Kawasaki Motorcycle Forums - View Single Post

zeiss150 · 07-01-2009

Hey anakin. Polishing aluminum is a pain in the butt. Seriously I hate it ... but its soooooo worth all the work. first you have to take off the pieces that you are going to polish...i.e. float bowls and covers. Then you need 3 different kinds of sand paper....

Wet dry sand paper

200

400

1000

grit

first sand with the 200, then 400, and finish with 1000. After you get a smooth surface with the 1000 grit wet sand paper (make sure you use water when you sand with all grits) use mothers polishing cream. follow directions and polish to a brilliant shine.

There is another way to polish the parts but you need a big electric motor with polishing wheels on it. then you need different polishing compounds. but you would still need to sand off any casting defects. its faster but the end result is the same.

I'll try to post up some pictures of my carbs in the next few days.

The good news is you really don't need to do all 4 carbs ... just the two outside ones. ... I did all 4 but I'm dumb.

I still need to polish the stator cover... I'm not looking forward to that.

I hope this helps!
Matt-

P.S. I set up the main and pilot jets for my engine set up (pods, exaust, overbore)... the carbs seem to be in really good sink so I'm not gonna mess with them. I also didn't mess with the needle height.

07-01-2009	#106 (permalink)
zeiss150 Top Gear Full Throttle BTK Expert Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 295	carb questions Hey anakin. Polishing aluminum is a pain in the butt. Seriously I hate it ... but its soooooo worth all the work. first you have to take off the pieces that you are going to polish...i.e. float bowls and covers. Then you need 3 different kinds of sand paper.... Wet dry sand paper 200 400 1000 grit first sand with the 200, then 400, and finish with 1000. After you get a smooth surface with the 1000 grit wet sand paper (make sure you use water when you sand with all grits) use mothers polishing cream. follow directions and polish to a brilliant shine. There is another way to polish the parts but you need a big electric motor with polishing wheels on it. then you need different polishing compounds. but you would still need to sand off any casting defects. its faster but the end result is the same. I'll try to post up some pictures of my carbs in the next few days. The good news is you really don't need to do all 4 carbs ... just the two outside ones. ... I did all 4 but I'm dumb. I still need to polish the stator cover... I'm not looking forward to that. I hope this helps! Matt- P.S. I set up the main and pilot jets for my engine set up (pods, exaust, overbore)... the carbs seem to be in really good sink so I'm not gonna mess with them. I also didn't mess with the needle height.