ZARD Topgun end caps - Ducati.ms

hatdiver · Apr 5th, 2009, 7:06 am

Took some wet n dry to one of my exhaust end caps today. With half an hours effort I am pretty pleased with the result.
What I am looking to do now is remove them and get them polished to a mirror finish, will get a metal polishing shop to do it.
Has anyone done this or have an opinion on the removal and replacement etc.
As far as I can see there are 3 or 4 rivets on each end cap that go through the carbon and into the alluminium cap.
If its a case of just drilling the rivets out then should be a straight forward enough process.
Any thoughts welcomed.
Cheers
John

**desmoworks** · Apr 5th, 2009, 10:43 am

Yeah - just drill the rivets out... simple. Let us know how it turns out!

AXE · Apr 5th, 2009, 2:24 pm

You need to be real careful not to spin the heads of the rivets, or you will tear up the carbon finish. I have seen this on some offroad cans I have had to repack. I think if you use a really sharp drill bit or a high speed drill like a RotoZip you can avoid this.

I haven't did it to my Zards, but would like to get them pcd black. I look forward to seeing how you get them drilled and how it looks polished.

Out!

hatdiver · Apr 5th, 2009, 3:45 pm

Managed to get one of the end caps off without to much trouble.
Need to get more drill bits.
I will post up with a couple of pics when polished and fitted.

AXE · Apr 5th, 2009, 4:49 pm

Yeah, some of those rivets are soft aluminum and some are much harder and you chew up the bits real fast. Good to see that photo, it looks to be easy to repack them as well.

Out!

hatdiver · Apr 7th, 2009, 11:04 am

Had trouble finding a polisher in Aberdeen so looked into what I would need to polish the caps myself.
A little searching on google gave me the answer, even a few videos on how to polish alluminium.
Off to screfix this morning to get hold of the following:

Took wet n dry paper, 180G then 600G to the cans and spent about 1 hour on each one. This removed the surface coating down to bare metal.

Clamped an end cap in the workmate and proceeded to use the cutting compound with the rough mop. This with the flexi head attached to the drill got me a nice smoothe finish in about 20 mins.
Changed head for the cotton polish mop, used the polish compound and buffed for about another 20m mins.
Repeated for the other cap and both are now mirror finished.
It was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

Fitting end caps was easy enough, slide on and 3 rivets on each one.
Couldnt get stainless rivets but managed to find the blind type.

sick50ford · Apr 7th, 2009, 11:50 am

Looks pretty good. I have done plenty of polishing and it's fairly easy to get to the point you're at but requires all the right tools to get it to a true mirror on aluminum. Those tiny lines are near impossible to clean up with hand tools.

I'm with you, these bikes need more Bling, not a ton, but more. Right now I am trying to talk myself out of doing the wheels during this weeks tire swap.

hatdiver · Apr 7th, 2009, 12:23 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by sick50ford

Looks pretty good. I have done plenty of polishing and it's fairly easy to get to the point you're at but requires all the right tools to get it to a true mirror on aluminum. Those tiny lines are near impossible to clean up with hand tools.

I'm with you, these bikes need more Bling, not a ton, but more. Right now I am trying to talk myself out of doing the wheels during this weeks tire swap.

I would be interested on hearing what you got to say about getting rid of the small lines to get a true mirror finish.

Polished wheels on the hyper, would like to see that.

sick50ford · Apr 7th, 2009, 12:30 pm

I'm no Pro, but the only way i have found to finish aluminum, is a pristine 8" cotton wheel on a good bench grinder with the right compound. you just can't get the same finish with a 3" on a die grinder with the same compound for some reason.

hatdiver · Apr 7th, 2009, 12:39 pm

I did think of going the bench grinder route.
My thoughts were that the flexi head thinghy would be more verstaile.
I spent a little time polishing the headers today, came up pretty good.
The finish I can achieve will do me. I dont intend to laquer anything I polish, just need to keep it clean and give it the occasional polish.
Spent a bit of time trying to buff out the small lines but found myself chasing my tail
Its got me thinking what else I can polish, wheels would be a big job.

Cheers
John