I'm trying to plot some data in polar coordinates, but I don't want the standard ticks, labels, axes, etc. that you get with the Matplotlib polar() function. All I want is the raw plot and nothing else, as I'm handling everything with manually drawn patches and lines.

Here are the options I've considered:

1) Drawing the data with polar(), hiding the superfluous stuff (with ax.axes.get_xaxis().set_visible(False), etc.) and then drawing my own axes (with Line2D, Circle, etc.). The problem is when I call polar() and subsequently add a Circle patch, it's drawn in polar coordinates and ends up looking like an infinity symbol. Also zooming doesn't seem to work with the polar() function.

2) Skip the polar() function and somehow make my own polar plot manually using Line2D. The problem is I don't know how to make Line2D draw in polar coordinates and haven't figured out how to use a transform to do that.

Any idea how I should proceed?