I finished my polished bowl!!!

[396_WAYS_TO_SPIT]

Well........here is the finished product is :D I tel you it was a b***h but i think it was worth it. I am lucky that my transom adapter covers the front of the bowl. My place diverter is almost done.I will post the pics of it in about 3 days :D
396
http://free.***boat.net/cgi-bin/imageFolio.cgi?action=view&link=Reader_Rides/Jet_Boats&image=polishe22.JPG&img=&tt=/img
http://free.***boat.net/cgi-bin/imageFolio.cgi?action=view&link=Reader_Rides/Jet_Boats&image=polish11.JPG&img=&tt=/img
http://free.***boat.net/cgi-bin/imageFolio.cgi?action=view&link=Reader_Rides/Jet_Boats&image=polish33.JPG&img=&tt=/img
http://free.***boat.net/cgi-bin/imageFolio.cgi?action=view&link=Reader_Rides/Jet_Boats&image=polish44.JPG&img=&tt=/img

[Tim_T]

That polish job is tight man. Do you still talk to they guy who does the custom droop for the WJ? Im interested in getting one if he still does it. Thanks.
Tim

[Havasu_Jet_85]

all I see are x's

[Sleek-Jet]

Looks pretty sweet. How many hours in front of the buffing wheel?

[jetaddict]

Sweet ass job.Did you polish it out wet(water) or dry?

[Wet Dream]

God Damn, that looks SWEEEEEEEET bro!!!!! When you posted that you took a grinder to it, I figured it would have a bunch of flat spots on it, unless they're hidden from the camera. :D Looks great!!!!

[Wet Dream]

Oh yeah....now finish the nozzles and other stuff. That was the easy part. :D

[Cantrip]

Yeah, you just did the easy part :)

[malcolm]

Hey 396, looks killer! Now I'm gonna have to do mine. I started small, I'm doing my alternator.

[460 jus getn it]

mikey o that looks nice. eek! eek! eek! jawdrop jawdrop jawdrop

[Banshee]

Looks great 396!!
Are you going to clear powder coat it to keep it looking that way?

[Mandelon]

That is way sweet. You gotta start a side business now.......
But there seem to be a reflection of some weird guy with a camera in it. :D :D

[Bow Tie Omega]

396, that looks great. But please please please, put a new zerk fitting on there, it looks well weathered. Great job!!! Joe

[Jordy]

That looks great. Get all practiced up and I'll let you buff mine out before the season starts. :D

[396_WAYS_TO_SPIT]

Sleek-Jet:
Looks pretty sweet. How many hours in front of the buffing wheel? I actually used a cream polish called "Blue Magic" from autozone and I polished it for about 15 minutes. That stuff works better than the stuff on the stick thats hard.
396

[396_WAYS_TO_SPIT]

Banshee:
Looks great 396!!
Are you going to clear powder coat it to keep it looking that way? I am thinking about it. I will see how the blue magic works after I hit the lake in a few weeks. If it takes a long time to polish it back up I will have it coated with clear.
396

[396_WAYS_TO_SPIT]

jordanpaulk:
That looks great. Get all practiced up and I'll let you buff mine out before the season starts. :D jordy, your f***in nuts :D I think I will pass on that offer :D :D :D
396

[396_WAYS_TO_SPIT]

Wet Dream:
God Damn, that looks SWEEEEEEEET bro!!!!! When you posted that you took a grinder to it, I figured it would have a bunch of flat spots on it, unless they're hidden from the camera. :D Looks great!!!! i actually used the wheel that has 60 crit on it and yes it made some spots but I worked them out. If you rub your hand over it you can barely feel some light spots on the bottom but you cant even tell.
396

[1tricky1]

Damn dude!!! that looks nice! Just Blue Magic? What kind of buffer and wheel? What Rpm did you buff at?

[396_WAYS_TO_SPIT]

For all you guys that want to do this here are the steps I took. Its not as hard as it looks. The most time spend will be with the coarse paper under 220 grit( you really need to focus on these stages). I have about 8 hours on this thing. I will calculate the hours on the placediverter and let you guys know( It will be harder :mad: ). If you have a berk bowl it will be alot easier to do because you dont have the funny shaped end like a jacuzzi.
Heres what you will need
1-6' Bench grinder
1-4' hand grinder
1-Palm sander
2-Soft polishing wheels
1-Can of Blue Magic metal polish from autozone
1-Sheet each of 40 Through 360 grit sandpaper(Dont skip any grits or you will see scratches :mad: !)
3-Sheets each of 400,600,800,1000,1500,2000 grit sandpaper(Dont skip any of these either!)
1-Set of old clothes including a long sleeve shirt. The buffer will throw some polish around eek! Finally a 6 pack of your favorite beverage wink
Step 1 get a 4' grinder and put a 36 grit sanding wheel on it-sand lightly- make sure you dont sit in one place or else you will get dishes.
STEP 2 Start sanding with 40 grit paper(dry). make sure you get the whole thing as good as you can.
STEP 3 Go from 40 through 360 grit dry. I used a little makita palm sander to spped up the process on the larger spots.
STEP 4 When you hit 400 grit fill a bucket with water a dish soap and start wetsanding. Go from 400-600-800-1000-1500-2000 grit.
Step 4 Get the "Blue magic" out and use a soft polishing wheel to polish out the eye popping shine eek! jawdrop ! I used slow strokes from left to right on the buffer. Then wipe down thouroghly with a diaper soft towell. I know I am not a polishing king but I love to save money since I am building 2 boats. When you finish your piece you will feel like a king and say to yourself GOD DAMN :D :D
396

[396_WAYS_TO_SPIT]

1tricky1:
Damn dude!!! that looks nice! Just Blue Magic? What kind of buffer and wheel? What Rpm did you buff at? The Blue magic brought out the shine when I finished sanding wink I tried jewelers rouge but it takes longer to get the shine and it cloggs up the wheel. the blue magic is a soft cream like raste wax. I just apply it to the metal and run it across the buffer. I think the rpm is around 3200. Its just a bench grinder with soft polishing wheels on it, nothing too fancy. I am getting ready to change my hand grinder over to a 4 inch hand polisher. Ace hardware sells the 4 inch wheels for about $5. the wheel is the softest one. If you push on it your finger should spread the cloth away from your finger real easy. I love polishing with the buffer wink I just hate the hand sanding part of it :(
396
[ February 09, 2003, 08:35 PM: Message edited by: 396_WAYS_TO_SPIT ]

[1tricky1]

396, thanks for posting your work, I'm gonna save this in case I get the urge to do some polishing...nice work!

[460 jus getn it]

i have to give it to you micheal that bowl looked damn good. you polished your ass off good work jawdrop jawdrop jawdrop

[76sanger]

i did the same with a bench grinder. its a half horse type from fleet farm. P.O.S.!! to small.
after differnt wheels, different sanding processes
and just trial and error, heres what i found to be the best
first a buddy and i took a 1.5 hp electric motor and pulled the sheave off it. then we took a piece of 1" round stock and turned it down and drilled it out to fit the 5/8" shaft on the motor.
then we tapped the end for a bolt to hold the 2 buffing wheels (thats right 2 not 1 buffing wheel). then we went to a local truck (big rig) wash shop and purchased the yellow (very firm) buffing wheels. put them on and began polishing.
wow!!!! that 1.5 hp motor is awesome. but you have to hang on. after about an hour of buffing we looked at each others black faces and built a fender to cut down on the "slinging" affect of the wheel. it helped some but not enough. we do a 2 step process on the wheel for parts that have been polished once already or parts that dont need sanding. first step is red rouge twice. then we move to the white rouge and polish to show shine. then we tried a couple differnt aluminum polishes. blue magic, mothers, and wicked aluminum polish by hand with a soft terry towel. none of them shined as nice as the white rouge on the wheel did. we use this stuff to polish when the aluminum is installed and we cant get the buffer on the items.
HERE'S ANOTHER TRICK OF THE TRADE THAT THE GUY WHO OWNS THAT TRUCK SHOP TAUGHT US....
when you see those aluminum parts in your boat
all spotted up and dull. take an sos pad (the kind with the soap inside) and wet down the aluminum. then soak the pad. and start scrubbing on it. rinse when done. BEAUTIFUL SHINE EVERYTIME!!! and takes about 1/3 the time of hitting it with blue magic and your index finger isnt aching when your done.
thats just my $.02 worth
but the big powerful motor is the key, it takes way less time because you can lay into it hard. as i said hang on tight and DO NOT let the buffing wheels grab the top edge or it will rip the piece out of your hand, and ruin your sanding job as it skips across the floor. trust me, we know. i used to have a velocity stack (or what looked like one) until the buffer took it away from me and slammed it on the floor.

[Hal]

What I want to know is how do did you make a six pack last 8 hours??? :D :D :D

[396_WAYS_TO_SPIT]

Hal:
What I want to know is how do did you make a six pack last 8 hours??? :D :D :D I put that on there for the beer drinkers. I was drinking smirnoff triple balck ice. i usually drink rum and coke but I didnt want to get drunk :D :D :D
396

[Hal]

I knew there was a trick to it. It sure turned out nice...

[Omega21]

then we took a piece of 1" round stock and turned it down and drilled it out to fit the 5/8" shaft on the motor.
Just a note, Grizzly Industrial sells the arbor mount of an electric motor for like $5 if you don't have access to a lathe.
http://www.grizzlytools.com/
Todd