Polsihing Fenders...what gives?

[Darius1502]

Man... oh man....

I am not sure what I am doing wrong here but the rear fender is way harder than the front. I think its a different grade plastic. Seems softer.... the front fender is more like the 250R tank.

Here are the shots.

I started with wetsanding at:

160 - this was dry sanded..is that my trouble? Are these the dry sand scratches still there?
220
600
800
1500
2000
3000
Wool pad - swirl remover
Wool pad - polish
3 M compound - foam pad
3 M Machine Polish - foam pad

Here is the pic:

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[TatTooL23]

I think 160 220 and 600 r way too heavy. They make such deep marks its impossible to get them out. Just my thought on it though.

[Darius1502]

You might be right....so wonder what to do now?

[atc007]

Correct. I have never polished one yet, But ,I 'd say 4-500 would be the most aggressive you should have started with. You'll get them.. You're just gonna have to wet sand your hands off!! Good luck !

[newby200x]

Had that same problem w/ my 200x front fender and that was the only conlcusion I could come up with. Start in the 400-500 range. I started with 180 wet sanding the whole process and never could get all my sanding lines out and I sanded a lot!! Eventually, I just used a product called New Glass 2. It basically just puts a clear coat on the plastic, but man does it shine. I put about 10 coats on my fender and it sealed up a lot of the sanding lines that wouldn't buff out. I don't know if it holds up long term, but this fender looks brand new for right now.

[fire1]

The compound should be used first after the sanding on the wool pad. The polish and swirl remover are to remove the the swirl and fine scratches left from the compund and wool pad. The compound is a cutting agent. Remember I said the fenders are more difficult and I agree the rear fender seems to be slightly softer compound.

[Darius1502]

Yes I did get the 3M compound and will work on that.

I also think I might have to go in and work the 600 grade like crazy. Will I ever get out those deeper ones? Or should go rougher?

[fire1]

Are the deep ones scratches that were there or caused by the sanding. On deep scratches I normally use 320-400 on a DA sander till there gone then wet sand. I only use the DA sander on the deep scratched area.

[Darius1502]

no I think I made those with us some deep sanding on using a pretty course grade so I'm wondering do I get the next grade finer and then wet sand wet until are gone or what

[Darius1502]

Is a DA sander an orbital or rotary?

[shovelryder]

DA is dual action. Same as a random orbit pretty much. Spins and gyrates.

[Darius1502]

Alright...I"ll be back on it tonight...coffee brewing late night and the sanders going wild.

I'll post some update pics!

[Darius1502]

Great video here:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKHeZusdTTM

[BIG DADDY TRI Z]

600 and plenty of time,and go up from there, and it will be like new...but you are gonna have to put in some hours in,but you will be happy with the out come

[honda200x1987]

Well said, I always started with 800 grit then moved my way up, Also NEVER dry sand, that just makes more scrathces and always rinse off the fender and sandpaper. When wet sanding ,plastic will build up in the sandpaper and will scratch the plastic if you do not rinse often. Here is a picture of a 200X fender I sanded and buffed with a synthetic wool bonnet, I never used any polish at all, it looked shiny and almost NOS, you can only see super fine swirls in the direct sunlight and in the shade it looked PERFECT. I would say polish with Nano wax on a foam pad would make it perfect but i am not sure. The 86-87 200X fender has NO wax or polish on it, just the result of 2000 grit wet sand and a random orbital buffer with a synthetic wool bonnet dry buff with NO compounds used.

[knsmodels]

no disrespect to the others but you aint ever going to get out 160 grit scratches with 600......you are going to have to go back to at least 320 grit and slowly work back to the 3000.....dont rush it......you need to get all of the scratches out from each previous grit.....if you take your time you will get there.....basically treat the plastic as if it were paint on a car.....Good Luck.....

[RubberSalt]

Try some heat! take a propane or map torch to it for a splic second, that will get it nice and smooth. Gotta be fast with heat.

Heres my gastank i did quickly. I didn't go real real high in the sand paper as you can read.

http://www.3wheelerworld.com/showthread.php/151473-Weathered-Plastic-Restore!

[Darius1502]

Thanks guys. I am learning and learning.

Basically most of you were right. I made the mistake of going too heavy a grit and I did use a dry sand at first.

However to get those big scratches out I had to use a heavy grit.

I also realized that I was not keeping my tools clean. 87200X suggest using a hose instead of a bucket because of plastic pieces.

Here is where I am at tonight.

I basically did this:

1) Started with 150 grit dry wall sand block and a clean bucket of water with a small bit of soap
2) Then 220 grit dry wall sand block new bucket of water
3) Then 600 grit (new bucket)
4) 800 grit (new bucket)
5) 1500 grit (new bucket)
6) 2000 grit (new bucket)
7) 3 M compound (wool rotary attachment)
8) Polish (wool rotary)
9) Novus 3 (wool)
10) Novus 2 (wool)
11) 3 M Machine Polish (foam)
12) Finally Maguire soft buff foam pad - used only for finishing. I kept going over it again and with this at a high speed. Almost to the point that you can feel the drag as you run it across the plastic with pressure. The plastic almost starts to bur but you keep it moving where there is resistance.

This seems to almost melt the plastic slightly and polish it to a mirror shine.

It literally shows fingerprints!

Here is a pic. More when I finish this all up. I have a pic of the front fender because I finally got it to match my work on the front fender:

165521165526

[Darius1502]

Ok...now I am quite happy! I recently found a pair of NEW IN BAG NOS 350X air dams.

I put one of them up to the fenders I just polished. What do you think? 165522165525

The air dam was just pulled out of the bag!! You can't get fresher that that!

[Darius1502]

Another shot....NOS just pulled out of bag versus polished fenders:

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[shovelryder]

Looks great!!!!!

[atc007]

Looks like you definitely got it figured out !! Looking great. You gonna polish the scoops lol ?? NICE work!

[Darius1502]

Here is another comparison this morning. Still refining it:

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[atc300r]

WOW ,Looks great Im going to follow these steps when I get aroung to doing my fenders .This is a great how to thread.

[Mr. Clean]

Great job Darius, I have nothing to add that has not already been shared.

Polishing fenders takes gobs of time and tons of patience.

[oldskool83]

good job. if it anything like polishing aluminum I will never try it lol

[ktmcrasher]

Groutaone YouTube channel is great. Last time I tried to polish plastic with one of those wheels I just had melted plastic everywhere. I will give it another bash after watching that

[Darius1502]

Great job Darius, I have nothing to add that has not already been shared.

Polishing fenders takes gobs of time and tons of patience.

Mike, did you find that the tanks are a harder plastic than the rear fenders? The 350X front fender was way easier. The compound of the plastic seems harder?

[atc007]

I just LOVE this stuff!! Great job !!

[Darius1502]

I just LOVE this stuff!! Great job !!

I am learning but something inside of me just always hated when my fenders got scratched up as a kid. The fact now that there is somewhat of a process to bring almost any fender back to looking really good....

well its like we have a weapon to bring these trikes back to new condition. I want to keep refining this.

I am wondering if there is some heavy wax I can put on these fenders to fill in the scratches that are still there.

Maybe Carnuba?

Any ideas....anyone?

[atc007]

After this my friend. You can def handle that tank !!! Again,I've never polished plastic. But,on all my new/excellent shape stuff. I use Plexus. It aint cheap. But it leaves a 100% Non static force field on new/perfect plastic. Smells great too ! It was designed for the canopy of fighter jets.

[Darius1502]

Sweet I will try it!!!

[Darius1502]

UPDATE:

I did a whole other round of polishing on that side and the bottom half. It get's better and better.

So how long does it take?

There is about 20+ hours of work on just that one side alone:

166193166194166195

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[atc007]

VERY rewarding labor of love. Beautiful work. Have you built a "jig" or something to solidly hold your fenders in place while working? . That's a biggy to keeping things moving along solidly.

[Darius1502]

Here are some updates....on the 85. This is a decent restore....not a full blown one but an 8.5 out of 10.

The fenders look good:

166413166414166415

[atc007]

NOOOOOOOO The money shots,,,,,black and white !! Beautiful work again sir.

[fire1]

You did a great job! A lot of work goes into that.

[yaegerb]

Looks very nice. Great job!

[Darius1502]

Here is the final look... 169526169527169528169529

[Darius1502]

Here is where the red 85 ended up:

169532

I did my white 350X too...works about the same. White is easier in some respects!! It hides any spots that are not completely buffed out. The red plastic will look pinkish...to get the deep red back it needs a ton of buffing.

The white is way easier to make look good.... (IMO)

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[honda200x1987]

Good job on the polishing, it is a lot of work but the only way to get them to shine.

[Darius1502]

Still my white is not as good as yours, honda200x1987

I'd like to try the synthetic wool with nothing on it and just let it glide over. Great work man!!