Stripping the grab handle

[woobie]

Well spring is on the distant horizon and it's bearable to work in the garage on the bike with out fear of frost bite. So it's time to get to work.

I know back 2, maybe 3 crashes of KP there was a thread on stripping the grab bar and polishing it up. Along with some recomendations on how to keep it shiney.

So can anyone point me in the right direction with the right materials to make this as painless as possible.

High strength paint stripper/or sand blasting followed by sanding, then using mothers polish sound right?

[AHF]

Aircraft Stripper from Autozone will have it cleaned off in about 30 seconds...literally.

As far as polishing, I just left mine as is and kept it clean with Mother's Chrome Polish. I thought it looked great like that, but some may want to be up to a chrome like finish.

[WildKat]

Ive thought about doing this as well..to add alittle something to the appearance..but not sure how it would look against my painted solo cowl though.. might look too puzzle like..hhmmm, let us know how u make out!

[woobie]

Thanks, I'll have to hit the stores this weekend to see if I can find some.

[ThAzKat]

HS had his chromed on the pre98, he would be the one that might know best.

[KatDan]

have it chromed, the grab bar was a PITA to get everything smooth enough to polish. it's not as smooth as it looks under the paint.

[SweetLou]

Yes, chroming would be much easier than polishing it. Trust me, I have already had mine stripped.

[Jax]

Here's a different approach...What about stripping it then having it powder coated. Would you still neet to sand it down? If you do powdercoat it do you need to strip it?

[AHF]

I'm not sure why you would powder coat it, but to answer your question...no, I don't believe you would need to sand it after stripping.

[woobie]

I was thinking along the lines of the handle being a bit of bling, so chroming or polishing is what I'd be looking at. Check out Spedee's bike to see what I mean.

[AHF]

Yeah, Spedee's is a good example of chroming. Here's on with the paint just stripped and then kept up with Mother's Chrome polish. It's a big pic so you can zoom in and see...

[KatanaO215]

that bike was the hotness. Im still pissed that you sold it

[taz]

hey ahf .. the way your rims are on that bike. thats exactly what i was thinking about doing to mine. how hard was it? what did you use to paint the spokes?

[AHF]

that bike was the hotness. Im still pissed that you sold it

You're always mad at me for something.

taz, the wheels were black to start with. For the lips, I just carefully used Aircraft Stripper and masking tape. Took about 3 hours total, and I just followed up with Mother's Chrome Polish. I'd recommend clear coating to anyone that does this though, because if you don't keep up on the polishing, it'll get pits in it.

**Edit** We did paint the spokes on FaithGrrl's Ninja though. For that we just used any old glossy black paint. It wasn't difficult at all and turn out great.

[taz]

thanks. the issue is that my wheels are not painted. they are just grey color. so, i'll probably have to sand mine to get the polished finished, correct?