Polish my frame!

[VTISC007]

The weather is getting kinda bad, so I figured it would be a good time to drop the engine and take apart every last nut and bolt on my 2000 R1. I would like to have the frame, swing arm & misc. items polished. Has anyone done this, is this bike difficult or easy?
I've done a '90 Ninja ZX-7...not too difficult, I just labled everything and where it went, got the shop manual for torque specs and went to work. I also helped my bro with his CBR900RR...not too hard.
Any advice?

[aussieidiot]

are you asking for advice on polishing or the pull down (sorry if that sounds bad)?

for resale down under no one wants a polished frame because it usually means that the bike has been dropped.

[VTISC007]

Yeah, but the girls in Los Angeles like things that shine! It's nice enough to have an R1, but it's even nicer to have one that has that extra bit of detail.

[SamBlob]

Originally Posted by VTISC007

Yeah, but the girls in Los Angeles like things that shine! It's nice enough to have an R1, but it's even nicer to have one that has that extra bit of detail.

Hm, I wonder if you meant to say "that extra bit on de tail"...

[aussieidiot]

i think a polish job is great.........

from what i was told many years ago when i was going to polish my gsxr, is paint stripper then about 6 types of sandpaper down to wet/dry emery. very time consuming but big payoff if you do it yourself. give it a go and if you stuff it up, pay someone to finish

in FHM recently they polled some chicks about bikes and they all said black is the coolest color with blue being second
red didn't rate......sniff... good thing i'm married

[VTISC007]

Originally Posted by SamBlob

Hm, I wonder if you meant to say "that extra bit on de tail"...

I guess if you put it that way, a polished R1 might help me get some more of "de tail"....I'm not married!

[busa_4]

i did it on my 1999 1100xx and it took a total of 15 hours. luckily my 1100xx frame was completely smooth all around. if your frame is smooth it is not that bad, but if you have cast alluminum sections on the frame then you have to sand them down before you can polish. i bought a polishing wheel on ebay that fit on my drill. it also came with the polishing compund. i think i paid 12.00. i went through 2 drills in the process. the finished product was worth it. good luck!

[swipter]

You can get the same buffing wheel at Lowe's or Home Depot for $5 and polish compound for $4 each. I polished my triple tree on my Indian after I scratched the crap out of it with windshield brackets. I used a 4 and than a 5. I didn't get the 6, final polish, but will once I remove the front end to grease the steering bearings. I was really surprised how good it turned out. I used 00 steel wool to smooth it first and get the deeper scratches out. Than I polished it. It looks brand new. The are billet and not chrome. You can't do that on chrome.