Tips for shining up the engine/exhaust

[Guest]

Hey guys, just looking for maybe a simple step by step as to how I should go about cleaning up the engine cover without taking them off. I am not looking for a flawless or mirror perfect finish by any means. But instead a way to spend a some time over a weekend cleaning them up, and creating a semi-shiny, but most importantly EVEN and clean look.

I used some stuff from work called "acid" that literally ate away some grime on the cover and lower forks, it worked incredibly well, but now I have been told to get some mother mag polish and a polishing wheel for my air drill and go to town...what do you guys recommend? Maybe a bit of sanding?

[posplayr]

Hey guys, just looking for maybe a simple step by step as to how I should go about cleaning up the engine cover without taking them off. I am not looking for a flawless or mirror perfect finish by any means. But instead a way to spend a some time over a weekend cleaning them up, and creating a semi-shiny, but most importantly EVEN and clean look.

I used some stuff from work called "acid" that literally ate away some grime on the cover and lower forks, it worked incredibly well, but now I have been told to get some mother mag polish and a polishing wheel for my air drill and go to town...what do you guys recommend? Maybe a bit of sanding?

Base aluminum will oxidize, and the rougher the surface the worse it will be.

Some picture would help of what you are dealing with. By swapping out the bolts you should be able to do a complete polish, but you will have to watch out for the painted engine cases.

Do not put anything too aggressive on the aluminum covers. Soe here recently used a wire wheel attachment and create a lot of work as it disfigured the covers making even a reasonable finish hard to achieve due to the pocked damage.

Depending upon how much shine you want and what is on them now, you could start with a 400 grit orbital sander to knock off the heavy stuff and then progress through to the other grades as described in many places.

If you look on Utube there is a series on how to use a plastic bristle brush and WD-40 to do much of the grimne cleanup on a motorcycle.

realize I have no idea what teh "acid" did and what you need to do to recover from that.

[Steve]

Polishing wheel in an air drill might be a bit too fast. For touch-up work (on stuff that's already polished), I use a 4" wheel in my Harbor Freight drill that turns 3000 rpm. Use some polishing compound first, then finish up with Mother's.

Depending on what your "acid" is, it might have taken off the clearcoat. That is good, it will leave just the aluminum to polish. If there is clearcoat still there, it will be harder to polish, as you have to get through the clearcoat first. Some light sanding might be necessary at times. Start with 600, then 800, then 1000. Some will go farther than that before breaking out the polishing wheel, I have been known to use the wheel after the 600 at times.

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[Big T]

You definitely need to remove the clear coat first. Post up a picture of what you're dealing with for better advice

For cleaning, try the Simple Green HD (the purple stuff) from HD. That and lots of scrubbing brushes

[motokid837]

You definitely need to remove the clear coat first. Post up a picture of what you're dealing with for better advice

For cleaning, try the Simple Green HD (the purple stuff) from HD. That and lots of scrubbing brushes

After a quick double check, thats exactly what that acid did, as I can see a few spots were the clear coat is still hanging around. You couldn't even take a whiff of that stuff without coughing up a lung. Anyways, It is now bare aluminum and not too terribly scratched or anything. I think ill go pick up some sandpaper at the grit you guys recommended that see where it goes, it can only get better as long as I don't do anything really dumb