Got an X-bonz..bike is stripped down a bit for winter mods...previous owner let the primary etc go all to hell..

I am under the impression it is polished aluminum with a clearcoat?

I do not want to remove the covers, to damn tight right now to buy gaskets..

Whats teh best polish to use? Im sure i will need an abbrassive..
BRASSO?

I have dremels, drills, etc to polish//buff with..tools are not a problem..air compresser etc...

 

no one??????

 

if you really want to do it right you should take a low speed buffer and rubbing compound to it, or use paint stripper to remove all the coating(which is ruined) . then you'll be able to polish it with your favorite aluminum polish. i would save up till you can afford to buy gaskets and do it off the bike. it will take you half the time and save your knuckles and back. have fun.

 

The only polish I have had experience with which does a good job on aluminum is SemiChrome polish. I used to use it on my rocker box covers on my '72 EG. It only comes in a small tube but a little goes a long way. You would need a lot of elbow grease or a machine buffer which you have. I know there are a lot of polishes out there but I know SemiChrome works.

 

Sears sells polishing bars red and white. The red is more abbrasive use that 1st then move on to the white.
You could use your drill with a polishing wheel on it. If the parts are clear coated you will need to sand that off with fine grit sandpaper before attempting to polish.
After you get it polished you can use blue magic metal polish to keep it looking good by hand.

 

Here's a thread I did a while back with pics when some of the guys were giving bad polishing advise. Honestly it will be tough to do a good job with the parts on the bike.


https://www.hdforums.com/forum/gener...with-pics.html

 

Been a while, but as the op said Sears sells bars called Tripoli and Rouge. I did an aluminum frame before. Started with 220 Grit sandpaper and sanded all the paint off. went to 400 and sanded, 600 sanded 800 sanded, 1000 sanded, wet sanded, 1200 sanded wet sanded, 1500 sanded wet sanded. Then took a high speed buffer and used the polishing compounds. It shined like a mirror. Topped it off with mothers. This is a short version, but google it and it should tell you.

 

I reeeeally, wish I had taken before and after photos.

However, I just cleaned/buffed my aluminum rocker covers today, on my 2007 Nightser. This morning I got too impatient trying to get water spots off of them and did something stupid. I used the SemiCrome that I use for the spokes on the covers. That is fine. Using it with a scotch brite pad was the stupid part.
I basically tried to use sand paper to clean polished chrome!

Soooo, I tried the NeverDull fabric stuff for about an hour with very little result. After that I got some Blue Magic Metal Polish and a buffing bit. And BLAMO! Suuure my drill died a half hour into buffing, but, an hour charge and another 30-45 mins and they looked gooood! I didn't take them off, but if I did I would have had wet daydreams!

 

I'm with the previous owner, I got feed up with polishing my "bones" rocker covers & primary covers. I put around 10K on my bike annually and found that everytime a few rain drops hit the aluminum I got water stains and had to polish. I'm not going to spend more time polishing and cleaning vs riding. Each to his own, polish on my friend!

 

I used Simi Chrome (yes, "Simi") on my '78 Sportster cases and rocker covers. One of the keys to keeping water spots off the aluminum is to wash the bike when the engine is cold. Back in those days there were two kinds of Harleys; those with nice looking aluminum, and those with oxidized aluminum.