Engine Cover Polish

[BowlingSS]

I had to replace the left side cover which was cracked with one off my parts bike. The replacement cover looks really bad. What does everyone use to polish the side covers? I assume some type of al polish.

Thanks.
Bill

[kboehringer]

Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish

BowlingSS,
I've been using Mother's Mag & Aluminum Polish with great success. My bike had been spray-bombed with rattle-can black. Once I got the black off with a mild stripper, the Mother's has given everything it touches a very nice shiny finish. It is a little work, but well worth the effort.
Sincerely,
Kurt

[Prisoner6]

I had to replace the left side cover which was cracked with one off my parts bike. The replacement cover looks really bad. What does everyone use to polish the side covers?

Hi, Bill -

I think it would depend on just how bad "really bad" is ...

Take a look at these two threads:

A Better Way to Polish Aluminum

Polishing Tips

[jetmechmarty]

What you use depends upon how bad it is. It could be so bad you start with a file and move to sandpaper.

Here's an interesting trick: Cleaning & Polishing Aluminum

If it's not terrible or once you get to that point, Mother's works for me. Autosol and many others work just as well.

[Prisoner6]

Marty,

That link took me to Tod's addendum to the transmission fix ...

[jetmechmarty]

Marty,

That link took me to Tod's addendum to the transmission fix ...

Thanks! I fixed it.

[Diskman01]

Picked up a gnarly 1983 XV500K a while back.. It sat outside most of it's life I'm guessing..

I picked up a cheap $12 "polishing kit" at Menards. Im sure the auto parts store has em too. Has the mandrel, 3 pads and polishing sticks.

I just chucked it into my corded drill and went to town. Took about 30 minutes to bring it back to shiny.

I then followed up with Mothers Mag polish as stated above. Looks very nice now.

[mack]

Autosol

I've always had good results with autosol (german) It comes in several grades and before I just used general metal polish because thats what most stores carried. But I found some of their aluminum polish and tried it. I find the finished result is about 30% brighter.It takes alot of circles to polish something initially but I find the autosol is a fantasic maintainer.Better than mothers for sure.

[XS 1100 Rick]

Mother's with a lot of elbow grease and it will look like a mirror. Well almost LOL!! This stuff works great and protects against oxidation well worth the time and effort.

[BowlingSS]

Thanks everyone. I have my work cut out for me.

Bill