Topic: How to polish carbs?

[jabs83]

Can someone please outline a good method for polishing my carbs? I have the carb bodies soaking in chem dip right now, but Id like get my carbs looking nice and shiny afterwards.

I've done a search, a have read about folks using steel wool, but I haven't found a complete process. Thanks in advance for anyone who can outline a method for me.

[Danno]

soda blast them they will be satiny after and a lot easier to polish if you still want to

[TicoCafe]

Agree...Soda Blast first or a PineSol Soak depending how grungy they are. Then I use a Dremel Toll with Polishing Buff Wheel and some Mothers polishing compound.

Low light Pick...but here is what mine look like when I did them last weekend.

[CycleRanger]

What carbs?  what year bike?

It's not really practical to polish the carb bodies, imho.

Soda blasting yields the best finish for the bodies, again imho.
There's an image of my carbs and some tips in this thread.
http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=94602.0

I polished the top rings and the bowls with a buffing wheel.
The rest was soda blasted.

[736cc]

Typical Keihin slide carb pot-mettle bodies don't get polished. Take them apart as much as possible then soak overnight in Simple Green. The carbs, no matter how bad they were before, will look like new, the irredescence rainbows will actually return to the pot mettle. The bowls can be polished as they are of a different alloy. Removable hardware like choke lever, bowl clips, etc can be zinc-plated.
CV carbs w/ aluminum tops can have their tops polished.

[70CB750]

Not sure about Kehin, but carbs are very often made from zinc alloy  -  95% zinc the rest magnesium and aluminum.  That alloy runs better in cast than aluminum and also is less porous than aluminum.  Aluminum carbs were sometimes surface treated due to porosity.

Here the bowls are clearly aluminum, the body I dare to say is zinc.

Just saying 

[domer]

even if you could polish them... which im pretty sure you cant (been wrong before though) the up keep on that would be the biggest pita. imagine trying to get in there with some mothers once a month. i regret doing my controls as it is, scraping the left over polish out of the text with a dental pick... couldnt even imagine doin the carbs. ive seen painted ones that look good, but god forbid you get a gas leak!

[xsmooth69x]

soda blast or get some steel wool 0 and 000

the steel wool the shiat out of them ( you do this you have the probly take apart the carbs and clean them so you get all the steel wool particles out.)

then take some mothers aluminum polish

after that get some carnauba wax to extend the polish so they dont start getting dull again

[CycleRanger]

the iridescence rainbows will actually return to the pot mettle.

That "iridescence" is actually cad plating over the pot metal to prevent corrosion.
That's why I like the soda blasting, it doesn't remove that plating.