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KEVINHOG'S SPORTY PAGES
This is me...kevinhog@aol.com
This is what I look like after
about 4 hours at the polishing wheel.
I'm Actually happier than I look
number of hits
This is the grinder/buffer that I bought at the Pomona Swap meet for $55.00.
It's definately paid for itself many times over.  So far I have polished :
     Both rocker boxes
     Primary cover
     Cam cover
     Sprocket cover
     Master cylinder
     Top tripple clamp
     Lower legs
     Lots of nuts and bolts
This is my Sportster
It started life as a 1982 XLX
Weve been together about 10 years
This will be her third makeover
how do ya like the 1961 Honda 90 Tank?
Good thing it won't fit huh.
These are some of the parts I have reshaped and polished.
This is the stuff that removes the anodize so that you can begin to polish
Okay...This is where I started the process.  This is after I degreased with 2 cans of gunk, one can of carb cleaner, a little brake clean and after my wife went to the store, in the sink with super hot water and tide.  You want the item really clean so that you don't contaminate your polishing buffs. So this is what it looked like after all that, real clean and covered with anodizing that prevents you from polishing.
Here's that Blue Lighning stuff again.  I got this at swap meet also for 10.00 bucks.  Now I know that some people will say that you can sand that anodize off but I much prefer this stuff.  It's an acid so you don't want to get it on your hands and you REALLY don't want to breath the fumes.  This is a picture of what you want it to do for about 10 minutes then re-apply again.  You don't want to let it set for to long because it will etch into the aluminum making it a little tougher to do a good polish job.  I'm sure if you were to take the time and effort that it would take to sand your parts down that you would ultimately end up with a smoother finish but this stuff works fine for the girls I go out with.
After it's done doing it's bubbling thing it will look kind of dark gray or black. Then you just take a Scothbrite pad and a hose and wipe it as clean as you can get it.  It's important to get as much of the oxidation off as possible otherwise it end up in your buffing pads.  Don't worry about the tiny scratches from the Scothbrite,  they will buff out instantly.  The shot to the right is what it looks like after the Scotchbrite.
This is a test buff against the hard buff wheel with black rouge.  You want to do this to make sure you have gotten all the anodize off.  This picture also illustates nicely the difference from where we were to where we are going. Pretty pretty, shiny shiny!!!  This really gives me the incentive to get dirty.
This is what it looks after about 2 hours against the hard wheel with black rough cutting rouge.  I asked different people at the swap meets and looked at some stuff on the web.  The bottom line is you get better and better at doing this the more you do it.  I was told by one guy that you don't want to use so much force against the wheel as to heat up the metal.  I tried that...Probably works if you are ree-polishing someting but if you want to get a decent shine out of these shitty Harley castings you want to get down with it on that hard wheel.  Still there are parts that can be done better. There always are.  Part of the learning curve with this is deciding when you've done enough.  I don't plan on this being a show bike or I would have done some sanding on some of the high spots but I think it turns out quite nice.  I use welding gloves to hold on to the part cuz I get it damned hot.  Don't forget your goggles and painting mask like I did.

 

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