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Polishing alloy parts, do I clear coat also.

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Polishing alloy parts, do I clear coat also.

Old 09-24-10, 04:11 PM
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Polishing alloy parts, do I clear coat also.

I'm working on rebuilding an older bike and want to polish most of the alloy parts. If I want to keep them shiny should I coat them with a clear coat or something else? Or just leave them and polish everything every so often. Should be a mainly fair weather bike, but on occasion may see some occasional wet days.

Thanks
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Old 09-24-10, 04:31 PM
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I just wax my polished parts and clean and re-wax as needed.
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Old 09-24-10, 04:34 PM
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Polish them once in a while. It's no big deal. I have five bikes with lots of polished parts and I still manage to have a life.

Yes, wax seems to help.
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Old 09-24-10, 04:39 PM
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Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish works great and is widely available at hardware & auto parts stores. I wouldn't recommend clearcoating your alloy parts.

If the parts are in bad shape with lots of scratches, you can sand them with wet/dry sand paper first, starting with 600 grit and working up incrementally to 2000 grit sandpaper until ultra smooth, and then finish with Mother's Mag & Aluminum polish (aka "the Khatfull treatment").
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Old 09-24-10, 04:59 PM
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Ok, thanks for the info. Consensus says polish and that's it, sounds good. I was planning on using white buffing compound and maybe brown and sanding for any scratches. Any reason not to use buffing compounds?
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Old 09-24-10, 05:10 PM
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I use tripoli compound and a spiral wound cotton buffing wheel after emery paper and 0000 steel wool.
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Old 09-24-10, 05:10 PM
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Originally Posted by jettore
Ok, thanks for the info. Consensus says polish and that's it, sounds good. I was planning on using white buffing compound and maybe brown and sanding for any scratches. Any reason not to use buffing compounds?
Only on clear anodized parts, wherein you'll remove the anodizing by doing so.

-Kurt
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Old 09-24-10, 05:21 PM
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Originally Posted by cudak888
Only on clear anodized parts, wherein you'll remove the anodizing by doing so.

-Kurt
Which type of parts are usually anodized and what's the easiest way to tell?
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Old 09-24-10, 06:20 PM
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Originally Posted by jettore
Which type of parts are usually anodized and what's the easiest way to tell?
Start with a mag cleaner - like Mothers - and rub. If your hand, towel, etc turns black and the part is shinier, it's not anodized. If it's anodized it will not polish up.
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Old 09-25-10, 08:35 AM
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Just have the parts chromed.

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