Polished Sprocket Carrier

I cleaned up this sprocket carrier with mother's mag and aluminum polish and a dremmel. To prep, i used fine steel wool and wetsanded before the metal polish.

Is there anything I should do not to help make the shine last or to make maintenance easier?

Is this pot metal and not aluminum? This is supposedly off of a 78 Spoked rim - according to who I got it from on ebay.

Has anyone used a different approach that may have done a better job at smoothing out the surface?

Thanks
-John

I'm interested too in how to best keep the shine on the alloy and keep it clean. I polished the sprocket carrier for my Police rear wheel I put on my KZ1000, but when I put the two together, I didn't like the look with the alloy rim so ended up painting it satin black. but I have plenty of other bits I've polished that I'd like to keep that way with the minimum of maintenance, The Mothers does seem to leave a protective layer. I've found using it on a Scotchbrite works really well without scratching alloy.

Polishing is removing scratches where dirt grease and crud collects and causes corrosion. keep it clean and it will remove easier slicker than a whistle! put a coat of clear or anything for that matter and corrosion will build up underneath and fail I use mothers twice a year sometimes more. usually a 2 or 3 day wash wax and repair, unless I get lazy.

I always used Nevr Dull first until the cotton wad would stop turning as black as the 1st application, & then Mothers to finish it
I tried using Mothers alone & it didn't look as polished, as when I used the Nevr Dull 1st
Pete

Ill give it a roll as well, the most that will happen is another do over, or do you use mothers before you wipe the never dull off or would it matter if you apply mothers with never dull gawb? I used alot of it as a boatswains mate in the navy. a couple days at sea and brass is green again

9er rider wrote: Ill give it a roll as well, the most that will happen is another do over, or do you use mothers before you wipe the never dull off or would it matter if you apply mothers with never dull gawb? I used alot of it as a boatswains mate in the navy. a couple days at sea and brass is green again

I went back to using Nevr Dull 1st, after using JUST Mothers, because the results were not as good for me when I figured I'd skip the Nevr Dull step once, because of all the extra elbow grease needed, It seemed to make a difference doing the 2 step process for me
Pete

Looks pretty good.

Polished ally looks great but needs maintenance to keep it nice, coating in a laquer or clear coat dulls the shine and has it's own other problems...chroming ally is stupidity.

slightly off topic, but check these sprocket carriers as I found one badly cracked on my 1000R,

Where was the crack?
One advantage of my cleaning is that it's easier to inspect for cracks.
-John

Tyrell Corp wrote: Polished ally looks great but needs maintenance to keep it nice, coating in a laquer or clear coat dulls the shine and has it's own other problems...chroming ally is stupidity.

slightly off topic, but check these sprocket carriers as I found one badly cracked on my 1000R,

I don't think chroming alloy is stupid.
Steve

One reason not to do it is it's supposed to stop heat dissipating from the covers making things run hotter - that's what they say on the vintage Triumph forums and in Classic bike magazines about the Royal Wedding and Jubilee models that had chrome on the alloy. I don't know myself but could see how it could act as a reflective layer and not conduct the heat so well.

I like the look of chrome covers, just over time it tends to peel off . Unlike dull or corroded alloy, peeling chrome is then really difficult to restore.

The 'stupid' bit , to my mind, being the choice between mirror polishing alloy cheaply or spend big bucks on finding a plater that will reluctantly chrome alloy with the warning it might not last too long.

I guess this is where you tell me you had them done 20 years ago...just in my experience what works well on steel doesn't work so well on alloy.