Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Custom Corner Anyone Polished the wheels???

Just wondering if anyone has polished the front or rear wheels on a Speedmaster, just thinking about it at the moment.

Thanks
Dave

I know of one VA guy who polished at least the front rim. Probably the rear as well but can't remember. Don't remember his name, but his tank has the creature from "Predator" painted on it. Should be some pix in the gallery (check VA owners).

See this thread.

Tony's bike is pictured in the thread that has the wheels polished, but he farmed it out. ssjones though polished his lower legs and it's the same procedure. This is how he said he did it:

"To me, it was a good bit of work. Stripping and polishing, probably spent a total of around 6 hours or so. I removed my wheel and fender, loosened the triple clamps and slid each fork out. Left all the internals intact (except drained the fluid, was putting in fresh anyway). Once the clear coat is stripped, I then sanded each piece 4 times. First time with 320 grit, second time with 400 grit, third time with 600 grit and fourth time with 1000 grit. Once the pieces are sanded, I then put each piece into a two part polishing stage on a Craftsman buffing wheel. First time with a cleaning rouge and then a final polishing on a fine jewelers rouge."

Caswell Plating sells all kinds of buffing supplies. Just get some of their bobs and compound you can chuck into a drill to finish the polishing once you sand the wheel smooth. If you have an air compressor and a right angle die grinder, it's even quicker than an electric drill.

I just well, I just about finished polishing the front rim on my speedy. Be fore warned if you attempt this yourself. The metal underneath the powercoat really sucks. I spent about 20 hours sanding alone. And it still has lots of pits in mainly the hub area. I finally decided on a more brushed finish for that area as its mostly hidden behind the brake disks anyway. And it sort of matches the rear wheel. I polished the outer rim ,where the tire actually mounts more highly as the metal in this area is machined alot better. I have no pictures as yet as I just got it back on the bike and have to clean it.

Here's a pichttp://www.bonnevilleamerica.com/photopost/data/500/23100_0777.jpgture I think.

Your hard work paid off, it looks great! I want to do mine,but I'm scared. Maybe someday I will work up my nerve to just do it.Nice job.

I'd love to do that, but i know how much hand cramping blister forming work it is. But heres a related question.....is the front wheel powdercoated, and if so, couls you have a different powdercoat shot over it or would it have to be stripped? I was thinking of polishing the legs, then having the wheel powdercoated in that grey/black specled color someone posted a long while back having done it to his frame.

Yes the front wheel is powdercoated from the factory. Because of the condition of most of the metal underneath the powdercoat, it is very difficult to remove. As far as powdercoating over top of powdercoat, I don't know.

Thanks midlife for the comment. It was hard work but I mostly enjoyed doing it.

Fork legs also looking good! I noticed the '07's have polished forks, shoot, there goes our exclusivity! It is a lot of work, but pretty rewarding.

Starting in on polishing my lower fork legs. Just stripped the gray stuff off with Zip-Strip paint remover that I picked up at Ace Hardware. Once that set for 15-20 minutes, I scrubbed everything off with coarse steel wool. That's the easy part.

Started sanding with 120 grit and the castings are so coarse and pitted on the inside of the legs that sandpaper alone aren't going to get them smooth.

I used a yellow, 3M bristle wheel to take out some pitting, particuarly around the fender mounting lugs.

Unfortunately I'm without a compressor. I have a brass brush cup I could chuck in my 3/8" drill, but that might do more harm than good. Might give it a light touch anyway in a small out of the way area to see what happens though.

A bristle wheel chucked in your handdrill will do as well. Just not as quickly as a die grinder. But that can be a good thing. Just a note, when trying to get deep pits out don't concentrate to much on a small area or you will just have a bigger problem to sort back out.

Yep, was just going to try and feather it in over the whole area. Luckily it's the inside part of the fork leg around the mudguard brace area so it might not be too visible anyway...but I'll know it's there.

Brass brush cup worked pretty good as you can see in the pic. Still have a ways to go though.

Can;t you get an arbor (?) for a drill and pop one of those bristle wheels in that?

Looking at those legs I think you may Just have to get some 60 grit or lower sandpaper and have at it for a while. Lots of rubbing.

No I mean more like a wheel than a cup... Know what I mean?

Yeah, a bristle wheel. But that might take off too much material and I'd be left with a bunch of divots. The aluminum is pretty soft. I guess I could try a sandpaper based flap wheel. Might not be as abrasive as a metal wheel. My local used tool store has a room full of sanding/polishing supplies. Time to take a trip down there and see what they have.

They also have textile bristle wheels. Thats what I used mostly. Wally world even has those. The sandpaper flapwheels can help also but they tend to load up faster than the textile wheels. I can't think of the proper name for these wheels but they are really intended for scraping loose paint. But they work pretty well on the aluminum too.They come in different grits as well.

Well I was thinking that with the right arbor thing you could chuck up that 3M wheel from a die grinder into the drill... At any rate, keep us posted I have a spare piece of that tank console trim if you need it.

Just wanted to warn anybody that's thinking about polishing their Speedmaster front wheel, it's a ton of work and I still haven't made it to a smooth polished final stage. I've hit it with everything from wire wheels, 50 grit sandpaper, black greaseless compound, coarse 3M wheels, and the pitting and casting flaws are still visible. After 30 hours of work, and over $60 in polishing supplies, I wished I'd either farmed this out, or just had them powdercoated. The front wheel is definitely a tougher metal than the fork legs. It took 7 times applying the Zip Strip paint remover and wearing out 2 wire wheels just to get it down to bare metal.

Without access to air you are looking at a lot of work... with a 90 degree grinder and several grades of scotch brite discs you should be able to rough it out very quickly...I'd stay away from anything too agressive it will only make for more work on the back end, finishing... I don't mean to offend or come off like a knowitall but I polish for a living and know that without the right tools it is very time consuming. good luck

What colour would you have had them powdercoated, if you had decided to go that way?

I think I said something to that affect oringally sal. About it being a ton of work. As far as not hitting it with agressive grits forget about it. You will never get it done unless you start with some fairly agressive stuff. As you stated the metal is awful. But keep at it sal you can get there. Towards the end I gave up on getting a high polish on the center hub. When you put your brake rotors back on its hidden anyway. Put most of your effort in the out rim and spokes. Least that's what I did. When I was doing mine I said the same as you. Dam I should have sent this bast@@@ off. But then .....

Yeah trash, you warned us, but I was done polishing the fork legs and had a few days before my steering stem nut was going to get here, so....you know how it goes.

Thanks for the tips gimpy. I'll keep that in mind when the weather turns colder and I get back to finishing the job. Right know they look satin, kind of like the back wheel. But it's around 75-80 for the high these days, and I HAVE to ride when it's this nice.

For powdercoating I was thinking black, but I photoshopped in the black on one of my bike pics and I'm not sure I like the look.

Here's a pic of front wheel partially done, and a pic of my stock rear wheel I haven't touched yet.

I'd never taken a pic of just my front wheel before, so this cropped and enlarged pic is the best I can come up with. Of course it's tough to get a pic to be realistic, especially when trying to compare these two finishes.

Before


After

Looking good there Sal. Bet your fingers are sore.

Thanks trash and Al, but I do need to work on it some more. Fingers aren't too bad, but my drill isn't talking to me these days.

Looking at the pics, the wheel does look better now that it's been polished some. Can't really see the shine on my fork legs in the pic, but I would like the front wheel to come close to matching them.

Funny thing I noticed when I posted the before and after pics...I forgot to put the rubber stopper back in the front axle.

I reckon chroming is the go... check this out

I put another pic in my album for Friar and Hotdog who asked for another look. A different angle, not too close tho'. it's here

Man that's so clean. I love those bars.