A Free Online Community for Custom Motorcycles
1,271 Custom Motorcycles Pictures · 100 Users

Category:

Painting & Bodywork

Custom Motorcycles »

1980 Ironhead Sportster Chopper

Polishing the Aluminum and Chrome Parts

Posted by Justin on 5/10/2005

This sportster has a lot of aluminum and it all needs polishing. In particular, the cam, primary, and transmission covers, the fork sliders, brake calipers, master cylinder, and the rocker box covers. Many of the chrome parts are really beat to hell, especially the pipes.

Images

Rear outer cali another shot of the aluminum caliper body after being sanded smooth 1024 x 768 px (135 KB) 0 Comments		Beat up rear ca A quick buffing got some shine on this caliper but the dents and deep scratches will require some heavier sanding and grinding 1024 x 768 px (161 KB) 0 Comments
BEHOLD THE PORT The tiny buffing wheel worked ok on the slower air die grinder but this electirc one was too fast and it fell apart. So I rigged a 6" spiral sewn wheel on a disc sander and held it on with an arbor nut off my angle grinder of the same brand. 1024 x 768 px (202 KB) 0 Comments	Buffing the pip The buffer was even able to remove the brown discoloration at the top of these pipes 1024 x 768 px (151 KB) 0 Comments	Polishing the F I used the orbital sander to smooth out the rough area where the reflector would attach, and a cloth buffing wheel on a pneumatic die grinder to polish 1024 x 768 px (229 KB) 0 Comments
Polishing the P A buffing wheel on a die grinder quickly brought out a mirror finish on this hazy old aluminum cover 1024 x 768 px (168 KB) 0 Comments	Rear caliper af I went to work on this piece for a couple hours with a dremel and orbital sander to dig out and smooth the deep dents and scratches, then gave it a coarse buff to get it to this point. Not perfect yet but a big improvement 1024 x 768 px (159 KB) 0 Comments	Right Side Cove This shot shows a good comparison between the buffed and un-buffed areas 1024 x 768 px (195 KB) 0 Comments
Slider and whee Coming along but I still need to pull the calipers off for restoration 1024 x 768 px (189 KB) 0 Comments	WITNESS THE FUR The buffer of death made short work of this surface, it even removed the raised logo from the middle of that circle 1024 x 768 px (155 KB) 0 Comments

Back to Parent Page:

1980 Ironhead Sportster Chopper

User: Justin ( )

Contact User

Hi, I'm the creator and admin of ProjectBikes.org. If you need help with the site or anything else please use the Contact Artist link to email me.

justin
Carlsbad CA US
http://www.ProjectBikes.org

Profile Page: http://www.ProjectBikes.org/Justin

View a full list of Justin's Pages

Would you like to post a comment on this gallery page?

» In order to post comments you need to Sign Up for an Account.
» If you already have an Account, you can Sign in. to post a comment.

Browse by Category

Big Dog (2)

Choppers (44)

Cruisers (7)

Dressers (2)

Ground-Up Customs (41)

Harley-Davidson (32)

Honda (22)

Indian (1)

Kawasaki (4)

Kit Bikes (1)

Other Makes (8)

Suzuki (1)

Triumph (3)

Yamaha (7)

-Suggest a Category-

ProjectBikes.org is a free professional and social networking community for Custom Motorcycles. Show off your work, promote your business, and grow your online presence.