MY .02

Clear powdercoat the polished parts. Then once in a while with a soft cloth and just a dab of caranauba wax, and they will always look freashly polished.

~Joe

 

Very nice job on the polishing, welcome to the black booger club!!!

Don't clear anything that you've busted your *** to polish up nice and shiny!!!

More often than not the clear will yellow and peel in a couple years anyway.
If you've polished it to a very fine grit compound all you'll need to do is hit it
with some simichrome every other month to keep that shine. And avoid any
desires to ride on salty roads when the sun comes out in the winter.

Taking a picture of polished ali can be a real bitch because like you noticed
the flash against the fine grit scratches makes it wash out and look dull. Best
thing I've found to take pics is to have an incandescent shop light or two to
illuminate the piece. And incandescent bulbs add a nice glow.

Here's two pics of a rocker the second has an incandescent shop light for
lighting. I had also taken some with flash of this angle but deleted them
because they almost looked like it was brushed.

Blurry because because of long exposure from poor light...


With an incandescent light...


And back to the clear coat issue ... here's the same rocker cover 18 months
later, maybe been simichromed three times during that period (yea I'm lazy)...



Gazza

 

very true

not sure if the powdercoat clear resists the yellowing and peeling though

 

Powder coat clear is specifically what I was thinking about. It's touchy to get
cured in the first place without yellowing, you have to bake longer at a lower
temperature than you would with most powders because at that magic point
between 375 and 400 degrees where powder cures best it will turn a nasty
yellow just during the curing.

Then you're coating something that has a high polish (i.e. not much to bite
into) you can't expect it to stay attached for a long time. When you're powder
coating something with a color you can get away with bead blasting or medium
sanding the surface for some bite.

Gazza

 

they make a new poly clear powder coat... made to be used on polished parts... i got a random piece i polished up just to test it on... i have never worked with it but have heard great things... if not, no big deal... i polish stuff all the time and my brothers old sporty was competely polished... we keep our bikes to clean to worry about oxidation,
ooh ya the powder it is uv proof so to speak, it will not yellow. we will see

i will hot flock the items first Gazza if you heat up the item first to somewhere between 225 and 300, then hit it with the powder... make it wet at like 375 (depending on the powder) the long bake it like 45 min to get a full cure 325 -350... i have had some awesome luck working with clears... and that is mainly just ultra gloss clears... this polly-something or other powder is crazy easy to work and is just deep and clear... my buddy did a ton of stuff and i was blown away! ill post pics tomorrow once it is delivered of the stuff i have done... also got a new liquid mirror chrome... and gold.... PIMP!

 

Wow that poly clear sounds neat, I'd like to hear more about it if you try it out.

I've never hot flocked a part, that's a new concept to me. I'll have to try it out
when I get a new HV power supply for my gun... the old one crapped out in mid
job on the last part I coated

Kinda wandering on topic... I guess I got a lot of mileage out of the relatively
inexpensive eastwood gun so no real complaints about it, I should probably just
buy another $100 dollar gun, but being an electronics geek makes me think I
ought to be able to fix it.

Thanks a bunch for the info,
Gazza

 

Is the poly clear alot more expensive than standard powder?

I see what your saying gazza, about the peeling.....then it just looks like crap.....hmmmm I juat thought it might prolong the finish. Worst case you strip it, polish it back up and hit it with the polishing compound once in a while like you said before.

Looking forward to seeing how the clear turns out!

~Joe

 

Damn, that is beautiful....

 

ya it is the tank on that sucker is awesome! love the paint... ya it is about twice as expensive as regular powder... it is called polyester powder... eastwoods pro gun is great... i use that on all my big stuff but most of my smaller stuff i use a hobby gun, unless i need to regulate electricty flow... i can alter the air flow very well with the hobby gun as well so i like it!

 

Ya know I was thinking the same thing when I first started polishing. But a
good buddy warned me off of the clear and said just use mothers every
couple weeks. To be honest I was skeptical as heck at first, but it's worked
out real well. My big fear was that after taking the time to polish it, it would
go back to the way it looked when I bought the bike. This is what it was
when I bought it...

This is the front cylinder of that same engine when I bought it, both sides
were the same condition. You can see where the clear on it was peeling
and how the peeled parts became very oxidized...



Gazza