This winter I am repairing any imperfections on my Thruxton R. The previous owner must have owned some boots, which scratched the heel guards. I removed scratches by hand with the 400 grit wet and dry bit it has left patches. I’m wondering if someone could recommend a more tool based approach given the surface is quite uneven.
Almost feel like a bench grinder with something less abrasive or an attachment to a drill or angle grinder would make my life easier. Then I could be wrong.
It’s fair to say it looks horrible at the moment. I have not started on the other side until I have an easier solution to work with.
If you keep doing what your doing it’ll come good but its gonna take elbow grease. You could get a bench grinder with a polishing wheel and various compounds for very reasonable money. Thats probably what I’d do but I’m no expert! Actually something that I keep meaning to get (already got a bench grinder) because it will always be a handy thing to have.
Thats kind of the thought I was having. It took about an hour to get out the original scratches bench grinder seems slightly cheaper than replacing the perfectly good parts. I still dont have a clue which type of wheel/disc to use on it.
You need a polishing mop with a selection of coloured pastes. I can never remember the order of the colours, I would need to go into my garage to look at my kit. All are available online.
I use polishing wheels fixed to a bench grinder myself…
Many thanks I used to live not too far away many moons ago. That second link seems pretty good. I just need to decide whether to opt for the angle grinder route or bench grinder. I already have a few angle grinders plus angle grinder would work for parts on the bike bit this part is prob easier to fix with a bench grinder I suspect.
I see they do aluminium kits I might give them a bell as I dont want an uber polished chrome kind of look
Did a little bit to see how it faired. Jees it makes a mess and is a very slow process but its slowly getting rid of the uneven finish. Will then work out how to dull it down again I wouldn’t mind but I am using the most abrasive mop and polish block it looks too bling
Just watched a couple of you tube videos they suggest going over aluminium with the scotch brite followed by acetone on a rag to get more of a grain finish come matte finish does anyone recommend this approach or have another?
I think the learning from this is that reproducing the original finish was not possible.
Presumably due to an anodised layer. I clocked the back of it had a point resembling a finish point. May also explain why it was so time consuming to achieve an even finish. Maybe one of the experts on here can shed some light.