Polished Fork Lowers...WOW!

[classicXman]

Polished my fork lowers today and I am amazed at how well they came out. :D Only took about 4-5 hours. Now I feel much more confident tackling the final drive.

BEFORE:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k51/classicXman/forklowers.jpg
AFTER:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k51/classicXman/forklowers004.jpg

[enroute7]

I was wondering how good they might turn out.
They look great!
Thanks a lot, now I have 31 "things to do" on my list. :roll:

Mike, have you had any luck finding a extended front brake line
and throttle cables?

[bwoy]

how did you polish them, with white diamond?

[classicXman]

how did you polish them, with white diamond?

This was my process:

Stripped everything off the front end--probably not necessary, but it's nice to be able to freely rotate the forks while sanding and polishing.

Removed the clear coat with an aerosol stripper. You can probably sand off as well, but this was quick and easy.

Wet sanded with 600, 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit paper. Rinse well between each grit and make sure all sanding marks that can be removed with the current grit have been.

Used brown tripoli on a 6" cotton buffing wheel. I put the buffing wheel on an old disc sander used for hardwood floor trim. I know other have used electric drills as well, but my sander has a higher rpm, better for buffing.

Cleaned off all tripoli, then used a white rouge on a new buffing wheel.

Put the final polish on with Mother's Billet polish.

Then finished up with a coat of RejeX to protect the finish.

Additional note: My bike is a spec 3 so I don't know if spec 1 or 2 would require a heavier grit to start off with. I probably could have started with 800 on mine.

[GreenVTX]

Wow Mike they look great! Thanks for outlining the process. I see now that this is not a project for those of us with short attention spans like me :wink: . I admire your determination.

[classicXman]

Wow Mike they look great! Thanks for outlining the process. I see now that this is not a project for those of us with short attention spans like me :wink: . I admire your determination.

After doing this, I'm on a buffing kick now. Tried buffing the dogs, but they just wouldn't sit still...talk about attention span :lol: