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best engine and chrome cleaners

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
A

Anonymous

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another question whats the best way to clean up and old bike paint is in great shape but the engine needs some cleaning up. Whats some of the best ways to go about this?
 
:D Keltic, Go to a good autoparts store and get you a can of Eagle One Never Dull. My 550 had a lot of surface rust on it when I dragged it out of the barn. The Never Dull worked wonders to bring the chrome back to a lustre. It's been around for years, it looks like ole wet insulation, but it works great on chrome and pretty good on aluminum.

As far as cleaning the engine goes, just a good bath with some good non acid aluminum wheel cleaner is good for a start. If you want to take the time to do it, you can take the different covers off and use a polishing wheel on a grinder with red compound first and then the white to give it a mirror finish. If you don't want to go to that extreme, you can just use a good aluminum polish, like Eagle One, Blue Magic, Simichrome or I'm sure there is a lot of others out there. If your aluminum is really tarnished, you might could start with some real fine steel wool and the aluminum polish, but try it on a place that isn't seen first, to see what it will look like. Hope this help. I do highly reccommend the Eagle One Never Dull, for all the chrome surfaces.

Good Luck,
 
MountainGS that is really excellent advice, one thing I'd add is that the sidecovers on most Japanese bikes are clear coated, you can polish away but to no avail, you will be polishing the clear coat. I strip them with paint stripper first. The problem you may run into is the aluminum may be oxidized (?) and have dark gray blotches under the clearcoat. Usually it won't polish out, and dealing w/this manually can mean lots of elbow grease. Guess it depends what you mean by 'clean up'. I see an engine with a bit of oxidation and want to polish the hell out of every nook and cranny. Others want to just clean the greasy bits off... :D
 
Is the Eagle Never Dull something that I can spray on the wheels without removing the tires and breaks, etc? How does it react with the bikes frame or the darkened out parts of the wheels that aren't supposed to be polished? I'm looking for something that won't ruin the finish on everything...hopefully it's not wishful thinking.

Cheers, Steve
 
gpzkat said:
I see an engine with a bit of oxidation and want to polish the hell out of every nook and cranny. Others want to just clean the greasy bits off... :D
Click to expand...

I'm with you, I guess the 20 years I spent in the Navy taught me to like shiny metal.
 
8) Steve, The Eagle One Never Dull is just for polishing unpainted metals like chrome, aluminum, copper, pewter, brass, plus it says that it's good for removing tar and rust from motorcycle and car chrome. I don't think youd want to use it on painted surfaces though. It doesn't look real white when it dries like wax does, so if you get some down in hard to reach crevices, it won't stick out like a sore thumb.

It's been around for years and comes in a round silver looking can. It just looks like pieces of wet house insulation and really works wonders on getting surface rust off of chrome. You just pinch some off and starting rubbing, then finish up with a clean cloth. A 5 dollar can will go along way too. Here is a link if I can get it to work:
http://www.fkpitstop.com/Product.asp?Productid=2589

I know that Advance Auto Parts carries it and you could probably get it at Autozone, Pep Boys, or other good autoparts super stores.
 
gpzkat said:
MountainGS that is really excellent advice, one thing I'd add is that the sidecovers on most Japanese bikes are clear coated, you can polish away but to no avail, you will be polishing the clear coat. I strip them with paint stripper first. The problem you may run into is the aluminum may be oxidized (?) and have dark gray blotches under the clearcoat. Usually it won't polish out, and dealing w/this manually can mean lots of elbow grease. Guess it depends what you mean by 'clean up'. I see an engine with a bit of oxidation and want to polish the hell out of every nook and cranny. Others want to just clean the greasy bits off... :D
Click to expand...
:) Yea, your right about the clear coat on the covers. Unless your really into taking it all the way to the bare metal then I would avoid removing the clear coat unless it is about half gone already and you feel froggy about applying a lot of elbow grease. That's something to definitely contemplate on before you go passed the point of no return and is hard to do unless you have the cover completely removed and have some good polishing equipment on a grinder or die grinder to do it with. :arrow:
 
Removing Clearcoat

Removing Clearcoat

Using wet sandpaper 800 grit it will remove most if not all of the oxidation on aluminum after the clear coat has been stripped. Using the thick pasty paint stripper from your local store works great if set on the engine for about 15 minutes. Afterwards wash the engine clean and put a few tablespoons of baking soda into the bucket of water to help neutralize any harmful acids. Apply polish and use more elbow grease. It still requires elbow but it looks great and gives a real sense of gratitude.

Louie
 
if you want the shiny without all the elbow grease after using the stripper then put a polishing wheel on an angle grinder and buff away. caution its very dirty. :wink:
 
I took the lazy way out. I bought a couple of shiny covers from a wrecker, and took the other ones to a polisher. Now I just have to keep up with the cleaning to make sure they don't start to oxidize. :D
 
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