Polishing Pt. 1

They say the difference between an award winning bike and 2nd place is two things: a patient girlfriend and the extra hours of polishing metal.

With the BSA engine, there's basically 2 big aluminum mirrors on either side that have to be perfect.  Unfortunately one of them is right behind the kick (kick-start only, by the way).  That means that there's a whole lot of guys that tried to hill climb this beast wearing metal tipped boots, scarring the metal again and again and again...

On the left, you can see what the piece looked like "before".  After 4 hours of rigorous work with the sander, it's now smoother than when it came from the factory.  However, that's only 1/3rd of the total polishing work that goes into this 1 piece.  There are 3 pieces total in JUST the engine covers.  30-36 total hours of polishing and I'm just starting.  Crap.

 

P.S. The above 4 hours of polishing were done with 80 grit sandpaper over 3 evenings, since after about an hour of using the electric sander, the tendons in my hand were flexing involuntarily. 

 

P.S. This marks the end on the "dry" sanding.  400 grit, single direction, looks like brushed aircraft aluminum.

 

From here on out, it's a game of polishing compounds and buffing to a mirror finish.