Well, I started my polish job on the V500. So far so good. I had a hard time getting the paint off and found that a wire brush wheel on my drill worked great for cleaning it up the little spots that the paint stripper wouldn't remove. The down side to the wire brush is it took a lot of sanding with 220 to get the wire brush marks out, but I'm on my way. I finished the fork completely, and am set to start with the 400 grit tomorrow on the frame and work my way up.
Worst part is the welds. Many of them have 'imperfections' in the weld that make them hard to sand. Yours look very smooth, did you do a lot of sanding/filing to get your welds that smooth?
Also, where did you get your decals? I need the same style.
thanks for the inspiration.