# Polished Bliss®: Yamaha R6...



## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

The owner of this R6 regularly has his other car done by us and wanted his bike to look equally as good so he left it with us for a few weeks so I could work on it at my leisure.

The detail took approx 2 full days when I totalled up the man hours.

So here it is on arrival:































































































































The badges on the tank were to be replaced with new ones so I carefully removed them:










This left a bit of residue which Autosmart Tardis easily removed:

















Using an open ended hose I then gave the bike a thorough rinse off to get rid of as much dust and grit as possible...










...Then applied APC to the front end to help the removal of the dead bugs:



















Again using APC, the wheels/brakes/suspension/engine etc were cleaned with the various sized brushes:














































After a good rinse off the bike was then washed with the 2BM...










...followed by another thorough rinse and then dried off with the Black Baron:










The paint gauge revealed that the paint was quite thin on this bike with the average readings being about 80/85 microns, however it was pretty hard so I needed Menzerna 3.02 and a light cut pad with the rotary to achieve the desired level of correction.

Here's a before and after of where there was a small area suffering from sanding marks which were previously hidden by the badges:

















If you look closely on the right hand picture you'll see a slightly blurred reflection where the finish had been ridged during the sanding process. The new badges would hide this so it would be daft to go any further to try and improve this.

The general swirling wasn't too bad but I was still a bit surprised I needed the cut of 3.02 to remove everything:










Afters:














































The finish from the 3.02 was LSP ready as you can see so after a wee bit of dusting down I cleansed the paint with Swissvax Cleaner Fluid and then waxed with Crystal Rock:



















The wheels were done with Swissvax Autobahn and all the matt finishes were protected with Swissvax Opaque after being cleaned with the Opaque cleaner.

Opaque Cleaner being applied:










The finish left from the Opaque Wax:










New badges applied :thumb:










And here's the end result 




































































































Thanks for looking 

Clark


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## Baker21 (Aug 7, 2007)

Nice Clark, take plenty of time Motor bikes, so many fiddly bits to do...........

The end result however looks spot on.........:thumb:


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## Driftland Liaison (Sep 17, 2009)

Nice to see a bike done stunning :thumb:


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## Scrim-1- (Oct 8, 2008)

Stunning results, this your first bike to detail?


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

Baker21 said:


> Nice Clark, take plenty of time Motor bikes, so many fiddly bits to do...........
> 
> The end result however looks spot on.........:thumb:


To be honest, the fact that they can take multiple days to do properly is the reason I turned down so many requests in the past as it can get expensive but it would appear there's a huge demand from folk even to spend £5/600+ on a detail so who am I to argue if they want it done


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

Scrim-1- said:


> Stunning results, this your first bike to detail?


Yep, first one if I exclude one I gave a quick going over several years ago - that one didn't really count


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## Baker21 (Aug 7, 2007)

Clark @ PB said:


> To be honest, the fact that they can take multiple days to do properly is the reason I turned down so many requests in the past as it can get expensive but it would appear there's a huge demand from folk even to spend £5/600+ on a detail so who am I to argue if they want it done


Have to agree with you there Clark, think I completely under estimated the amount of work involved when Rob and I attended to the Agusta F4S recently, still I think it's the final results that highlight the amount of work involved........:thumb:

I think like car owners there will always be some bike owners that think it's a pointless exercise...........

Makes a nice change from detailing a car though I guess...........:thumb:

Thanks for sharing..........


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## dazzyb (Feb 9, 2010)

great work as ever, something different but still another awesome machine to stop by at pb


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## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

Loved this writeup, great work!


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## [email protected] (Apr 28, 2011)

Nice to see a bike done  nice work


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## Paddy_R (Jan 10, 2007)

Top job. Really really need to do mine before it's put away from the winter. 

Quick question: what did you use to treat the unpainted metal surfaces? They have a very nasty habit of corroding very quickly on bikes.


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## UCD (Oct 27, 2010)

great job Clark!


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## badman1972 (Jun 24, 2010)

Top quality work as always on something a bit different which made nice reading/viewing, thanks :thumb:


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

Paddy_R said:


> Top job. Really really need to do mine before it's put away from the winter.
> 
> Quick question: what did you use to treat the unpainted metal surfaces? They have a very nasty habit of corroding very quickly on bikes.


I just used the Opaque wax mate


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## Ad.sk (Sep 17, 2010)

Top job, I did almost the same model a month ago  Next time I'll do 2 cars instead of one bike..


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## rgDetail (Jul 16, 2009)

Had noticed this one making an appearance in the background on some of your other posts - great to see a bike detailed


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## 500tie (Oct 15, 2009)

Awesome work clark looks really smart mate


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## james_death (Aug 9, 2010)

Very nice...:thumb:
Love the glove over exhaust simple and effective...:thumb:
There is a proper bung you can get for them...:thumb:


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## TelTel (Aug 21, 2010)

lovely work clarky! lovely looking bike and fab results there! is it something you take on every now and then? if not is it something you still will consider if the customer wants to pay good money?


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

TelTel said:


> lovely work clarky! lovely looking bike and fab results there! is it something you take on every now and then? if not is it something you still will consider if the customer wants to pay good money?


We do officially detail bikes now so we'll do them whenever we're asked,the Services section of the website will be updated to show this just shortly 

There's nothing difficult to them,it's just time consuming because if you miss a bit it sticks out like a sore thumb!


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## Phantom (Aug 6, 2007)

Clark @ PB said:


> I just used the Opaque wax mate





Paddy_R said:


> Top job. Really really need to do mine before it's put away from the winter.
> 
> Quick question: what did you use to treat the unpainted metal surfaces? They have a very nasty habit of corroding very quickly on bikes.


ACF50 works a treat for those bits

http://www.acf-50.co.uk/motorcycle.htm


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

Phantom said:


> ACF50 works a treat for those bits
> 
> http://www.acf-50.co.uk/motorcycle.htm


Looks interesting mate,will have a read in the morning - thanks


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## cra3g...d (Jul 30, 2011)

Stunning work m8 on a stunning bike


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## weegaz22 (Jul 8, 2008)

Nice work, although on the tank it probably wont be sanding marks, it'll be zip marks from the riders jacket, thats why you typically get those pads to prevent wear on the tank from riders knee's, jackets etc, bikes are a pain to do as there are so many places you end up finding you could spend an eternity cleaning one, but they do look good when done, My SP1 is well overdue a detail, will need a few days on it at least.


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## Kane. (Feb 5, 2011)

Looks brand new.


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## Paddy_R (Jan 10, 2007)

Phantom said:


> ACF50 works a treat for those bits
> 
> http://www.acf-50.co.uk/motorcycle.htm


Should have said; that's the stiff I use on a majority of my bike.


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## detailersdomain (Sep 13, 2006)

great job!


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## Minus8 (Aug 1, 2011)

Looks good! As a car detailing bike owner I have to admit, I didn't think it would take two days! Some bloody fiddly bits though so I guess it's understandable


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

Nice work there fella


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

Good to do something different, looks great mate.


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

Thanks guys :thumb:


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## DMH-01 (Mar 29, 2011)

Great work there mate.


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Fantastic work..


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## sjj84 (May 8, 2010)

Great work, bikes are such a pain to clean. Probably why mine is covered with a layer of flies!


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## Imran (Sep 7, 2008)

Great work, makes a change to see 2 wheels instead of 4


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## paranoid73 (Aug 5, 2009)

Very Nice Clark :thumb: Did you use opaque on the swing arm and frame?


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## Bratwurst (Jan 23, 2009)

Excellent thorough job there!! :buffer::thumb:

Absolutely love the bike too! I used to have a modded 600 Fazer that I always regretted selling, so I have a real liking for all things Yamaha, especially the R's. :argie:

Thanks for posting :thumb:


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## Ali (Apr 5, 2006)

Cool!


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## Nanolex (Jun 8, 2008)

Very nice job! :thumb:


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## chunkytfg (Feb 1, 2009)

Cracking job but I cant help but thinking the tank protector is a bit high up the tank from the seat to be able to protect it from trouser zips


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## nogrille (Oct 27, 2005)

nice work
I hope Crystal Rock isn't too slippery on the tank!


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## paranoid73 (Aug 5, 2009)

nogrille said:


> nice work
> I hope Crystal Rock isn't too slippery on the tank!


This is the issues I had when I waxed my tank, no grip what so ever under heavy braking and hanging off, and after a 100 miles or so the marring was back to square one from from where knees gripped the tank. Judging by the chicken strips it wasn't used in anger


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## chunkytfg (Feb 1, 2009)

paranoid73 said:


> This is the issues I had when I waxed my tank, no grip what so ever under heavy braking and hanging off, and after a 100 miles or so the marring was back to square one from from where knees gripped the tank. Judging by the chicken strips it wasn't used in anger


Stomp grips:thumb:


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