shining that ugly metal

For parts you can easily remove you can make a polishing station out of an old electric motor. During the restoration process on my Z1 I found that a med-fine wire wheel on a pneumatic tool removed alot of the oxidation and polished the aluminum a little. It worked great for getting between the fins on the engine. I then used the aluminum polishing kit ($30 from Eastwood's) with tripoli followed by 0000 steel wool and finally some sort of metal polish. NOXON worked the fastest but leaves alot of black film. To remove that film I sprayed a terry cloth with WD-40.

Now that the bike is nearly done, I'll maintain it with Mothers.

On my polished aluminum parts, I apply a coat of quality wax after I'm done buffing to keep it from oxidizing. This seems to work very well to keep it looking good. I just give it a light re-buff once a year and then wax again. This keeps it very low maintenence. Keep in mind if you clean the bike with any harsh cleaner that can strip off the wax (S100 for example), you will have to re-apply the wax.

A drill motor and some buffs with some polish will do wonders. I use the drill if the parts are on the bike, I use the bench grinder from above if the parts are removed





This is a bag of soda and cheap guns for blasting the rough areas like the jugs and head



Before



After



You will need one of these because it is time consuming and tedious