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How to polish your clutch cover


Lethaface

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After getting 4-5 pm's about how to polish the clutch cover from my thread in the pic section i have made a guide at a few ppl's request..I hope this help's anybody who needs it..

 

Letha

 

~Things you will need~

 

1. Wet Sand Paper grits i use is 320 400 800 1000 1200 and 1600

2. Aircraft Remover Paint Stripper

aircraftremover.jpg

3. Paint brush to apply the stripper (1'' works great)

4. Bucket of water

5. Mothers Aluminum wheel polish

mothers.jpg

6. 2 shop towles

7. A few disposable plates to use for the stripper

8. 001 steel wool

9. New clutch cover gasket

 

So this is what you start off with..This is not a picture of mine just one i found for viewing purposes

thestart.jpg

 

~THe process~

1. First thing that will have to be done to the clutch cover is removal of 2 plastic pieces

the first circular piece that says yamaha and the other that covers the impeller

 

2. After the plastic is removed the paint removal can be started..Pour some of the stripper

Into a plate and begin applying the stripper with the paint brush to the clutch cover.

Just put a good deal of stripper on making sure to cover all areas pretty thorough..

Almost immediatly after appling the stripper you will hear it starting to crackle as it

is eating at the paint..Leave it alone for about 15-20 minutes..When you come back you will

see the paint has bubbled the paint up pretty good..Take a water hose and spray off all the

loose paint and excess stripper..Note do not touch the stripper at anytime or it will burn

you up..After the excess tripper and paint have been sprayed off you will see that this process

will have to be repeated a few times to get all the paint off..Have patcience though it wil

all come off with little work..

 

3. You now have all the paint taken off and your clutch cover is down to bare metal..IT is time

to start the wet sanding process..Note that this is the step that is gonna seperate a half ass

job between a well done one..Just start off with the 320 course grit and the bucket of water

and start sanding..For me i usually spend about 15-20 minutes with each grit..So it will take about

a couple hours if done correctly..You will be able to tell when its time to switch to different

grits by eye though..Just keep wet sanding through each grit till you come out with

the desired finish..

 

~Mine~

0606060050.jpg

 

4. So your wet sanding is done and your clutch cover is starting to look pretty good..Now its time

To hit the cover with the 001 steel wool..This step will not only finish the sanding process off but

will clean the black marks off the aluminum that come from the sand paper..Just use small circular

movements with the wool until the whole cover is completed..Now that the hard stuff is done your cover

should look like this..If it dosn't you havn't put enough time into sanding and will need to

go back and do some more..

 

0612060024.jpg

 

 

5. Mothers aluminum polish..This stuff works great and even the most simple of minds can use it

properly..Basically get a small amount on a shop towel and start applying in a circular motion.

When the polish starts turning black remove it with the clean rag..This step should be where you

really see the fruits of your labor..after you have applied the mothers and polished the entire

cover you are done..Just put the 2 plastic peices back on the cover and throw that baby back on the motor and rip!..

 

Finished product

0701060244.jpg

 

 

Note this process will work on anything aluminum..I have did tons of stuff from $10 grab bars to a set of 96 banshee yellow wheels

 

before

banshee1.jpg

 

after

0421061349.jpg

 

blaster side cover

toreapart0005.jpg

 

 

Anyways good luck to anybody who tries the process :D :beer:

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I don't want to sound like a dumbass, but do you think its possible to polish the cover while its still on the engine? I know it would be more of a pain because of having to work around it instead of moving it whenever needed. but I've drained and refilled my engine so many times in the past month its starting to get old. But if I have to take it off I'll wait a little while to polish it. Thanks a lot for the advice!

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I'm not to sure about that..I think your gonna end up getting stripper on your frame and stuff like that..Not to mention how hard it would be to polish the area down by the frame..If you don't wanna take it off i would just wait till you need to take it off and polish it then..I will make sure to keep the pictures hosted and the thread will be here for you for reference when the time comes :beer:

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I used the Aircraft stripper (Use acid gloves, shit still burns like hell through latex gloves) and Scotchbrite to take the paint off. Took a few times/coats too. I was going to use sandpaper and wetsand but after all the time spent on just getting the damn paint off, I said phuq it. Then I used a loose sewn wheel with a small enough arbor for my plug in, black and decker hand drill and polished with medium grade polishing compound from Lowe's. Then I hand polished with Mother's Billet polish. A bench grinder with polishing wheels might have polished out just a little better, but I didn't have one and I think it came out pretty good. Here's a pic 2 months later and after I had my greasy hands all over it and not wiping it down.

 

polishdbansh2.jpg

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  • 3 months later...

I used the Aircraft stripper (Use acid gloves, shit still burns like hell through latex gloves) and Scotchbrite to take the paint off. Took a few times/coats too. I was going to use sandpaper and wetsand but after all the time spent on just getting the damn paint off, I said phuq it. Then I used a loose sewn wheel with a small enough arbor for my plug in, black and decker hand drill and polished with medium grade polishing compound from Lowe's. Then I hand polished with Mother's Billet polish. A bench grinder with polishing wheels might have polished out just a little better, but I didn't have one and I think it came out pretty good. Here's a pic 2 months later and after I had my greasy hands all over it and not wiping it down.

 

polishdbansh2.jpg

How did you get the kickstarter so nice. Is that chromed or polished. Also any tips on how to get in the difficult areas of the clutch cover {where it says kickstarter and oil}

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When I polished my cbr covers, I put buffing wheels on my bench grinder and used emory, tripoly, rouge, and jewlers rouge to pollish (there might be others, its been a while since I did it). You can get the buffing wheels and compounds at any home depot in their tool corral. they come as round sticks. the buffing wheels are great for polishing contours and lettering. just be careful not to burn the finish and use only 1 compound per each buffing wheel otherwise its not going to work well. it pollishes fast, hope this helps. :beer:

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When I polished my cbr covers, I put buffing wheels on my bench grinder and used emory, tripoly, rouge, and jewlers rouge to pollish (there might be others, its been a while since I did it). You can get the buffing wheels and compounds at any home depot in their tool corral. they come as round sticks. the buffing wheels are great for polishing contours and lettering. just be careful not to burn the finish and use only 1 compound per each buffing wheel otherwise its not going to work well. it pollishes fast, hope this helps. :beer:

wow, i used some tripoli that I have for polishing my gold crowns, {from school} . Thank you very much. Looks very nice

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