Swingarm - Removal of Orange Peel

This swingarm was never intended to be polished, the finish is very uneven, Yamaha decided it would be best to have a "Matt" finish as a cost saving approach. I decided I would remove the orange peel effect and polish it up.....

After approximately 8 hours over 2 days I have it ready for polishing. I started with a 3M scotch disc followed by 60, 80, 120, 240, 360 grit sanding discs, then 400 and 800 grit wet sand paper, (i have some 1200 wet and dry paper, I might give it the once over with that too)

Engine Mounts final

Front engine mounts welded into place and primer
coated to combat the surface rust building up in my garage.

So engine in and lined up. I had concerns about the swingarm
angle and the relation between the final drive and the swingarm
pivot point. The engine has ended up a little lower than desired
this will have to be a compromise.

The swingarm angle is set approximately at 12.5 degrees which
I read somewhere that it was a desirable number.

From the ground up

Spent a while this evening cleaning and tidying the working space to start the bike rebuild. I got the engine mounted into the frame, swingarm and rear suspension - all the mounting bolts have yet to be tightened and the originals have been replaced with stainless steel where possible.

Bling Bling #2

The frame was the first part I cleaned and polished immediately followed  by the swing-arm. This one was donated and was in better condition than the original with less corrosion. I must admit I spend less time sanding and polishing this and under the studio light more of the heavy sanding marks can be seen, again this is coated with  ACF50 for protection against oxidation/corrosion.

Pieces

I got the frame, forks and swingarm broken down tonight after removing the rear brake system and wiring loom. The tedious task now begins of cleaning these and then polishing them to start the rebuild.