Topic: Polishing a caliper assembly....sandblast? What media?

[gregwaits]

I want to attempt to polish the brake caliper on my CB750 like the one shown. What would be the best approach?

I was thinking using a sandblast cabinet (which I have access to) If so, what media would I have the best results with? I don't want to scratch it up.

[BlindJoe]

Walnut shells

[Bodi]

I don't think there's an easy way to do that. It looks like someone took the paint off, possibly with blasting but just plain old sanding does pretty nicely. Then a lot of polishing with a big wheel plus a little wheel on a dremel. I've done this and it takes a lot of time and sore hands but the final effect is really nice.
A tumbler will do a pretty good job but I haven't seen a mirror shine like that from one. Nothing really replaces "elbow grease" and time.
I have heard that chemical paint strippers will penetrate the porous casting and slowly seep back out leaving crusty bumps and thus sanding or blasting is better for parts you plan to polish. I've never seen this effect myself but the fellow that I buy polishing supplies from is firmly anti paint stripper.

[kghost]

I use glass bead...fine.

Followed by sanding with wet paper and WD40.

220 fine
400
600
800

Buff on a wheel with white rouge.

And if you have fingers left all the better 

[Steve F]

For me, I used VIRGIN glass beads, and a low air pressure to keep the "damage" to a minimum.  This was followed by tumbling them using the industry standard ceramic media.  I made plugs to fit inside the cylinder bore before tumbling to prevent damage to the bore.  Then I buffed them with a "hard" cloth wheel in a pedestal grinder running at almost 2000 rpm.  Red compound followed with white compound and a softer polishing cloth wheel.  Then the Dremel tool and felt wheels in for the hard to reach nooks.