried a Dremel and it gouged the metal. Where the sub-frame meets the frame I use just my fingers. Some places you can use a piece of sand paper over an old credit card. This helps for tricky places like the welds. It normally takes myself and the other guy I polish with one week to complete an entire bike. This means we polish when we get off work from our paying job (USAF.) We have polished an R1 (frame, sub-frame, and swing-arm) over a three day weekend. I promise you will be faster on the other side. The more you polish, the faster you get. You ask for some tricks and there are about a million of them just not one miracle working trick. Never change directions of your strokes as this will speed up the process and make for a smoother final product. Changing directions will leave tiny pits. (I have no idea why.) I start a GIXXER 1000 tomorrow so if you were near by you would be welcome to watch. I am not gifted in attempting to type out what I could easily show. You are lucky you are starting with a Yamaha as they have the easiest frame to get a shine from. Other manufactures frames do not get as deep as shine as easily as Yamahas. I wouldn't mind giving you a hand if you were close to South Carolina. Hopefully you will get your friends to pay you for your hard learned so you can do their frames and get paid this time.

TAKE YOUR TIME!!! And you will be rewarded:) A palm sander works great on the swingarm and the center cast piece. http://imagep.webphotos.iwon.com//1000004040/1000004040_1121200132910AM0.2635418.jpg http://imagep.webphotos.iwon.com//1000004040/1000004040_1028200171303PM0.1938832.jpg

I have to thank you guys for the advice. I have only done the right side of my frame so far, but I finished it up last night and it looks better than I ever thought it could. It looks just like chrome. I started out with 150 to take off that first layer and that was by far the hardest part of the sanding. when I got to 1000 and 1500 I wet sanded it. A buddy of mine brought me some of the really good wax that takes out the scratches and cleans the metal. I hit it with that and a hi-speed buffer first, then after it was gleeming clean I hit it with the mothers and the hi-speed buffer. (Use a different pad for each different wax...) It looks so good now.... even after I wet sanded it with the 1500 I could see some very small hair line scratches and the wax took those out. As soon as I get done with the other side and the swing arm, I will submit some pics of my pride and joy !

man I tell ya what I polished mine tonight and I worked on it till my fingers actually bled. It is worth it , it looks great:cool:

so it is okay to use a orbital sander from the beginning or not? Since we are getting more snow today I am going to remove the plastics and the tank tonight. This polishing may take some time from hittin the trails with my new viper though! Decisions, decisions... Anyone used this kit from -> http://store.yahoo.com/azmotorsports/framepolishkit.html ? will I be better off just using the recomended sandpaper?

Use the orbital sander in the beginning to speed up the process of removing the anodizing and smooth out the rough lower frame. Once you have this complete use 220 and wet sand out the swirls left by the orbital sander. You can purchase the kit you have listed if you can not find the sand papers at a local hardware store. I recommend using 3M brand paper over some other cheaper papers. Hope this helps and good luck!

:iamwithst I'm with R-won on this one. What ever this guy says, it is so. He is god with sandpaper. I've seen his work, and if I was to have my bike polished again, he would be doing it. Check out his website at WWW.EXTREMEPOLISH.COM My bike is on there under friends with the two bros X metal pipe on it. Later guys.:crash

kathleen did you said Acid hehehe yah put me in the frame and i will burn your bike :)

R-Won do you wet sand when not using the orbit sander or is it all dry sanding ?

When using the orbital sander you don't want to use water. Besides making a huge mess it could shorten the life of the sander (and if water hits the power cord the user as well.) Just wet sand the hand grits. Don't get discouraged with the slow progress with 220. You will spend more time on this grit than all the remaining grits combined. You will love the result if you just take it slow. Let me know if you have any other questions. ~ Nick

I have quick qustion? When you start polishing your frame you start with 220 sandpaper to get the anodizing off. How do you tell if the anodizing layer has been removed? I've been sanding and sanding and I can' tell. Thanx

Live42day, I've noticed when ever i polish i will start to bring out black dust and cause the area that im polishing to turn a darker color and by then its usually time to switch to a higher grit,, :thumbup

WOW what a great post!!!!!!!!!!! I shall :beer to that one! What a good info! I knew the procedures and I thought I had them down but boy! this thread really explained lots of things... and throttle-cntr! lol man it was pleasure to reading your adventure LOL!! I am thinking about getting my frame polished. I was going to do just upper frame for now and see how it goes. I don't want to tie my bike up for the season. Then maybe in fall when weather is crappy do the whole bike... I think I will hit the hardware store today and get the supplies.. =) Thanks guys for the awesome thread! :rock

After polishing the frame, swing arm & wheel rims on my zxr750 a few years back i vowed never to do it again! I burnt a drill out doing it! But, sure enough a few weeks back i started polishing my r1"s frame! argh!!! I think the best advice which has been given on here is to take your time over it. Be patient and dont rush it. There are some fiddly bits when your doing the frame and it does take AGES to do. But it looks ace in the end!