To Chrome or Polish (and seal)....

[350Kris]

Okay...here is the deal. Some of you know that I am doing a frame up on an 86 350X. Well, I've gotten to the point where I want to either chrome some parts or polish them and seal them with diamond clear from Eastwood. The bottom line is that I want an awesome looking machine that is as low on maintenance as possible. The parts I'm looking at are the forks, rear shock, axle (brand-new OEM; don't like the gold), and the lower portion of the triple tree. I don't want to have to polish chrome all the time, but then again I don't want rust to form if the diamond clear wears off. Any suggestions/experience???

Thanks!

Kris

[350Xccelerator]

i like polished better, chrome needs too much care.

[EZ in NZ]

Chrome is high maintenance, not as durable as it was 20 years ago and scratches easily. Pollution laws (especially in the US) have made the whole process less durable now and you'll find it won't go the distance for wear-and-tear. You could try ceramic coating those parts. Companies like HPC (HPCoatings.com), Pro Coat and Jet Hot all do the ceramic coat process. Primarily with thermal barriers in the coating for headers, cylinders, pistons etc which work fantastic. But...they also do appearance coatings in ceramic. Not thermal barrier just the tough ceramic coating.

They do a huge range of colors and you can get then to clear coat your polished parts. They warranty against the coating chipping, flaking, cracking etc and it won't yellow off over time like a lot of clears do.

I use less and less chrome on bikes these days and get all my pipes ceramic coated in a 'polished aluminium' finish. People think I make my drag pipes in alloy and it is super tough.

I had my fork legs 'appearance coated' and it is a strong finish. I even had a buddy drop a spanner on one of the legs, no damage to the finish at all. Worth a look as an option.

Andy

[250rAL]

"spanner"!--I didn't notice until I saw that, that you weren't in the US. Love the British influence. Anyway, that's some really interesting information. I always thought the crappy chrome plating on truck bumpers these days was just cheap workmanship; now it all makes sense.

[TeCaTe_MaN]

aluminum - polish
steel - chrome

steel rusts so chrome it so you dont gotta seal it...aluminum doesnt rust so you can polish it, no need to seal just go over it lightly with mothers polish every now and then...chrome or polish you still gotta polish it to keep it shiney...chrome clouds and aluminum corrodes

[EZ in NZ]

"spanner"!--I didn't notice until I saw that, that you weren't in the US. Love the British influence.

Hmmm....Close 250rAL but New Zealand is a small country of 4 million off the east coast of Australia. We are further from Britain than you are. Probably most famous in recent times for being the place where the Lord Of The Rings trilogy was made. You think that country side is good for movies...even better for offroading! Ha Ha.

Those appearance coatings I wrote about will go over any steel too. Aluminium, Carbon, Stainless and even poor quality cast steel. Polishing aluminium is no fun and to get a good deep polish, I always use a buffer. Hand polishing is only gonna achieve so much.

Andy

[Icarus]

You think that country side is good for movies...even better for offroading! Ha Ha.

LOL, I think to myself every time I see one of those movies...."Gawd that looks like a killer place to ride." I hope one day to make it down there even if I dont have anything to ride, I would just love to see that beautiful country side first hand. Must be absolutely amazing to have someplace like that to ride.