Polishing side covers

TwoManyXS1Bs said:
Hey, robinc. Good input. Never heard of that 'green', nor the Veritas. Is that a Canadian speciality item?
Click to expand...

Thanks 2M. Polishing is one of those labour of love jobs until you get the point where you say "Good enough" lol.
Something to do when waiting on parts orders.

"Veritas" is the tool design/manufacturing arm of Lee Valley Tools out of Ottawa. Lee Valley is the Canadian version of your Lie-Nielsen Toolworks. Both specialty woodworking tool companies. I think there might be Veritas distributors in the states, if not Lee Valley will ship south of the border.

Here is the link to the green,
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=32093&cat=1,43415,43439

BTW, AWESOME job on the side cover. Gotta love Autosol!

Hope you have a boat for that anchor, if not, maybe door stop?
 
TwoManyXS1B, no more complicated than necessary is a way of life ;) Did I meet you in Austin? It seems like someone rolled in from Fredricksburg to a bike night downtown once, but I can't remember who I met.
 
No, we've never met. I came onto the scene after your rides with DB. Been to DB's place a few times, met GoldTooth and Limey (at the Harvest Classic)...
 
robinc said:
..."Veritas" is the tool design/manufacturing arm of Lee Valley Tools out of Ottawa. Lee Valley is the Canadian version of your Lie-Nielsen Toolworks. Both specialty woodworking tool companies. I think there might be Veritas distributors in the states, if not Lee Valley will ship south of the border.

Here is the link to the green,
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=32093&cat=1,43415,43439
Click to expand...

Quite a site, getting lost in there. The US site doesn't seem to have the green.
 
TwoManyXS1Bs said:
Quite a site, getting lost in there. The US site doesn't seem to have the green.
Click to expand...

Hmmm.
Went to the Lee Valley site on my end and changed currency to US dollars. Then typed in Green "Honing" compound, sorry my bad, was calling it "Polishing" compound" Got this link:
http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=32984&cat=1,43072

Your US price $13.50, our CDA price $15.90......sigh.....lol.

Of course it's made in the USA, shipped to Canada, then shipped back to you. Oh well, at least it's not coming from China as most of our other parts.

If you want some and this link doesn't work, PM me and we'll get it sorted out.
 
Ok, that link works fine, thanx. I had a bit of trouble navigating the site, got it figured out now. And, definitely bookmarked it. That green honing bar is equivalent to a #9000 grit! Mucho good stuff in there on sharpening, abrasives, honing. Distracting...
 
TwoManyXS1Bs, a very quick 5 minute polish by hand with Autosol each month will keep those covers nice and shiny. When the covers are on the bike certain areas are not particularly noticeable so you do not have to polish every bit to a high shine.
 
TwoManyXS1Bs said:
Ok, that link works fine, thanx. I had a bit of trouble navigating the site, got it figured out now. And, definitely bookmarked it. That green honing bar is equivalent to a #9000 grit! Mucho good stuff in there on sharpening, abrasives, honing. Distracting...
Click to expand...

Great. Yes, distracting and addictive. One of my favorite 'toy' stores. Pricey, but quality tools and we all know you get what you pay for with tools. A cheap tool always ends up costing more than a good one.
 
TwoManyXS1Bs said:
No, we've never met. I came onto the scene after your rides with DB. Been to DB's place a few times, met GoldTooth and Limey (at the Harvest Classic)...
Click to expand...
They are good guys! DB's house is like a shrine to XS650 parts. He has anything you could possibly want and parts people don't even know exist, like gusseted center stands. Goldtooth could outrun me in the city but on the hillsides I could leave him miles behind, plus he would run out of gas there (inside joke). Limey, besides professional advice, loaned me some tools, unusual for a professional garage. I was living about 15 min from each of them.
 
One thing I enjoyed there, but not the way it is supposed to be enjoyed, is there is a motorcycle repair co-op. The guy who was heading it up was so grateful to his wife for occasionally letting them actually have their meetings.
 
Lots of great information for sure. I wanted to share an abrasive die grinder pad that works much better than rolocs. It works incredibly well on our aluminim polishing endeavors. It'll remove the dark blemishes in aluminum covers without creating craters or deep scratches/swirles, and preps the surface for easy wet sanding starting with 500-600 grit, and polishing to mirror finish. Here it is: https://benchmarkabrasives.com/prod...e-silicon-carbide?_pos=1&_sid=8746f2096&_ss=r
 
2XSive, nice abrasive wheels. Should solve that problem of galling when wire wheels are used. Are they any good for attacking chrome when preparing pitted chrome mudguards for painting?

Thank you for any feedback.
 
They'll work great on chrome as a prep for painting. They will definitely remove the shine without creating deep gouges or scratches. I've re-ordered a second package of these, since I just exhausted my first order from June of last year. Much better than roloc disks in my opinion for aluminum or paint prep purposes.
 
Basically, they are a Roloc disc, but look to be thicker. That gray "very fine" grit is available in Roloc discs but only from 3M. I've never seen any of the knock-off companies offer that grit, just fine (blue), medium (maroon), and coarse (brown). The gray "super fine" Roloc discs were the 1st ones I ever got but needed to get coarser ones to remove heavy oxidation and/or deep nicks and scratches.

For small items like the valve covers, I'm finding these little Scotchbrite wheels for a Dremel are working well, followed by the gray "very fine" Roloc disc, then buffing .....

VRO79C1.jpg


Sometimes some sanding is still needed after all the power tools, but they cut down the amount greatly.
 
Paul Sutton said:
White spirits will clean the covers after polishing. But you also lose some of the shine. I assume the spirits removes wax left behind from the polish, hence the slight drop in shine.
Click to expand...

Try a spry bottle of alcohol some clear H2o so it doesn't evap too fast.
 

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