Wheel Polishing

[Guest scottfair2003]

Never heard that, not to say that it's not true. But chances are that this is how things 'used' to be, and coating technology has come a long way in recent years.

Nyalic ('Everbrite' in the US) is guaranteed not to go yellow. Also, if it's damaged (scratched), you can remove it with laquer thinners and reapply, or even just paint over the scratch! It's self-levelling, and the new coat chemically blends into the old coat. It really is amazing stuff. Apparently developed for NASA, it's a big hit in the marine industry.

An aerosol can (which is what I use) costs $55AUD!!! It's the big can, but still, I baulked at the price for a while. Then I needed some for another project (Falcon GT steering wheel restoration) so bought it, and as soon as you start spraying you realise that this can sprays like nothing you've ever used before. It's like 50% of the cost went into the aerosol technology, no kidding. The VFR of aerosols : )

The product itself sprays like water mist, very light coats only are needed. Shelf life of Nyalic is indefinite so long as it's properly stored.

Thanks I will give it a try on the VFR first if that works then I will try it on the Harley....if I bugger up the Harley rims it will be way more expensive than hitting my Honda wheels with some paint to fix em...........lol. I just stripped and polished my rear wheel with Jasco paint remover. It went really well getting the black paint off and the primer came off with some work. I then scrubbed hard with some coarse then medium then fine steel wheel, finished it off by polishing it with extreme metal polish (its pink polish empregnated cloth stuff ) and rubeed it for awhile with a micorfibre towel. Now all I have to do is touch up the line where it turns black with some ceramic paint as I just want the outter ring polished keeping the black spokes and I will be done with the back..........hope the front doesn't take me another three days.......lol. My efforts are worth it and it looks fantastic.

[Guest ImLost]

The wheels are not polished under the paint. They are what is called a machined finish. Lots of cars have machine finished wheels take a look. The good part is if you do want to polish the machined surface it is fast and easy. On the other hand the cast portion of the wheel is harder to polish. If the machined part was polished and the cast part was cleaned really well, it should still look great.

[25th VFR]

Looks awesome! That is my next project, nice pix too

[Guest da9b20]

<font color='#000000'>Taking off the front wheel is outlined very well in your owners manual! It is just a matter of jacking it up from under the headers, getting off the axle bolt, taking off the 4 caliper bolts, taking off the 4 axle pinch bolts then sliding out the axle. It goes on the opposite way. somtimes the calipers bolts might be on really tight carfull no to strip them.  I did a pictorial how to here

Remove the wheels

Jasco stripper is very thick and can be put on very precisely, however its caustic and hazardous.</font>

The wheels look nice. The link above stopped working.

[luigi]

Interesting. Nice work and documentation.

Luigi.

[Guest slip]

<font color='#000000'>Always follow the directions on your can of paint remover.. Some people think if it recommends 15 minutes for the paint to bubble, "then hey, 30 minutes will really bubble and lift the paint off"!!!

This is false, the longer you leave it the hotter the chemical reaction gets on the aluminum, thus actually cooking the paint on!

As the remover dries, it chemically bonds to the wheel. The heat from the chemical reaction causes it to bake, making it harder in spots to remove the paint..

Great article HispanicSlammer, I referred to it acouple times while stripping my wheels..  :beer:

Using 1500 grit water proof sandpaper and water sanding the polished aluminum before you polish also helps add a brilliant shine..</font>

Yep, this is what I found, the longer you leave it on part. I stripped the wheels on my ZRX1200, left the spokes and inner part of the rim painted black. Looked sharp. I took the tires off the rim to do mine. I used aircraft remover. I found that if I didn't try to get the paint off on one try, multible applications, it wasn't too bad. Just time consuming.

[Guest Nestep]

Guys I have the 2007 RWB. I want white rims!!!! Any advice or suggestions? Whats the easiest way to get this done?

[SLO97VFR]

<font color='#FF0000'>are the 90-93 wheels polished under the paint.I noticed that the older wheels are smoother than the new ones do you know if they have to be polished?</font>

<font color='#FF0000'>are the 90-93 wheels polished under the paint.I noticed that the older wheels are smoother than the new ones do you know if they have to be polished?</font>

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The spokes on the 90-93 wheels are roughcast, whereas on the VFR800 they're smooth. Rims are polished on both bikes.

As can see here, on some silver 90-94 wheels, they do not have a nice finished under the powdercoat from Honda. I am having them re powder coated red anyways. I just wanted to see what was underneath. So if you have the silver wheels, not worth trying to strip unless you want to save some $$ at the powder coaters.

You might want to consider a new set of rotor bolts. Friend of mine replaced a front rotor but not the bolt and snapped the head off one - probably cost him more to get it extracted than a new set of bolts would have been.

And yes my manual states that you are to REPLACE not reuse the rotor bolts, at least in my gen 4 manual. I ordered some new ones, no reason to skimp here!

Edited May 6, 2008 by SLO97VFR

[Guest Vfr750Rider]

i love this "mod" i have done it to a couple of bikes i have owned.... its just one of those cheap and relatively easy ways to mod your bike and make it look custom...

[Guest fatso127]

not sure if this thread is still alive or not but what the hell. I have a vfr700, doing the F2 conversion...had the white f2 wheels. i hate white wheels so i striped with aircraft jel took a few days to get as much of the paint off as i could in all the nooks and crannies.

then spray wheels with easy off oven cleaner, this is remove any anodizing they may have on there, just let sit for 48 hours or so...take a hard bristled brush and clean it off.

and then the fun part....SANDING

start at 60 grit and work through all of the grits up to 600 grit, this will take some time i just focused on the areas that will be seen...a dremel will make this easier...it can get in small areas.

wet sand with 800 - 1000 grit (with water /dawn dishwashing liquid / and blue magic metal polish)

THEN!!!!

for those without a bench polisher and angle grinder works best...you can get polsihing wheels from home depot or lowes...and get polishing compounds from menards or eastwood or caswellplating.com

start with black and sisal wheel(can us spiral, just have to polish longer)

--> use microfiber cloths to get ALL compound off...VERY IMPORTANT ALL COMPOUND OFF

then brown and canton wheel (can use spiral just have to polish longer)

--> use microfiber cloths to get all compound off

then white and soft cotton

--> microfiber clean again....

by now your rims should be BLINGING!!!!!!!!

now take some mothers polish and apply that twice...put you wheel back on and go turn some heads

this might take a few days or weeks...but take your time and you will not be disappointed.

Edited August 19, 2008 by fatso127

[BrittC]

Thank you to HS for your writeup! A few weeks ago I pried my old tires off and took care of my wheels just before having new rubber mounted. I used a Mothers PowerBall with some Honda metal polish, and I love the way they came out....

[The mailman]

Quite a messy job but well worth the effort. I did mine two or three years ago now and the finish has remained bright. I was worried they would discolor or become dull over time. No reason to worry, a quick wipe with a soapy rag when I wash the bike and they look as good as new. Great work BrittC!