My update for today is thanks to racerxxx and his method for cleaning rub rails.
Step 1: wipe with lacquer thinner
Step 2: buff with peanut butter
Step 3: remove excess peanut butter and wipe clean with a clean rag.
These rub rails looked like shit but man this thing is looking better and better. Here are a couple pics.
After cleaning up the rub rails, I thought for a minute that I would try the same method on the factory black plastic trim and start button cluster. And holy smokes it looks good. I did a before and after of the thumb throttle even though I won’t be using it on this build, just to show the magic.
BEFORE
AFTER
So with that method working I decided to do all the black plastic on the machine as well as the rear grab handle, which also came out great.
From there I did a little mock up of the single gauge hood. This is not the exact hood I’ll be using on this build because I’ll be painting the hood anyways. Here is a picture of the mock up.
Looks pretty good but I think my girlfriend is going for a purple hood with a sky blue accent bombardier stick or something. Like I said that was a factory 95 xp 800 yellow single gauge hood, which I decided to throw some paint stripper on. I have not completely finished getting all the paint off but this was a matter of like 5 minutes of work.
DISCLAIMER: this pink paste paint stripper says not for use on plastic, but like I said, the stripper was not on the plastic for more than 2 minutes. Literally wipe on with one rag, and wipe off with a clean rag.
As you can see this post is long. I’ve done a lot today. Not word from the machine shop on the engine but I’ve got some other things to work on today. So expect another update later this evening wrapping up the rest of what I’ve done today.
Cheers!
Step 1: wipe with lacquer thinner
Step 2: buff with peanut butter
Step 3: remove excess peanut butter and wipe clean with a clean rag.
These rub rails looked like shit but man this thing is looking better and better. Here are a couple pics.
After cleaning up the rub rails, I thought for a minute that I would try the same method on the factory black plastic trim and start button cluster. And holy smokes it looks good. I did a before and after of the thumb throttle even though I won’t be using it on this build, just to show the magic.
BEFORE
AFTER
So with that method working I decided to do all the black plastic on the machine as well as the rear grab handle, which also came out great.
From there I did a little mock up of the single gauge hood. This is not the exact hood I’ll be using on this build because I’ll be painting the hood anyways. Here is a picture of the mock up.
Looks pretty good but I think my girlfriend is going for a purple hood with a sky blue accent bombardier stick or something. Like I said that was a factory 95 xp 800 yellow single gauge hood, which I decided to throw some paint stripper on. I have not completely finished getting all the paint off but this was a matter of like 5 minutes of work.
DISCLAIMER: this pink paste paint stripper says not for use on plastic, but like I said, the stripper was not on the plastic for more than 2 minutes. Literally wipe on with one rag, and wipe off with a clean rag.
As you can see this post is long. I’ve done a lot today. Not word from the machine shop on the engine but I’ve got some other things to work on today. So expect another update later this evening wrapping up the rest of what I’ve done today.
Cheers!