ATV carburetor polishing...

[skiddz]

Anyone got a relatively easy way to polish an ATV carb?? I've gone at these things with felt bobs, loose cotton wheels, tiny spiral wheels and not just a little bit of swearing. I've got more friggin' hours on one carb than I do on any 6 pieces of my 4 wheeler and it still looks like I've barely touched it. The bowl and the top were easy, I did 'em on the big machine and they're gleaming like chrome. The carb body is like trying to polish the cut side of an english muffin and I'm goin' through mini bobs like crazy...

How well to finger buffs get into odd places? if I could get a 4" x 1/8" wheel with enough stiffness, I could pretty much get the entire thing done on the big machine.. Man this is frustrating...

[mole]

Skiddz your crazy for trying to polish carbs . Just an idea but maybe a dremel with flexshaft and some of those tiny felt wheels. did you try sanding it first? There's a ton of nooks and crannies on those carbs its gonna be tough.

try some greaseless compound .. on the bobs ...i just did a holley .. needless to say .. it was a pain in the ..... i hand sanded what i could ,, took my little rotary tool and a bunch of cone sanding rolls ... tore up 3 sisal pad's .. it looks ok but it will work for now .. til i tear it down . and start over ....

[polishinginc]

I've done one carb and it is the last one i'll ever do! With the work that goes into making a carb look decent and the money invested in it you would have been better off powdercoating it from the begginging.
Do you have a pic of it? I do GM throttle bodys which are pretty simple in the small detail catageory, but TB's are mainly less intricate than carb designs so that makes them easyer to polish.

[skiddz]

Yeah, I'm a glutton for punishment for even attempting to do these friggin' things.. I've tried the dremel with 8 million little wheels, bobs etc.. Tried the flex shaft with the same tools. I can't seem to generate enough heat with either. No grunt with the dremel and not enough RPM with the flex shaft. (Driven with a drill)

I may have to knuckle down and buy one of Caswell's flex shaft tools.. Just not sure how much grunt it's got.. Anyone got one they'd care to comment about?

I ended up trying some emery compound on a loose cotton wheel. Tore the hell out out the wheel (it was 6", now it's about 4" ehhe) and threw threads all over the garage (and me - I looked like I walked through a cave of spiderwebs) but it turned out "ok". Not brilliant shiny, but has a bit of luster that looks decent from a distance. I did get a good shine on the bowl and top cap so when it's all reassembled, it looks a LOT better than it did.

Gonna do the 2nd one the same way and call it good. I'd still like to tackle one after riding season is over, just to see if I can do it.

I do have a pic of the 1st carb installed. I'll post it when I get home tonight so you can get an idea of what I'm dealing with.

[mole]

I have that Caswells flex shaft tool the one with the foot pedal and all, its pretty good but no it does have all that much grunt that your looking for.

[skiddz]

Crud. maybe I need to <ahem> borrow that washer down the street with the "Goodwill" sign on it and tear the motor out of it and cobble up some sort of adapter for my flax shaft.... Wish I could power it from my buffing machine. That thing's got more than enough grunt...

[Stryder]

Well, there's that flex shaft that goes on the buffer... kinda pricey though.

I was thinking about doing my keihn carb but now... :P

[skiddz]

If I could get a flex shaft with more grunt, these Mikunis wouldn't really be that bad.. Actually, if I could get some good 1" tight spiral wheels, AND a flex shaft with some grunt, it would be fairly easy to get to 90+% of the thing gleaming...

[skiddz]

Did another carb today. Found a sisal wheel in my junk box that was about 3/8" wide that worked pretty good for about 90% of the body. Wore the thing down to a nub tho.. 6" to 2" in about 30 mins, but the carb came out pretty nice.

Check it out HERE