anyone have a good method to cleaning up tarnished aluminum?

[Radioguylogs]

...and I like Mack's motor fixture as much as I like that amazing job on that SF engine.

Your bike belongs on the cover of the Clymer's manual.

[daddy-O]

Bar Keeper's Friend

I've had good results with "Bar Keeper's Friend" which you should be able to find at your local large food store. It is a mild abrasive powder with some chemicals in it that help get rid of the stains and minor discoloration on raw aluminum that has been sitting and oxidizing. I apply with denim rags (cut up old Levi's) and a little bit of water + a lot of elbow grease. Once the piece has a uniform even dull color with no stains I rinse with lots of clean water. I then use aluminum polish (semi-chrome, wendol, fritz, mothers, & etc) + lots more elbow grease applied with soft rags
and buffed out with even softer rags. Once you have the piece looking the way you want you can use a sealer (as indicated herein or google "aluminum sealer") to lock in the shine.

[daddy-O]

Glass beads

Glass beads (available from Eastwood & elsewhere) will give you the even color and finish like fresh aluminum castings. However, you should use in your blasting cabinet on totally disassembled parts using care to protect all machined surfaces. Sand will leave a very rough surface. The blasted part(s) will need to be completely clean of all blast material before reassembly.

[Nubian]

on what your trying to achieve. If you just want to clean the aluminum then goo gone and a scotch bright pad will do wonders.



If you are looking for something more than it is best done with the motor out of the bike so you can get easy access to all the nooks and cranny's. It's a dirty, toxic time consuming labor of love but well worth it when completed.




These where from my SF when I did that restore. That was four or five seasons ago. I clean the bike once a season and because I have a few, I only put about 4000 miles on this one each year. It's my favoured rider. This is a picture of what it looked like after five seasons.

When I do clean it up I use autosol. It takes about 3 hours to do the whole thing, so considering I only do it once a year, it's holding up rather well.
This subject comes up a lot and unfortunately there really is no wonder product that will replace hard work. Autosol only shines and protects. To get it to that stage I used a combination of die grinder and abrasive pads, auto motive sand paper of varying grits and a dremel with medium and fine wheels for the tight curved portions, and a bench grinder with several grits of pastes and buffing wheels.
If you are going to tackle this seriously. Do it outside and wear a very good mask.

I want that motor stand
Did you make it?

[mack]

Yep

try this.
http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread...ht=motor+stand