Just asking if the 54 swingarm is aluminum because I got some Mother Aluminum and Mag cleaner today to use on it and I got no black residue to appear as the instructions say I should. It actually says to quit using it as it is not a polishable metal if you don't get a black residue. Is there some sort of coating over the aluminum or something? All I did was clean it up and run some steel whool over to see how long and hard the polishing process would take. I used a #3, #1, #00, then #0000. It appeared real clean so I put the mothers on and no black residue, so they are aluminum right...or am I missing something?

wildcard

 

it maybe clearcoated.

 

I was thinking that, but wouldn't the steel wool remove the clear coat? I didn't spend an eternity on it, about 15 minutes per grade, but I only scrubbed a small section as a "test" area. So I was thinking the clear coat should be removed from the area. This makes me wonder, I was looking towards doing the rims this weekend and just wanted all my ducks in a row first, ya know?

wildcard

 

clearcoat can be some hard stuff. Seems like ya shoulda been thru it tho. work on it a bit more n see if it starts doing right.

 

a little hard work never killed anyone...but why chance it?

lol

 

i did mine by wet sanding but i went up to 2000 grit u gotta rub the mothers in and it becomes black then whipre it off should blinggggg

 

a guy i know does polishing as a side gig, and he told me that he has to sand it down with a few differant grits, then uses 2000 grit and then buffs with the mothers. from what he said it sounds like it takes a while to do the whole process. maybe u just didnt do it long enuff. good luck with the polishing, its a biotch to keep up. i used to have a polished swingarm, and after cleaning and buffing everytime i washed it, i was too tired to ride the damn thing.