Greg Nichols
03-25-2012, 06:32 PM
I don`t do much posting anymore it`s a pretty time consuming process, but felt this was worthy of the effort. I didn`t set out to document this job for an article on the forums, so the photographic detailing is limited.....sorry.
Various stages of detailing where done on this bike, I had to hand polish the tube frame at one time too. But this is a quick FYI of the tank wet sanding job to remove the excess orange peel.
The restoration was done on the tank but the owner wanted the lower section perfected as that section could be seen and the orange peel was unsightly. I was in doing his alfa spider and had some time during the selant cure, I whipped out this job.
Can you see on the lower section the orange peel......?
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o116/ghnichols/Motorcycles/d8d90a50.jpg
So using various sanding supplies I`ve ordered from Kevin Browns Home (http://www.Buffdaddy.com) web site........he has an outstanding supply and will answer all your questions. We used Unigrit, velcro rosettes, sticky rosettes in all various grits from 1000-3000 to achieve the smooth surface needed before I polished out for the final look. Some of the areas would have to be hand polished and so getting the surface down to 3000 in thoes areas really helped get the best result from the hand sanding that was needed.
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o116/ghnichols/Motorcycles/b2ffd4f9.jpg
You can see how even the surface is, but it still needed a bit more work. I polished out the surface and an ever so slight peel remained and the client wanted it as mirror as possible so I re sanded and got the result needed.
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o116/ghnichols/Motorcycles/9756de52.jpg
I don`t recall if this is the final effort shown or the stage in which it was determined to refine the finsih a bit more.....failing memory?
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o116/ghnichols/Motorcycles/26e34aa8.jpg
I gave the whole tank a quick polish with 105 on a finishing MF and 205 on a finishing MF pad. Changing up the pad density will refine your finish even when using a compound like 105. 105 is unique in that it can finish down really nice on hard paints, but this was on the softer side and the finishing MF allowed it to finish better than the cutting MF pad would.
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o116/ghnichols/Motorcycles/a27c6b81.jpg
Having the proper tools and experience made this a quick and pain-free job. I think it took longer to do this article (download photos, upload to PB, and then link them here) than to do the job on this tank.
Cheers,
GREG
Edit: Forgot to add a photo of the entire bike....I`m told there are very very few of these bikes in complete condition in the world anymore. IRC only 38 were imported to the US?
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o116/ghnichols/Motorcycles/91b18a8f.jpg
Various stages of detailing where done on this bike, I had to hand polish the tube frame at one time too. But this is a quick FYI of the tank wet sanding job to remove the excess orange peel.
The restoration was done on the tank but the owner wanted the lower section perfected as that section could be seen and the orange peel was unsightly. I was in doing his alfa spider and had some time during the selant cure, I whipped out this job.
Can you see on the lower section the orange peel......?
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o116/ghnichols/Motorcycles/d8d90a50.jpg
So using various sanding supplies I`ve ordered from Kevin Browns Home (http://www.Buffdaddy.com) web site........he has an outstanding supply and will answer all your questions. We used Unigrit, velcro rosettes, sticky rosettes in all various grits from 1000-3000 to achieve the smooth surface needed before I polished out for the final look. Some of the areas would have to be hand polished and so getting the surface down to 3000 in thoes areas really helped get the best result from the hand sanding that was needed.
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o116/ghnichols/Motorcycles/b2ffd4f9.jpg
You can see how even the surface is, but it still needed a bit more work. I polished out the surface and an ever so slight peel remained and the client wanted it as mirror as possible so I re sanded and got the result needed.
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o116/ghnichols/Motorcycles/9756de52.jpg
I don`t recall if this is the final effort shown or the stage in which it was determined to refine the finsih a bit more.....failing memory?
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o116/ghnichols/Motorcycles/26e34aa8.jpg
I gave the whole tank a quick polish with 105 on a finishing MF and 205 on a finishing MF pad. Changing up the pad density will refine your finish even when using a compound like 105. 105 is unique in that it can finish down really nice on hard paints, but this was on the softer side and the finishing MF allowed it to finish better than the cutting MF pad would.
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o116/ghnichols/Motorcycles/a27c6b81.jpg
Having the proper tools and experience made this a quick and pain-free job. I think it took longer to do this article (download photos, upload to PB, and then link them here) than to do the job on this tank.
Cheers,
GREG
Edit: Forgot to add a photo of the entire bike....I`m told there are very very few of these bikes in complete condition in the world anymore. IRC only 38 were imported to the US?
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o116/ghnichols/Motorcycles/91b18a8f.jpg