DIY: Pimp your bars!

Maybe you have, hmm, let's say beated Husselfelts on your bike. How you can
make 'em look better with budget? One answer is paint. Why not?
Another answer is to put some nice sticker on 'em! That's propably
the easiest way to do it. But, the hardest and most time consuming way to solve
this problem is polishing. This article is here to give you an idea, what is
one way to do it.To complete this task you will need the following items:
-Metal item to be polished. (I choosed Truvativ Husselfelt '05 OS handlebar)
-Sandpaper (I used: 80, 180, 400, 800 and 1200) (Costs something like 1 euro or $ per sheet)
-Water (For water sand paper (800 and 1200))
-Metal Polishing Compound (I used: Unipol, ~7 euros or $)
-Cloth (for cleaning and polishing. I used some soft disposable polishing cloths, but for example old T-shirt will do fine)

Step 1:

Clean all kind of dirt from the bars.

Unsecure image, only https images allowed: http://www.ridingjkl.com/ridingjkl_kuvat/air/pbblog/polishing/bars02.jpg
Step 2:

This step is the most time consuming step. You have to sand all paints off, so there will be only bare metal left. It took something like 30 minutes to sand one half of the bars.

The idea in sanding is: you start from coarse (rough) grit sizes (big grits) and increase it little by little to fine grit sizes (very small grits). If you don't use enough different grit sizes, you have to do excess work. It's very time consuming to try sand off big scratches with
very fine paper.

Notice: You have to be careful when sanding. Not all bike parts are suitable for sanding. I'm not sure, is it
even good idea to sand my Husselfelts, but I decided to do so anyway.

You can also first use some kind of chemical paint remover like Nitro Mors. But be aware, that they doesn't bite
to annodized surfaces, like my Husselfelt. I had no choice but to use brutal force.

Ok, let's cut the bs: Take big enough piece of sandpaper with grit size 80. I used sandpaper intended for metal,
so one sheet will last very long. Actually I cutted one 120mm x 70mm piece and it lasted as long as I needed it.
You maybe want to clean bars with cloth every now and then.

Unsecure image, only https images allowed: http://www.ridingjkl.com/ridingjkl_kuvat/air/pbblog/polishing/bars03_80.jpgI decided to polish only one half of the bars.

Step 3:

Get paper with grit size 180. Sand down all scratches off made by 80 paper.

Unsecure image, only https images allowed: http://www.ridingjkl.com/ridingjkl_kuvat/air/pbblog/polishing/bars04_180.jpgClose up

Step 4:

Get paper with grit size 400. Sand down all scratches off made by 180 paper.

Unsecure image, only https images allowed: http://www.ridingjkl.com/ridingjkl_kuvat/air/pbblog/polishing/bars05_400.jpgClose up

Step 5:

Get paper with grit size 800. Sand down all scratches off made by 400 paper. My grit sizes 800 and 1200 were water sand paper. The idea in wet sand paper is that water washes off small metal pieces from the paper. Grit size is so fine, that it would not bite that well without water. There are also pretty fine papers, which are not water sand papers, you can use them too. I have seen them all the way to grit size 1000.

I took bucket of water and dipped the water sand paper piece in there every time, when water on handlebar was starting to dry. So keep the sanded surface wet. Check results every now and then by wiping all dirty water off from the surface with paper or cloth.

Unsecure image, only https images allowed: http://www.ridingjkl.com/ridingjkl_kuvat/air/pbblog/polishing/bars06_800.jpgClose up

Step 6:

Get paper with grit size 1200. Sand down all scratches off made by 800 paper. It's pretty hard to see difference in 800 and 1200 scratches, but if you look closely you can see it. Good lights are helpful here. When you are done, clean your bars.

Step 7:

In this step we are polishing the bars. I have this kind of polishing compound, you might have different kind. This polishing is very easy to use. You just simply put some compound on surface of the item to be cleaned and start polishing it with a cloth. At first the compound turns black when it reacts with the polishing and then just keep on polishing and it will clear up and make the surface to be nice and shiny. This step shows have done your sanding properly. If so, the result will be mirror-like shine.

Step 8:

Clean all excess polishing compound and be amazed by the results!

Unsecure image, only https images allowed: http://www.ridingjkl.com/ridingjkl_kuvat/air/pbblog/polishing/bars07_1.jpgUnsecure image, only https images allowed: http://www.ridingjkl.com/ridingjkl_kuvat/air/pbblog/polishing/bars07_2.jpgUnsecure image, only https images allowed: http://www.ridingjkl.com/ridingjkl_kuvat/air/pbblog/polishing/bars07_3.jpg
Step 9:

Leave comments and maybe a link to your own polished stuff. I would love to see your results.

It took me about 2 hours of labour to polish one half of the bars.

EDIT (13 December, 2007): There was simple reason why I polished bars only halfway.
Unsecure image, only https images allowed: http://www.ridingjkl.com/ridingjkl_kuvat/air/pbblog/polishing/bighit_bars03.jpgRest of the pictures:
-Front
-Front zoom
-Rear
-Rear zoom

Any questions? Give me a shout!

Direct link to this article: http://air2k.pinkbike.com/blog/pimpyourbars.html

-AiR2k