Just got a 00 750 tonight, sitting in the truck outside waiting to go to my friends garage until the spring.
Anyways, the frame is already polished real nice and I'm thinking of doing the wheels, I know it's a lot of work but does anyone have any specific advise as to techniques and stuff?
Thanks.
And I also might as well do the footpeg brackets and the swingarm while I'm at it.

 

your gonna need some paint stripper to strip the paint from the wheel, apply the paint stripper all the paint will bubble make sure you let it sit for like 20 min then get a brush like a hard plastic tooth brush lookin thing and take all the old paint off, once you got all that **** off get your self some mothers polishing and some rags and polish it it will come out like your frame. Good luck

 

Ya if you polish it for like 10 years it will come out polished. If polishing was that easy people wouldnt be making a living of it.

When you strip the paint the rims are rough from casting, the lips are a little smother from being spun. Polishing is all about prep the smoother you get the metal berfore polishing the better they will turn out.

For rims I start with 80-100 grit and go all the way to 2000 wet if Im hand polishing. If your just doing the lips you can start off higher like 600 wet.

best advice...........dont do it!.......Ive been there polished my whole bike(and I mean everything that was aluminum).......and I'll never do it again. 1 beacause of all the work that was involved in polishing it in the first place, and more so the work involved in maintaining it.

 

i polished my rear rim in a few hours and it looked **** . and i didnt sand it down i stripped it and polished it out and it looked fine. but yea im sure if you do all the steps it would look bad *** and that would be alot of work.

 

did you do the whole rim or just the lip? And it depends on what bike some are smooter than others. Suzuki has been using the same rim for 3 models for like 4 years so the rims are very roughly cast on the spokes.

 

i didnt do the spokes i did about 3 inches of the lips on both sides there was a very smooth part and a lil rougher part but did come out good for the whole thing that would need some sanding

 

go to www.eastwood.com....
they have polishing kits really cheap...

 

thats what i was going to say. the spokes are a ***** to polish. and then maintaning the shine is a pain. i learned the first time, now i just strip the wheel, polish the lip and powder coat the spokes. looks real nice, if anyone wants pics, ill post them up

 

hey guys......i used aircraft stripper on my wheels . the kid that had them before painted over the factory white. the stripper WILL not eat at the powdercoat, i was gonna have them sandblasted. should i try the stripper again or not. i want to have them powdercoated another color and they have to be completly clean.

give me some advice.....

btw its an 01 gix 600, stock wheels

 

yeah powder coat is the ****. you should be able to take it to the coater and he should be able to clean it and spray it. my coater sand blast everything before he paints it.

if your coater doent do that find another one or sand blast it. if you can, try to use one of the box blasters, that way you wont waste material and it will be a nice clean area instead of a huge mess.

 

polishing rims would be hell and they dont come out that well, and theyll be a biotch to keep clean. spend the extra money and go chrome its worth it.

 

to get the whole thing to look like this.........looks pimp but way to much work

 

step1. strip all paint off
step2. sand until smooth w/150-200 grit
step3. sand until smooth w/ 400 grit
step4. sand till smooth w/800 grit
step5. sand till smooth w/1000grit
step6 sand till smooth w 1500 grit
step7. snd again w/ 1500
step8. sand w/ 2000
9. sand w/ 2000 again
10. sand w/ 2000 again.........lol get the drift?????????????
and if u want go to 2500 - 3000
then apply polish at this point it will look like a mirror

BUT BEWARE IF U WANT IT POLISHED U R LOOKING AT +15 HOURS A WHEEL
or longer.................

i only went up to 1500 on my bike cuz i dont give a

 

I don't know about the procedure, but maintaing that shine is a beast. My wheels are chrome but the frame is polished and it is just mad work to keep the shine up.

 

Afriend of mine polished his bike and looked the bollocks. He had went over the welds too much. Brought down a wheelie and crrrack. Polishing too much ****** up the integrity of the welds. Polishing is ****. Go with chrome. May cost more butits less upkeep and safer I think.

 

i polished the lip of my f4i. I used aircraft remover..stuff was pimp at getting it off. I dont really care much for it now i just get a rag and some kerosine to it and it shines up real nice. anyhow best of luck with the polishing

 

this is what it shud look like its a zx9, the pic kinda sucks, and the lightings bad, but it will look like this if you follow the directions i posted. the pic. doesnt do it justice, and you DO NOT grind the welds down anyone should know that..you can lightly sand over the welds to give it a shine without affecting the weld at all......2cents

 

i personally woudln't do the whole rim, i would just do the lips, but thats just me, i think the black w/ polished look looks good on my bike, lot easier to maintain to when you just have the lips polished. just my

 

how u just do the lips with out getting the **** on ur tires or on other parts of the rim?

 

very carefully