I want to polish the shit out of my chrome bike. It already looks pretty awesome when I give it the once over with a rag but I reckon a bit of car wax or something would make it even more awesomer. I was just going to grab something from AutoBarn or similar. Does anyone have any experience doing this?
If the chrome is in good condition already just use some carnauba wax.
Mother’s or Meguiers are both really good.
Cleaning my chrome forks using diluted ordinary dishwashing liquid usually gives it a good shine.
What’s the best way to polish metal parts? I’ve picked up some Dura Ace cranks with some shoe-rub through the anodising. I think I will polish the whole thing. Any tips?
might be worth starting a new thread for this. I’m very much interested also.
good times last weekend. i was at my folks place doing a heap of maintenance on various bikes. decided to use a shorter stem so i pulled something suitable out of dad’s shed. spent quite a while polishing it up with steel wool (this does an ok job, gives it a bit of a sheen but certainly not a “polish”). Then i had the power tools out to modify some clamps for aero bars. angle grinding away, sparks flying everywhere, steel wool catches on fire.
lesson number 2, re steel wool: not only should you keep it well away from electrical appliances where stray bits of steel can short things out, it also doesn’t take much work to catch on fire. great for survival, not so great for survival at the same time.
I think there was an instruction manual on the fyxomatosis site a while back?
I wish I had a buffing wheel :oops:
Chrome parts + buffing wheel + fast cut compound + fine cut compound + 30 minutes = BLING
Search for old posts by me, here’s some of them:
For ultimate results, start with SiC paper, 120 up to 1200 or 4000 grit, grinding alternately at 90º to the previous grind to remove all prior scratches, then ethanol wash, follow with 6um diamond suspension and lube, another wash and finish with 1um diamond susp. Clear coat if you don’t want oxidation to dull the shine in short order. You’ll be able to see your ugly mug in it, but if you haven’t done the prep properly you’ll also see every fucking scratch sticking out like dogs balls. A vibrating polisher with walnut media or similar would help on irregular and awkwardly shaped stuff. (See a gun supplies shop for a shell tumbler)
Quicker method (Easier on fingers and sanity too): SiC paper, 600&1200, autosol, buff on, polish off. Repeat with Autosol as necessary.
Get a metal polish to shine it up and remove the rust. EG Autosol from supercheap. Also works on Al and brass.
For pitted chrome, apply it with aluminium foil instead of cloth. For severely damaged chrome, apply it with brass wool. In either of these cases, follow up with a regular polish with cloth.
W&D is the same. They use silicon carbide as the abrasive. I use 120/240/400/800/1200/4000 grit to polish metallographical samples then diamond after that. I haven’t bothered to use diamond suspension on bike parts yet, you don’t really need a 1 micron surface finish. But if you wanted a better finish than Autosol, you could try Brasso/Silvo.
I got a crappy bench grinder from Supercheap Auto for $19. Take stones off, put buffing pads on. Voila! Buffing wheel.
Where’d you get your buffing wheels and how much?
I haven’t got the buffing pads yet but you can get them from Bunnings, Supercheap
etc. Good quality ones are usually around $20+ so the cheap shit ones are probably half that.
Or you can get buffing pads that fit on a power drill - they’re good for odd shapes or large stuff like frames.
I actually bought the grinder for grinding, but in the meantime I accidentally destroyed the thing I wanted to grind. I’ll get around to buffing pads sooner or later.
Hmmm sounds real good like
Thanks Blakey. I have polished some cranks before and they quickly get tarnished. What clear coat to use - just any epoxy, or is there some special metal stuff? Just whack it on according to the destructions? Will it last fairly well?
Blakey … do you know the chemistry of the anodising stripper?? Is there something available here in Oz??
sodium hydroxide ( available as draino amongst other things)
i’ve used oven cleaner as well. it tends to take everything off, including the smooth surface, if you leave it for a decent period of time.
I got some car polish off my folks and polished the shit outa my fixie on sunday. of course it bucketed down sunday night and monday. at least it looked hot for a few hours.
okay so slightly different (sorry if this is a duplicate post but couldn’t find anything) - does anyone have any super cheap tips for polishing up a painted frame to make it look swish before selling? I want to avoid expensive products from my LBS, and wondering if common household products can be used: e.g windex, wood floor polish, etc.