Polishing

[Daveontheedge]

I have a few questions about polishing for anyone who has experience with it. More specifically I am interested in protecting polished aluminum. My last bike was a '77 CB550K, I stripped the tank, polished the steel, then had it clear coated. It worked for a while, but due to the polishing there was not enough mechanical grip for the clear coat to adhere to. As for the aluminum...I polished every part on the engine that I could and then clear coated them as well, however, the heat from the engine burned the clear coat. I tried waxing, but that is extremely time consuming every few weeks. Anyone had any luck polishing and protecting polished engine parts? I will post some before and after pics of th 550 for those who are curious. 

[Daveontheedge]

After pic...

[Daveontheedge]

And another....

[kneepuck]

I have tried polishing small parts and just touch it up from time to time. I do know that if you are doing engine parts - there are some high temperature clear coats. They are put in like powder coatings. Check with your local powder coater and they can give you the options.

[CB1_Boost]

What do you use for getting rid of "swirlies" on the gas tank?  Also have some small scratches from leaning down on the tank. 

[Daveontheedge]

On the steel tank I polished all the way up to 6000 grit by hand so I did not have any swirls. As for a painted tank a friend recommended I try Crystal-Glo. I haven't tried it yet but will pick some up today and let you know.
http://www.crystal-glo.com/

[CB1_Boost]

Any feedback after using Crystal-Glo?

I'm thinking about getting the gift set.

[Daveontheedge]

Actually, I went to the only dealer in town that I could find who carries it...and they no longer carry it Considering ordering online, if I do I'll post how it turns out.

[CB1inNoVA]

I have had great success with Crystal-Glo.   The sample sets that include acrylic wash, spray polish, acrylic polish and plastic cleanser polish all work great.  The washes and polishes work on both painted, chrome and aluminum parts.  The plastic cleanser polish works great on helmets to remove the road crud and bug debris.  The only down side is that I have had to order on-line, no local stocking dealers, but the shipping is fast and relatively cheap for crossing the border.

[Xestenz]

You are trying to do something very difficult - protect bare aluminum, which wants to oxidize on the surface almost immediately upon exposure.  While this thin layer of oxidation does a great job of further protecting aluminum from corrosion, it would most likely defeat your intent of shiny perfection.

I'm afraid there aren't many great options for this, other than regular polishing.  Waxing would be just a stop gap, and as you mentioned would have to be done perpetually.

Clear coating is an option, and might last a fair amount of time depending on how it is applied, but in my experience these coatings will almost always fail over time.

As you might know, aluminum is hard to even paint due to its natural oxidizing and lubricating properties and must be rigorously prepped to ensure good adhesion of a topcoat (zinc chromate primers, etc.)

Really the best way to protect aluminum is through anodizing.  You can get some cool looks with this as well (and some very cheesy looks).  Might look kinda cool on an entire tank....