Tech Tip: How to Polish Dirt Bike Frame

In this Tech Tip video I cover how to polish the frame and components of my 2020 KX250 to give it a factory look. This method of polishing only requires Scotchbrite, shop rags, and Mother’s Mag and Aluminum polish.

Hey everybody andy here got the new 2020 kx 250 sitting behind me um i only got about an hour and a half on an absolutely lovely bike but with a lot of my bikes one of the things that i’ve got a lot of compliments and questions on

Is um how i’ve polished the frames one of the first things i do is get out the polish and pretty up the bike a little bit after of course checking all the essential stuff to make sure everything is tightened all the fluids are good

Um so i thought i’d just do a quick tip walk you guys through what i use to polish up my frames you can see when these bikes come from the factory they’ve got kind of a dull finish on the aluminum on the frame all the way around so i’ll show you a

Trick with a couple parts and a couple of things that i use to get that looking a lot nicer first step you’re gonna want to do when you get in there is uh take off the shrouds and the number in place just so you can

Get in nice and close get in all the details that we’re not leaving spots that aren’t touched and it only takes a couple minutes to do it um when i go back after it right i’ll come back i’ll clean it up and most of all the cleanup is inserted

Down here because the only part that my knees touch but for the initial time doing this you want to make sure you get in there get a nice even coach on everything So now that we’ve got the plastics taken off and out of our way we can get to the whole frame i use these green scotch brite pads that i just picked up at the store and i’ll use it just quickly hit everything take off the little imperfections and

If it’s in there especially if you’ve ridden your bike and you’re not starting from fresh just get some of the scratches out of there gives you a clean surface to start with so let’s go over to the workbench for a minute the product i use is this mother’s mag and aluminum polish

You can pick up at local auto parts stores and when it is just this white paste that you can rub on a rag and wipe it on your frame it doesn’t take a lot of pressure just take some rubbing back and forth and give you a really nice shine

So what i’m using here is just some shopper eggs that i picked up at uh menards and my mother’s polish it doesn’t take a whole lot just take a little bit of the dab of that and we can wipe it on the frame now i’m not using a lot of pressure i’m just Or being in there and i’m going to work a little section at a time this is something you could probably do with the buffer um i’ve never tried it just i don’t have one readily available to me and this is why i know this is what i’ve been doing for the last

Since 2009 on my bikes just rub it in there you’ll see the white paste starting to turn black and that means it’s working on the surface Once you go through the effort of it initially it’s a lot easier to get it back after you’ve been riding when you get the boot scuffs so it takes a little bit of time the first time to go through everything and get it all cleaned up and sometimes

It’s kind of a pain where this block doesn’t like to come back off and you gotta keep working it and keep working it but once you get down there you’ll have a really nice a really nice finish on the aluminum frames And just for a reference shot this is the side that i haven’t done yet where it’s just the brushed aluminum just tinged up a little bit from my boots i’ve got about an hour on this Bike a little bit of work makes a huge difference and really makes the bike makes it pop makes it look a lot cleaner another spot that you’ll see me work into my mind just to clean it up and give the bike a little extra [Applause] um clean factory look it uh shows you that you really put the time on the bike to keep it looking nice is the shifter and the uh the brake on the other side and the kickstarter it’s little things that you don’t really notice individually but when when

Once you do the bike all these extra little pieces that look just a little bit cleaner make it look that much better so by the time i’m done i’ll have the frame down i’ll pull the kickstarter out and i’ll do both sides of the kickstarter

And i’ll come down and i’ll do the brake pedals um once i get my graphics i’ll come back down the swing arms and i’ll hit the tops of the swing arms in the back on the on the tops above the axle and clean it up

Another spot i like to hit is the lower frame rails right underneath the motor and again it’s just a bunch of little things and once they’re all done they really add up to print out the bike okay now we’ve got that cleaned up time to put our plastics back on Easy So i just want to say thanks for checking out the video um again this is just another tool for you to consider when if you want to uh do this this isn’t the only way of course um if you have a better way or know of

Other ways to do it leave me a comment let me know because i’m always open to trying um different things on the bike that’d be easier or more efficient um there’s other stuff of course we’ve got a brand new bike here that i’m going to be doing along the way

I had my 450 set up just the way i like it and kind of spur the moment traded it off on the 2020. so now i’m going to start over with a fresh bike and see what we’re going to put into it