| FRAME POLISHING |
| Well, if you have gone this far, you are either just looking at the pic's or you are considering polishing your frame. If you are just looking, cool, I hope you enjoy! If you are considering, here is what I did. You need to know what you have for a covering over your frame. If you have a Kawasaki, more than likely you have paint over the aluminum. Suzuki's tend to have anodized frames, I believe Yamaha's are also anodized, and I have no idea about Honda's. If you have an anodized frame, you will need to find someone that truely knows what they are doing with removing the anodizing. I have heard about using oven cleaner, but I have no experience with this. I do know that there is an anodizing stripper, but all I know about this product is that it is a pretty harsh chemical. But, if you have a Kawasaki, or another bike with a painted frame, I know what to do! Most of the supplies I got at a local auto parts/auto body store. The buffing wheels, compounds, and arbors I ordered thru Eastwood. Eastwood is a good company to deal with and I have no complaints with them. For supplies, first the things that are the cheapest and easyist to find : * 1 qt bucket -- for holding your soapy water for wet sanding * paper towels -- get at least 6 rolls, and you don't have to buy the best brands * roll of plastic material -- I used this to cover the parts of the bike that I didn't want stripper on. Also used to keep out water and aluminum when sanding. Some people like to use newspaper instead. * 1 inch paint brushes -- I used 2 or 3 for stripping the frame. Buy cheap ones. * small disposable loaf pans -- used to hold stripper when appling to frame Next, the items for stripping and polishing * Stripper -- I used Klean-Strip brand Aircraft Remover. For the entire job and two engine covers on my wifes bike I only used about 1 qt. But, I could only find this stuff in a gallon container. I found this at a local auto body supply house, but Wal-Mart also has it. * Sandpaper -- Use silicon carbide paper. I used 3M brand in 220, 320, 400 and 600 grit. You will probably want 2 to 4 sheets of each of these. This paper you can buy about anywhere. The ultra fine paper you will need to get at an auto supply place. I bought 2 sheets each of 1000, 1200, 1500 and 2000 grit paper. This stuff will not be cheap but this is the sanding that will make your polishing job look either "ok" or "outstanding". Buy quality paper. * Buffing Wheels -- commonly called "buffs". I ordered these from Eastwood. You will need "spiral sewn" and "loose section" buffs. * Buffing Compounds -- also ordered from Eastwood. You will need Tripoli and White Rouge. * Buff rake -- also ordered from Eastwood. Power Tools You will need something to turn your buffs. In my case, I used a cheap drill with a flex drive shaft. If you do this, use a clamping devise on your drill. Eastwood sells one, and they sell a flex drive. If you don't use a clamp on your drill, your drill may over heat from laying on the ground, pick-up debris and destory the drill or your drill may jump around and cause you to "ding" from beautiful polishing job. Please take my advise on this one. Also if you are using a drill set-up, use a cheap drill or one you don't mine burning out. Polishing is hard on a drill. Another thing to consider is that the faster you can spin the buff, the faster the compound can polish. Use a drill that will turn at least 2500 rpm's. You do have other options, use you imagination. If you have a '98/99 ZX-6R or 9R, you will have to deal with something I haven't seen on a bike until these machine. The center section of the frame is "sand cast". This means that after the paint is removed, you will find a piece of aluminum that is rough enough that you will need to sand it with a power sander of some sort quit a bit to get close to the smoothness of the rest of the frame. |
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| The section I am referring to above is the section in the center of this picture. The section that the swingarm pivot bolt,and foot control bracket mount to. |