Stripping a swingarm. What's that finish on it!!!! Good lord it sucks!

Be cool if you showed us a photo.

Hard anodized as far as I know.

I don't know what exact surface you are dealing with, but this stuff is incredible at getting grime off. One swipe with this on a cloth and the cloth will be black.

Swingarm come with a clear coat finish from the factory that cannot be re-applied. The bike I bought was sand blasted but even that didn't take off all of it. 200 grit to take off the little bits still on and then step your way up to 2000 then green scotchbrite with wd-40.

I would imagine sanding off the whole swingarm would take a long time but that's the boat you are in as there is no going back. I would probably go lower grit and a power sander.

There was a guy with a crf build thread that used something like acid to strip it. I'll post it here if I can find it.

It's freaking clear coat. I am getting it off with a DA sander and 80 grit. I'll follow up with 220, 400, 600 and 800 wet and 1000 wet then polish and after that scotch bright. I give it up to the guys that make theirs look brand new from a piece of shit. Hours of work. Most won't do that at all. Props to the ones who will.

I do. It's the only way to go. Bit of elbow grease won't kill ya.

After the sand paper process use steel wool soap pads (SOS Pads).

FTB wrote:

Yep I've figured it out along and along today. Have one side done so far. Thanks

Sodium hydroxide (caustic soda, oven cleaner) to remove anodising.
Paint stripper to remove clear coat.
YouTube to make sure you do it properly.
Sand, buff and polish to get it shiny.
Scotchbrite with the grain to get the factory look

Dick Trickle wrote:

Sodium hydroxide (caustic soda, oven cleaner) to remove anodising.
Paint stripper to remove clear coat.
YouTube to make sure you do it properly.
Sand, buff and polish to get it shiny.
Scotchbrite with the grain to get the factory look

I went straight to the over cleaner with an RM 125 swingarm and it did nothing. I ended up sand blasting that one and then sanded it. But that was a lot of work.
The over cleaner doesn't work as well on hard anno.

BTW, Draino etc works much better than over cleaner.

I've done a 1999 RM swingarm and just did a 2002 yz swingarm with paint stripper. As stated, if its anodizing, use oven cleaner.

In either case, its not going to just melt the finish away before your eyes. You will need to reapply over and over and over. Somewhere between 4-8 coatings. The beauty is if you take your time and use brass brushes, you don't have to sand, which IMO justifies the extra time in the stripping process.

Aluma bright removes anodizing and has better results than oven cleaner. Just polish after. Brand "air craft" remover will eat paint and powder coat within a few minutes.

I need to get the gold anodizing off this swingarm. Have been a little afraid to use harsh chemicals - but it sounds like it's not that big of a deal.

Not sure about the colored stuff. I finally got mine sanded. Had to take a DA sander with 80 grit to it for a LONG time. Now it's gonna go like this. 220, 400, 600 wet, 800 wet, 1000 wet and then wash with an SOS pad and polish with metal polish until it's a mirror. After that, red scotch bright all over. Back to factory. After riding wash and scotch bright.

I have done many swingarms, take out any deep gouges, digs ect. with a die grinder, dremel tool, blend those repaired area"s out with disc sander using the lightest grade sandpaper you can, glass bead , then red scotchbrite. If you want more shine, after the red scotchbrite use the finer grey scotchbrite. I donot apply anything else after the scotchbrite, nice raw factory look, cleans up good, no issues. The glass bead is key, removes any anodizing or clear with no heavy sanding, If bearings good & still in the arm, I use aluminum tape to cover the bearings. I"m in the process of doing an arm off my 81 rm 250 restore right now, if you have a beat up swingarm it can take a few hrs to get looking really good before the glass beading.