Any polishers out there?

[barberad]

After I stripped all the coats of krylon that the PO left on my jugs, I had to start from square zero with my aluminum.
I usually use "Mother's" and it works great on aluminum with a lot of elbow grease (and a drill with a "power ball"). I was looking at this product called Blue Magic that has some silcone in it that is supposed to help the shine last longer. My initial thoughts on this stuff after using it are that it doesn't shine up like mothers. I think i'll use the mothers and that put a coat of the other stuff on. Any one had any luck with anything else? This will help with aluminium OCD.

[81xsproject]

Go get yourself a tube of Semichrome. You will be much more happy with the shinny results than Mothers. Other than constant up-keep, you will have to clear coat to make it last. There are some new clear coats that supposedely won't yellow over time, but I can't speak from experience, mines all BLACK.

[CarolynS]

There are better products...

Speedy is a liquid, comes in a big bottle. It can be found at truck stops, chrome shops, and specialty automotive suppliers. It contains an acid that will help to remove the corrosion from the aluminum while you're polishing.
White Magic is another product that is based on the same chemical compounds.
Depending on the level of corrosion and staining that has occured, you may have to cut the metal first before polishing it. If you have a Dremel, you can pick up the metal polishing kit for that machine, it runs under $20 and contains everything you'd need. And it's small size makes it perfect for polishing motorcycle parts.
To maintain the finish is not hard. Grocery store variety corn starch, lightly dusted onto a soft cloth will remove and dust and moisture that is what causes the dullness to form. It is mildly abrasive and highly absorbent. A quick wipe down before you go for a ride or after will keep it looking good for a long period of time.
I haven't polished my aluminum in over a month and the bike is outside, uncovered.

[trbig]

I'd be very leery about using any type of polishing compound that leaves a residue (Such as Mothers or any wax products) on the things that are high heat.. like the jugs or headers. This may get burnt off and leave a hard to clean black mess... though I have no personal knowledge of this. As stated, I have used the Simichrome with EXCELLENT results on everything that is high heat... and Mothers on everything else.

[ClarkGriswald]

Another one similar to simichrome is Wenol that is good stuff hard to find.

If ya have a dremel like was previously mentioned you can just use the little felt buffers and some regular white buffing rouge( I know rouge is a stupid term for buffing compound since it simply means red in french). I just did my cam cover like that and It was way easier to do the little details on top. Carefull not to use to much it tends to build up and then ya have to work thru it but if youve ever buffed on a wheel ya know what I mean.

I used turtle wax chrome polish on my pipes.. where there is rust, I couldnt remove it all so I scrubbed it a little with a brass brush then just let her heat up and there were no probs. What little white specs were left came off easy with a brush after that heatup.

[latexeses]

I haven't seen it mentioned yet but has anyone gone after light rust on chrome or dull aluminum with Flitz metal polish?
I think most of the "tube" (Flitz and Semichrome) polishes are in solution with an oil based carrier. I feel that the Flitz is a bit more agressive than the SemiChrome as well. Don't know about what the can 'o chrome polishes are mixed with.
Did the heat related problems occur with either the Flitz or Semichrome?
If it did I am going to have a mess because I pollished the crap out of the side plates and anything else that looked like it needed a good cleaning.
Rodger

[barberad]

As you can probably tell, I'm pretty anal about my aluminum.



any suggestions on the blueing on my pipes?

[madmax-im]

Re: There are better products...

Originally posted by CarolynS
Speedy is a liquid, comes in a big bottle. It can be found at truck stops, chrome shops, and specialty automotive suppliers. It contains an acid that will help to remove the corrosion from the aluminum while you're polishing.
White Magic is another product that is based on the same chemical compounds.
Depending on the level of corrosion and staining that has occured, you may have to cut the metal first before polishing it. If you have a Dremel, you can pick up the metal polishing kit for that machine, it runs under $20 and contains everything you'd need. And it's small size makes it perfect for polishing motorcycle parts.
To maintain the finish is not hard. Grocery store variety corn starch, lightly dusted onto a soft cloth will remove and dust and moisture that is what causes the dullness to form. It is mildly abrasive and highly absorbent. A quick wipe down before you go for a ride or after will keep it looking good for a long period of time.
I haven't polished my aluminum in over a month and the bike is outside, uncovered.

Ohhh Carolyn...she's lookin Goood!...Be-Witching

[ClarkGriswald]

As far as the residue, I even used a bit of mothers inside my carbs to remove the initial Chalky powder corrosion. Now with that said of course I was super concerned with not altering the inside dimensions of the carbs or removing material but it cuts that corrosion really well.. then I continued to clean them in more normal ways. I did however spray carb cleaner back in there to remove the residue. This turned what little shiny-ness I had goin back to dull grey. (however it was now smooth and clean for proper airflow).

Everywhere else on the bike I have used that turtle wax chrome polish (common stuff) and mothers and a buffing wheel with white compound.. In all cases I then clean the parts with something like purple degreaser or mean greeen/ greased lighting/ castrol superclean/ even simple green..

Those degreasers are the only thing that wash buffing compound off my hands (the other metal polishes break down with dish soap from what Ive seen). (of course those degreasers will also de-skin your hands so only a tiny shot in one hand combined with some dish soap and water. and lots of rinsing fast)>.

Anyway I removed the "residue" in that manner just for the same reasons that have been stated.. not only for possible heat reactions but also inside the carbs to eliminate trace amounts that could wash into the engine.

My throttle butterflies, Emulsion tubes, jets ect.. ALL of the parts inside my carbs are polished and shine like fine silverware. Needless to say I went thru a LOT of Q-Tips and pipe cleaners (the good pipe cleaners that have some plastic bristles within them for actual scrubbing).
Anyway I did wash them all after polishing to again make sure I removed the residue (what I could).

Triple cleaned, my patooty!!.. I want em like new.

When I buffed the timing cover last week.. I sprayed some "mean green" on there and you can definatly see a black residue flow away from it.. (there goes your corrosion protection that the polish supposedly gives you.)
There is no substitute for elbow grease and tedious work but that doesnt mean we have to kill ourselves, Im just a glutton for punishment.


By the way somehow when I first cleaned my pipes (turtlewax chrome polish) the old blueing and such was gone.. Now I have a little on 3&4 headers and a little gold on 1&2. That came from when I first started running it.. (obviously changed the balance between the carb banks and took care of that but they are still a little off).

[mro]

Beginner polisher

My dremal tool


Have yet to spend the time needed to get good at polishing.
I've tried it out on a spare valve cover. All the easy to get to surfaces shine up real nice and fast, but inside the "H" still be a problem. Maybe need a real dremal to get to these spots.
---------
Pics of "shiney" XSes???



mro
BTW, XS11's are not very good roto tillers

[fredintoon]

"any suggestions on the blueing on my pipes?"

Hi Barberad,
learn to live with it. Single wall pipes are supposed to go blue, where the blue is on the pipe is an indication of how well (or how poorly) your bike is tuned. Be proud! The photos show that your bike is tuned just about perfectly.

[xs11lover]

I've found mother's worked for me, but I gues I'll be trying some of the others listed in this thread soon. This is my x80 sg. it was a $500 dirty pine sap crusted yard bike when I got it, spent a winter cleaning.

[nubee]

Tried some different types of polish on my headers. Lotta work but gets the blue off.

[xs11lover]

Barberad, I love that xj, looks great. I need to get one of them.

[ClarkGriswald]

STUPID RAIN !!!!

Ok so the weekend is shot for riding, supposed to rain till monday so hopefully it stops for a few min's so I can run outside and hang up the front calipers off some wire and pull the whole front end off and run back in the house with it.

Guess its time to polish those lower fork tubes. Mabye when Im done I'll make a pic of the shinyness, Im thinkin buffing wheel on the lathe.