This was the dumbest thing I think I have done in a while but DAMN, Does it look badass!!! I am happy with it anyway, let me know what ya think!!!

Heres the story:
My Pop and I have been in the process of restoring a 1963 & 1/2 Ford Galixe Convertable over the last year or so. We had been reworking all of the aluminum trim that runs around the car last fall. After getting the hang of working with this thin aluminum, getting little dings and dents out, snading and finally polishing, it looked great! Better than alot of the NOS (New Old Stock, for those that dont know, leftover parts from the time these cars where new that neer was sold/installed) crap floating around at swapmeets and online.

Now, a boring day out in the garage, my dumbass decides to polish some stuff on my bike as good as the trim for the car turned out. Well, I had bit off more than I could chew. I was thinking put in a couple good weekends and I can get all the passanger pegs and driver rearset and pegs poslished. After many many weekends all day, alot of weeknights after work, some of my Pops and some of my freinds help, I have got all of the polishing out of my sestem for a long time. I got all my brackets and hardware polished then decided, Hell, why not do my wheel lips too!!! Here are some pics of the bike in its current state. All in all, I am gonna say that with all the help I got doing this tedious, boring job, I am thinking there is somewhere close to 150 man hours in all of the sanding and polishing and hand rubbing. All of the smooth aluminum was easy but the passanger peg brackets and reset brackets took FOREVER to get all the texture and pitts out of every nook and cranny of the things!!!

[IMG]local://upfiles/3467/641E9C33A13C48A0B7E07B722CEEC107.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/3467/632D698D268B44AEB58C6D5AB027E65B.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/3467/F4C760C2B53C45A5A0563BA687F8F929.jpg[/IMG]

 

More Pics

[IMG]local://upfiles/3467/5282451406634944BC4A7CB0E6559F74.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/3467/820239D7026145E8B630E23B751758C8.jpg[/IMG]

 

More

[IMG]local://upfiles/3467/6163FAC0D6244F90833E2C1B296DB4C0.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/3467/4A2C331D3D9245C2B5A2657E9BA792E0.jpg[/IMG]

 

I wish I had the patience for that. [:@]

But it looks good bro. It definitely looks worth it to me.

 

looks great man. id send my stuff out if i wanted it polished

 

Wow, what a project. Good to see ya followed it through. Deej is gonna be proud!

 

those wheel lips look ****** siiiccckkkk! +1, i wish i had the patience for all that! I have read many different things about polishing, and not sure i know the proper way of doing it to want to venture into that myself, some peeople say buff it all out, some people say gradually sand with finer and finer grit paper.. some people say use chemicals.. i dont even know where to begin.. id appreciate some insight!

 

Those wheels definitely look nice and a lot of work. kory636, you can just tape the part you don't want stripped and use aircraft paint stripper and it will look good. The wheel/ rim is pretty shiny under the paint. Check the DIY section.

 

Wow, looks great man, nice job!

- Matt

 

Thanks everyone!!!!

Speed is right about alot of work. I started with the stripper on the wheels. Acctually, got it right from the DIY section of this forum. Thanks for that guys!!! Be careful with the steel wool! There is a machine mark on the lip from when they manufactured them. Since my brackets where smoother than the lips, I went ahead and sanded all the marks out with paper. We got my wheels mounted up, andwithout any loads (chain and brakes) then spun them while applying the paper. Polished the same way then hand rubbed them. Smooth as butter!!!

As for all the peg brackets, since they have texture from casting, I started with 220 and got as much of the texture off could with some kind of B&D mouse hand held finishing sander, then went back in by hand and got all the crevisis and corners. Quickly ran over with buffing wheel to find all the hidden pits. Touched up with the 220. Went to 400, 800, 1200 all by hand. To the buffing wheel we go. Whitecompoundwith a hard wheel, then blue with a softer wheel. Hand polish with wenol. Use a good clean microfiber cloth when polishing. I have not got to it yet, but I have a even finer hand compound that I will go over with the next time she gets cleaned.

My favorite part is the pegs themselves. Used a DA sander locked up, kinda locks it up like a grinder,with 150grit to get the heavy line off the side. Sanded with a DA with 400...and so on. I thought they may look kinda cool with all of the knobby parts back ground black so I taped them, painted them, then took thinner and carefully wiped off just the top of the *****. When I took the tape off I thought that it was a good desision that I did it. Did the same with the passanger pegs as well. They didn't turn out quite as well, but they dont see much time on the bike anyway.

This is very time consuming and if it wanst for my Dad pushing me, showing me tricks and teaching me the things he has learned over the last 40+ years in the auto business, I would have never finished.

If I were to do this agian or give the best advice, Take it from Evil,pay someone else do it!!! LOL If you do decide you want to take the time to do this, if you feel like you have been working on a peice and it starts to get the best of you, just walk away. It will be there tomarrow!

If you have any other questions let me know.