Cleanliness is next to....

[feelergaugephil]

Purple power from walmart works 100%, the stronger you use the better.
After polishing your casings................
if your getting them to a mirror finish after 400/800/1000/2000 wet n dry.
To seal the polish in, use a good car polish and this helps for a while, but you will always have to repolish sooner to stop the oxidation coming back.
DONT use spray laquer, it will turn yellow with the heat of the engine.

[renobruce]

Come scrub mine, please?
I'll supply the beer?
A thing of beauty.

Thanks, but I'm sure you could do just as good a job as me.:-D They WILL come clean... it just takes alot of scrubbing and patience. This pic better shows my efforts. Look on the floor under the bike and you'll see the dried up stream of filth that came off.

[tfb]

In my dictionary, "cleanliness" is next to "cleavage" :-D

You just haven't lived until you've highsided a big road bike at cruising speed.

Ain't that the truth...

[posplayr]

Jasco Metal Etch

This stuff is pretty cheap and is really versatile; it degreases, removes rust, and corrosion (on aluminum) all at once. With some gloves and steel wool or brass brush you can clean up stuff you would not believe. I have been cleaning the exhaust system off of my parts bike and it was cleaning up real well except those collars. I though I would have to paint them black. It took just a couple of minutes with the brass brush to sparkle them up. \\/

http://homaxgroup.com/products/surfaceprep/20/index.html

Description:

• "JASCO" METAL ETCH
• Pt.
• Cleans and prepares iron,
• steel, aluminum and zinc for
• painting
• Removes rust, oil and grease
• Prepares metals for
• welding or soldering
• Concentrated; may be reduced
• to 3 parts of water to
• one part Metal Etch
• Wipe on, wash off

It seems mild when compared to carberator cleaner (there is not much worse). You can adjust streghth with water and just wash off. I was tunning up my electrical system and wanted to solder the crimp connectors in the fuse box. I just brushed the open fuze box with JASCO and a paint brush. Let it set a few minutes and washed it off. The solder sucked right in as if the wire and connectors were brand new. So basically it seems relatively safe on non metal and painted surfaces as well but I'm not abusing that.

I started to clean the engine fins with a brass bruch and metal etch. I just did a test area and then sprayed it off with water. The gunk was done and some of the corrosion.

Posplayr

[Nessism]

That Metal Etch is a phosphoric acid solution. Great stuff to eat rust off of steel. Home Depot and Lowe's used to sell it but I think they discontinued it a while back.

No disrespect intended but if you are trying to remove corrosion off plated parts, I recommend something more mild - such as Evapo-Rust http://www.evapo-rust.com/ Great stuff.

[TheCafeKid]

I picked myself up a bench buffer/grinder tonight at harbor freight for 40 bucks. Not bad i dont think. I already buffed my points and cam end covers to a fantastic shine. Unfortunately i couldnt find any of the compound sticks anywhere so i bought a can of mothers for aluminum. worked better than i thought it would.

[posplayr]

Nessism: No offense taken

But now I'm wondering what would be your concern about plated parts? I have mostly used it to clean chrome and aluminum parts that have a combination of grease/rust and corrosion. I have dipped some plated nuts from the starter solenoid for example but again this was only for a few minutes and all mixes can be diluted with water depending on strength needed.

Would you be concerned with chromed pieces?

Evapo-Rust kind of needs to have a fully immersed dip. With Metal etch I usually apply for 2-5 minutes and then wash off.

I was most concerned about using it to scrub my engine fins and the possible effect it might have of gaskets.

Reading here the main concern would be if there is too strong of a concentration

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphoric_acid

ACE still carries Metal Etch.

Pospalyr