Twin Disc Revere v2 - 90% complete

Definitely worth us doing a separate post on the whole buffing process. However, I have to confess that I now do it in a much simpler way than when I first tried it a few months back.

Originally, I bought a whole buffing kit from ebay that included all the different blocks of compound and a selection of buffing mops - all drill attachments (I don't have a bench, let alone a bench grinder )

After a recommendation from Rj2para that he often uses Autosol with fine wet'n'dry on his forks, I now simply follow this 5 step process:

1. If the surface is very bad, I use wire wheel drill attachments on an electric drill to lightly sand the surface area. I bought a box of wire wheel/cup attachments a bit like this:

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/24pc-WIRE-BRUSH-WHEEL-SET-for-POWER-or-BATTERY-DRILLS-/170801702652?pt=UK_Home_Garden_PowerTools_SM&hash=item27c49326fc#ht_1356wt_862

They seem to last quite well and by not using immense pressure (but just taking time) they bring the surfaces back to a clean starting point.

2. For those areas that I can't get to with the drill and wire brush, I use varying levels of grit wet'n'dry until the whole piece (e.g. a fork leg) is uniform.

3. I now liberally apply Autosol with my fingers over the larger areas of the piece.

4. I then use the polishing mops (larger going down to smaller for tighter areas) on the electric drill, topping up the Autosol if necessary.

5. For the tighter/harder to get at areas, I use a combination of mini-mop buffer attachments and (you guessed it) hand polishing with cloths. Though the more I do this, the less hand polishing I typically do - I can generally do 95% of most bits with the drill.

Having recently done plenty of polishing with all the different (proper) compounds, it is surprising that I could spend 4hrs on one piece (e.g. a grabrail) but get virtually the same results using Autosol in roughly half the time.

All that said, it is true to say following the proper "polishing" route does result in a higher level of "mirror" finish than I've been able to get with Autosol. But I spent hours and hours on the original polishing approach, but really have saved many hours doing the Autosol approach on my more recent parts. So like anything, I guess you get back what you put in.

I've not paint-stripped anything to date, though in the early days I did cheat and get local chap to aqua-blast difficult to sand pieces (eg. the top yoke). But that was before I had bought the wire-brush drill attachments and was doing absolutely all the stripping by hand - I think if I did it again I could just strip the parts using the drill wire brushes and a small amount of hand-work.

And so far I haven't lacquered over the end result of anything. I've read some people always do that, but others complain that the lacquer can start to look shabby after a year.

Over the next few weeks I'll try to pick a random part and follow the processes with a camera and see if I can put a thread up.... In the meantime, hope this is useful.

As has been said I use Autosol on mine.

Once the forks are done, I can leave them through the winter and within 30 mins they are buff again in the spring.

Don't get me wrong I will never win best bike in show, but she shines enough for me.

i want your red revere!!! it looks like a factory bike,any chance of swapping 6 m&m's and a pack of half melted maltesers for her? haha