Winter Projects: XS650 Edition Part II

Its the day after Thanksgiving, got the day off from work and the weather is dark and dreary, looks like its time to make a few more baby steps on progressing the Tracker.  I got all the aluminum side covers off, cleaned and ready for a spit shine.  I'm new to shining/polishing aluminum so I spent a bit of time asking around and browsing different forums on the subject.  Because the Tracker is almost 40 years old, it has its fair share of pitting, scratching, and gouges; I thought wet sanding the pieces with different grits would be my best bet to get rid of some of these imperfections.

BEFORE                                                                                                                                        AFTER

I start by sanding each piece (8 pieces) with 800, 1000, and 1500 grit sand paper I picked up at the local autoparts store.  Just sanding the pieces made a world of difference even before I polished.  One of the nice parts about living in a bachelor pad is there is nobody to yell at me for doing all this in the living room in front of the TV.  I have been using a Power Rangers bed sheet I had from when I was a kid to protect the top of the table from getting scratched, (I really just thought it was cool, and wanted an excuse to show it off).  I keep the bottom of a milk jug filled with water and a wash cloth nearby to clean of the pieces to see the spots I have hit and missed, also a towel for when I make a mess.

I knew that the process in which I chose to clean these pieces was an all or nothing venture, if I started that meant that I HAD to finish each piece the same way.  After I am finished with the wetsanding process I clean the piece good with warm soapy water, let it dry and then polish it by hand.  I am using Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish.  The smaller pieces take about 45 minute each start to finish, but the larger side cover took about 5 hours itself, but it was worth it; it looks great.  I might hit the pieces again however, you can see spots that may need a little more sanding after you have shined them up.  It's all in the details, I cannot wait until they're done and I can re-install them on the bike.