Topic: Elbow Grease

[Magilla]

Here are a few pictures to show what a little elbow grease can do.  Mind you I know it is no where near perfect.  I was just looking to improve it.

The motor was not removed, this was done while in place.  Again the goal was to make it look better than it did.

[reddyvv]

That looks great!! What method did you use for the various bits?

[goldarrow]

that is awesome elbow grease job, curious how much time and beer did it take you? 

[cosmicvision]

Lookin like butter covered tits Also interested in hearing what you used to polish to get these results

[mono]

nice work!  and i wholeheartedly agree.  90% of my restore was elbow grease also.  scrub scrub scrub scrub -- my fingers were black for WEEKS from cleaning and polishing parts every single night! 

[Steve_K]

Always like to see someone who works hard and gets great results!
Looks good!
Steve

[Xnavylfr]

GOOD JOB!!

When I was a KID, I polished every aluminum part on my CB160 with 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper then followed with NEVERDULL. That engine looked like CHROME.


Xnavylfr(CHUCK)

[chewbacca5000]

Great job!  Looks much better than before.  I got to do the same think, but I think I will invoke some help from a power washer or pressure pot w/soda. 

How did you do the polishing.  I used to have a right angle drill with a buffing pad that worked great!  Not it's the old fashioned sand and scrub.

[derelicte]

Curious too about how you polished the installed parts.

[Magilla]

How it was done depends on the parts.  Small stuff like nuts and bolts are done with a dremmel and a wire wheel attachment.  That cleans them up in a hurry.

For aluminum that is dirty looking I use scotch-bright pads.  Red then green.  The cleans things up when there is not pitting or no clear coat residue.

For stuff that has pitting or clear coat residue I sand with 400 or 600.  Then I switch to a wet sand paper of 1000 BUT I don’t use water.  Then I use red Scotch-bright pads and then green Scotch-bright pads.

After that I use a metal polish.  I have several kinds but SemiChrome is my favorite.  I tend to hand polish each item.  This keeps it looking like aluminum but gives it a nice clean shine.  If I want it to look like chrome I use a buffing wheel or a dremmel with a buffing wheel (for items I don’t want to remove).

Lots of hours of wax on – wax off.