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Showing results for tags 'grit'.
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As you can see in the pictures, I have one more cover to polish. All the covers started out looking like the stator cover. The other covers I started with 220 grit sandpaper, and worked my way up to 800 grit before switching to polishing compounds. The third image is of the stator cover after using paint stripper to remove the old finish. With this one I'm thinking of just using Black Emery polishing compound to clean up the ugly spots first then work on the whole case, working my way up to Red Rouge. I tried this on a couple of spots in the last two pics. I'm using a Dremel Tool with wool polishing wheels. Bill
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So not long after first getting the venture, I managed to let it roll forward of the kick stand while parked, and it scratched up the front left part of the fairing. I decided I would try paint from colorrite.com and see what I could come up with. Started out by sanding the area down to the plastic. Then a couple coats of primer. We wet sanded with 800 grit paper between each coat. Next the base coat on the affected area. Then we scuffed the rest of the the red on the fairing and one last wet sanding with 1000 grit paper. Last thing was 3 coats of clear. We wet sanded between each coat with the 1000 grit. All in all, I'm very pleased with the results. The color is as close as anything you can get. I can not tell any difference. The metal flake is the same size and density. After a few more hours of rubbing compound use, the mirror like finish will look even better than it does now. Bottom line is... Don't be afraid of using the rattle cans as long as you are willing to spend the time on prep and finish.
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I bought a 2000 Mercury Grand Marquis 2 weeks ago and the headlights were horrible on it. I priced new ones and about choked. I saw Walmart did a headlight restoration for $40. I found out it's just a 3M kit that anyone can buy for $20 at VatoZone, Oreilly's,Napa, or Advance Auto. I tried the Meguiar's PlastX and spent an hour polishing them by hand. They looked better but they were still cloudy. I broke down and bought the 3M kit this morning after watching some youtube videos on headlight restoration. This kit works great. My headlights are crystal clear like new. If you have yellow, foggy, or cloudy headlights, this is a MUST!! You don't need the kit to do this. If you have very fine sandpaper (2000 grit or finer), then you could do this yourself by hand. I had no sandpaper nor do I have a polishing pad so the kit was more economical for me. The kit comes with 2 different sanding discs, a 3000 grit sanding pad, a polishing pad, an arbor and Velcro pad to attach the sanding discs and pad to, and some 3M plastic polish. You start out with an 800 grit paper and completely sand the headlight until the entire lens is a uniform texture. Next, sand it with a 2000 grit paper until all the there is a finer uniform texture. Then, use the 3000 grit sanding pad and water to sand all the scratches out of it. Finally, use the polishing pad and plastic polish to bring the headlight to crystal clear shine. Be very careful to keep the sanding discs clean. I apparently had something on one of my discs and now have some tiny little swirlly scratches in my left headlight. I can only see them at certain angles and I can feel them with my fingernail. I could probably sand the lens down some more and polish it out, but I'm very happy with the current results. I also removed three molded tits off the headlight lens. I took a rotary tool and ground them down flush and the 3M kit polished them out smooth. http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/650/1000563small.jpghttp://img265.imageshack.us/img265/8449/1000564small.jpghttp://img176.imageshack.us/img176/4675/1000565small.jpghttp://img269.imageshack.us/img269/6892/1000566small.jpghttp://img176.imageshack.us/img176/406/1000569small.jpghttp://img190.imageshack.us/img190/1906/1000570small.jpghttp://img196.imageshack.us/img196/3530/1000571small.jpghttp://img44.imageshack.us/img44/9899/1000576small.jpg
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Well it took long enough but I have my new tall & wide & vented (and grey) Clearview windshield installed on the bike after waiting a month or so for the delivery.. Mind you, they notified me it was shipped and it showed up within the week here in Nova Scotia. What can I say about it? Damn thing is HUGE.. wow.. you don't realize how much plastic is going to be in front of you until you sit behind it lol.. there is NO looking over the top of this one if I can't see through it.. Wind: My head is no longer buffetted side to side with wind slaps to the side of the head as before. Since getting this bike, I've had to wear ear covers to protect my ears from the wind buffetting. But now it's all gone. My Radio Audio is turned down by 2 notches as there is less wind. However, I now notice more wind coming up my legs onto my lower face. My impression is that when it rains, my legs will be soaked instead of just my knees. Overall the wind situation is better, smoother and more ejoyable. Noise: you can hear better for sure, less wind... you can hear your engine and exhaust better. Visibility: I was quite impressed with the clarity of the plastics used. There is "some" distortion in the peripheral areas but you quickly adapt to those. I haven't tested it in the rain because though it's raining a lot these days, just not while I can go riding. Night time visibility is OK, no noticable difference. Cleaning: Always spray a lot of water on your plastics before rubbing anything on them to remove any grit.. I used poly polish and Plexus to clean it off, using a new microfibre cloth.. Plexus removes the static charge off the polycarbonates to repell dust and other light schtuffs.. Important to keep several clean cloths to avoid rubbing grit into the new plastics. I haven't used any RainX on it yet, haven't gone biking in the rain yet. Installation was a breeze, remember to leave the protective film over the windshield during installation. Two rubber seals fit under the wide wings on the ends. Over all? Though it's only been a day or two since I've gotten it and haven't yet ridden in the rain.. I find the price is right and thus far it lives up to it's expectations. More later as I get more ride time with it.. Cheers
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Hard to know exactly where to put this, but after taking my carbs off for the second time, I think that I could do it at the side of the road, which brings me to my point. I'm planning on comming out to Don's maintanence days for the comorodorie, (sp) if nothing else, but I was wondering what I could do to add to the maintanence part of this? Well, now I know: If anyone is having (or had) problems with their floats sticking and running out the overflow, I've got this one figured out. You can use seafoam or tap on the float bowls, but this does not solve the problem, it's a very temprorary fix at best. This is my theory: the ethenol creates moisture, which in turn creates a buld up of tiny, and I mean tiny white crystals on the four points of the needle which contact the ID of the seat and DO NOT slide up and down in the seat lilke they should. I was going to post some pics that I took using my macro but they were all blurry. I took some 1500 grit wet paper and removed the grit on all four needles, (my front left was my cluprit) using magnification, and I'd love to help any of you out with this. Or, I'll take my carbs off and show you what to do. What do you thilnk? BTW, this is on a 05 RSTD. Steve
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This was originally submitted to me years ago when I had a forum for the Honda Shadow. No reason why it wouldn't work on the Venture also. Polishing the Lower Forks All right, you've added all those chrome accessories to your bike and you look at your lower forks (sliders) and you want to spiff them up. Whether you just don't like that dull, swirling, satin pattern &/or you have nicks and/or scratches - you want them to gleam like the rest of your bike. You find out that to chrome them is not only expensive but you won't be riding for nearly a month (maybe more) because you will have to remove them and send them out. Can't handle the expense or the down time? You can polish them to a lustrous sheen - almost chrome like. This is manual/hand labor - quite a few hours. Your hands will get real tired. If you want a perfect job/end result, you'll wind up spending two afternoons doing it. Plan on a total of 5 to 8 hours, depending on your endurance and what shape your sliders are in before you begin. Road nicks and scratches will be sanded out and require extra time. (Mine were nicked up - this is what prompted me to do this.) Some people have told me they used a Dremel. I did not. My theory was that the Dremel sanding drum is a cylinder and so are the sliders - minimal contact points - most likely leading to furrows and ridges. Even on a flat surface (like the brake reservoir cover) the Dremel will sand in uneven rows/furrows. An orbital palm sander will finish a flat surface much better. This is not the case when doing the sliders. So, I opted for hand sanding, curling my fingers around the sliders and going at it with a graduation of finer grits. You start off with dry sanding and coarse grit, working up to wet sanding and finer grits to achieve a silky smooth finish. It's that simple in theory - and it works - but you have to put a lot of manual labor into it. I am not trying to talk you out of it. I am a realist and want you to know this is not a quick fix. Yet, it's worth it and comes out looking great! You have a few options to make your work easier. You have to remove the fender because there is no clearance to sand between the fender and the sliders. Once you do that, you are free to follow the procedure listed below. You could remove the sliders (but that's a pretty big job!) so you can work on a bench (faster and easier). I only removed the fender, got my camping stool and went at it. You also could apply a (toxic) stripper (now, now) to remove the clear coat from the sliders but I did not want the mess and any possible damage to the rims or spokes. To remove the fender, here is a hint from my mech. Jack up the bike to raise the front end, remove the wheel and use a scissors jack to push/seperate the forks to a wider position (don't over do it, just enough) to allow the fender to come out easily - w/o scraping/scratching the paint. Don't tweak the forks out of shape and damage them - you only need a little extra clearance supplied by the scissors jack! All that said, here's what I did: Starting off with DRY SANDING: 3M Aluminum Oxide for metal 1) medium grit - # 100 - to remove clear coat & smooth out nicks/scratches 2) fine grit - # 230 - to lessen marks of the 120 & the last of nicks/sratches Proceed with WET SANDING (get a pail of water) 3) medium grit - # 400 - really work it, eliminate nicks/scratches and all previous dry sanding marks - only now see #400 abrasions. 4) medium/fine grit - #600 - you're heading for the finish, smoothing it out 5) fine grit - # 800 - keeps getting easier, you are attaining a finished surface 6) finishing grit - #1200 - now you are getting the silky/final surface Optional step: Rubbing Compound (yeah, I'm a perfectionist) 7) tearing up an old T-shirt, creating a "shoe shine boy's" cloth, liberally apply compound to cloth, wrap it around the slider, and pull back alternately on the ends to work the complete surface of the slider to a "glass" smooth surface. Polish the sliders (your choice, Mother's or Simichrome or whatever shines best) 8) using a clean section of that T-shirt, apply polish (I used Mother's) and work that "shoe shine" rag over the complete surface of the sliders. When you stand back to admire your work, you'll be amazed. You'll forget about all the cursing of me that you did. You'll grin or laugh or say something out loud - it'll look that good - and you'll forget how tired your arms and hands are. The jury is still out for me on whether or not to apply a paste wax to the sliders to protect them. I did not. Other people told me that they did. I feared the wax would discolor my labors over time. I did my sliders in December of 98. Five months later and three or four washings, they still look great and shine. I am a low maintenance type of guy as far as cosmetics go. I ride, I don't spend time washing/polishing. I keep my bike garaged and covered - which helps a great deal. I ride to work whenever I can but it's a short commute (darn). I ride every other weekend because I have my kids every other weekend - so I average about 400 miles on those weekends. I mention all this so you understand why I did not put wax on the forks and why I wash the bike only once a month. Hope all this helped and you are completely happy with your polished forks/sliders! I am sure you will be. I hope the maintenance is little and you get to ride that shining beast a whole bunch! Happy motoring... Submitted by Crazy Charley
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