wheel mirror polishing

When rocket wheels are mirror polished does the polisher leave the black painted areas? On the front wheel these areas contain lots of code numbers, some of which look very 'official' and they may be needed to keep you right with insurance companies etc. If the polisher has to mirror finish all these painted areas he will have quite a bit of grinding to do before he starts sanding.
On the other hand is it possible for the polisher to mask off the painted areas and leave them black.
Finally is it possible to seal the wheel bearing area so no grinding paste or grit penetrates (Seems a shame to throw away £100 worth of bearings and seals etc)
Mike

I believe cadfather would be the one to ask,
he's our resident polishing expert.

xhdskip said:

I believe cadfather would be the one to ask,
he's our resident polishing expert.

Click to expand...

Thanks Skip,
The black areas on the wheels could be left as is or polished but you are right there is a lot of hand sanding to be done to that area first to get it smooth as glass. Which is why it costs so bloody much, it is a lot of work. The safest thing with the wheel bearings is to remove them and install new ones, no matter how hard you try in sealing them off there will still be some compound getting through. Honestly I've done wheels on other bikes both ways, removing the bearings and leaving them in place and have not had a bearing fail due to the polishing compound getting in. I'm 100% positive that it did get in but the bearings just have not failed yet and on one customers bike he's got over 40,000 miles on his after polishing.

Thanks Cadfather - just what I needed to know. If the black areas are to be left as is, can the polisher avoid hitting them with whirling wheels and the like? or do they need repainting after the polishing work.
Thanks
Mike

The polisher can mask the areas to be left and if he is careful he won't disturb the original finish, best to buff away from the edge of the tape so you don't lift it. I mainly polish with wheels and compound on a buffer (think bench grinder) and have excellent results. Some folks have the impression that sitting down with a tube of paste or polish and a towel is all it takes, it is rather more involved than that. I do everything by hand and it is very labor intensive, it takes me two weeks to complete a rear wheel, if that is all that I work on. It's just like doing paintwork, the more time you spend in prep the less work you'll have in finishing. I sand with the finest sandpaper that'll work for the job, every scratch you put in HAS to be removed before you can go to the next step. Some parts I don't even sand I just take them straight to the buffer with a cutting wheel (SISAL). Also, I never wet sand aluminum, it'll cake up and scratch the parts, but I do wet sand Stainless Steel and harder metals, just a matter of experience. Glad I could be of assistance.
CAD