| Author | Message | ||
     Dnchevyman |
well, after 2 attempts at heat wrapping my exaust, i gave up. now my pipes look like poop. im going to polish them now, and was wondering if anyone had any tips on what grit sand paper/scotch brite pad/etc to use... btw, ill be using die grinders and air powered polisher to do this... | ||
| Aesquire |
Use the search function & check the Knowledge Vault. I've never done it, but there are pages in cyberspace with technique & what grits to use info. The data is in here, Hmm. let me look. http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/384 2/209718.html Comes up with the words grit sandpaper. ( in the KV ) http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/327 77/131824.html http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/476 23/114890.html Some like steel wool to avoid sanding marks. I'm sure others will toss in their ideas. Take pictures! | ||
| Leftcoastal |
I polish my turbo header every few years. It's stainless so it buffs up pretty nice. The best way I've found to polish it is to carefully remove it. Gently put it on the floor of the truck, and take it to my buddy Jesse at Deluxe Copper & Brass. He's got a big polishing machine. I pick it up a day or 2 later, and carefully re-install it! Tough job, but like I said - it comes up real nice! I think the pic on my profile was taken shortly after the last time it went out for polishing - I know it's about due again - looking a bit blue & gold. AL | ||
| Dnchevyman |
yea, i know i could search, but by now im sure every topic possible has been posted/asked about/told on this board, and there may be new ways to do it/ new products released, more people that can voice their input. i mean honestly, people posting "use the search function" replies piss me off. because if thats the case, might as well lock the whole forum because everything has been talked about. its a forum, people post questions, thats what its for. and there may be new ways to do it/ new products released, more people that can voice their input, people may have discovered something didnt work out in the long run, etc etc etc... not talking about you aesquire, just thinking out loud, thanks for the links. | ||
| Warlizard |
Chevyman, I polished mine w/out sandpaper. All I used was Mother's mag polish. While pipes are on bike I apply and remove several times w/ microfiber rags. The initial polish took me 2+ hours. After a couple of coats the rags start coming back very black as the grime comes off. Since that I just touch up once a month or so. They come out a very glossy silver which turns to a highly reflective gold once heat hits them.  | ||
| Beatx1 |
Looks sweet. How do you keep the pipes from getting a sandblasted look from crap off the front tire? | ||
| Warlizard |
I avoid water and don't ride in the rain. You keep the tire dry and it doesn't kick up much at all. I decide to remove fender because the underside looked almost new. It's a cheap POS anyway and I think it looks much better w/out the fender. IMO the bike looked better and better as the cheap plastic parts came off, after all it is a "naked" bike. | ||
| Aesquire |
I understand, since I had no good advice, not having polished my own pipes, but having read lots of different techniques used, I figured to start the ball rolling. Sometimes a lone question gets bypassed, especially if you go for the "last day" every day or so to see what's up. It's easy to miss one. I used to polish tons of impeller blades, but the tricks for buffing wheel polishing of irregular shapes don't seem to be the ticket on stainless tubing. I still do a lot of polishing, making armor for a hobby. Leftcoastal has the easiest way, I can't believe Warlizard just used mothers & cloth. Damn. Nice job. | ||
| Briarpatch |
Aesquire - I have stainless pipes on my 97 M2 (THANKS ,Cornel) and polish them on the bike with a microfiber cloth and a product called Maas (sort of like the Mother's). The cloth turns black and the pipes turn polished silver and then gold with heat like Warlizard says. I can reach every place I can see with the pipes installed. To avoid fingerprints, I'm careful not to touch the pipes after polishing until it has a few heat cycles and gets the gold color | ||
| Scott_in_nh |
If you want to see yourself and the landscape behind you, sanding is required....     | ||
| Warlizard |
WOW - A polishing AND oil expert? Mine look pretty close if I took pic on a bright sunny day, in hi res while standing over the bike. IMO 2 hours and some polish is all you need, or you could make a big project out of it for a little extra shine. I am no expert though. BTW is that a recalled shock still on the bike? (Message edited by warlizard on October 22, 2007) (Message edited by warlizard on October 22, 2007) | ||
| Yo_barry |
This is my Sportster with a Supertrapp exhaust. I bought the pipe used. It had just been polished using a buffing wheel on a bench grinder and Mothers. It's been on the Sportster for at least 5 years. Every few months, I polish it with Mother's. It turns a great silver color, and then immediately yellows when I ride the bike. If it has stains that the Mother's doesn't get out, I polish it a little with a Scotch Brite pad, it's a dark red one if that makes a difference. Once they are polished, the are not difficult to keep looking good. That said, I haven't tried to do anything with the header on my S3T. Maybe one of these upcoming rainy Saturdays. Barry Hollister, CA  | ||
| Djkaplan |
That's a badass Sporster... | ||
| Bill0351 |
Did those pipes start out as that sort of dirty gold color like the stock 2002 Cyclone pipes? The polished ones look great. If that can be done with the stock header, I will do it as a winter project. Bill | ||
| Scott_in_nh |
Yes my pipes are stock (as are warlizards). I sanded/polished them once on the bike and again when I recently had them off for the gear case gasket. I haven't touched them in a month, but they will turn a more golden color over time (but still shine!). It seems like the more polished they are the lighter they they stay - time will tell.... | ||
| Littlebuggles |
Sorry I haven't got a pic to post but what's in my profile. My bike had the pipe with the machined finish, I took it off about four years ago and polished it. Started with a red flap disk, it was a pain getting all the machined lines out of it, once they were gone I used 600 to 2000 wet sanding. Every once in a while I consider using the metal polish on it to take off the gold and blue, but haven't broken down and done it yet. I had a second header I bought on this site HPC finished a month or two ago but have been waiting for winter to put it on. HPC makes a special polish for their ceramic coating to bring out a shine like polished aluminum, I think it'll look pretty good under the forcewinder... | ||
| Warlizard |
I actually like the look of the lines. No matter what you do the pipes are going to get dinged and scratched, the lines help to hide them. IMO the pipes in the photos above are too bright. They look like bathroom fixtures. Plus they are so blindingly bright, you don't notice the rest of the bike. I just wanted to give mine some gloss w/out making them the focal point. It all depends on the look you want. | ||
| Scott_in_nh |
There is no right and no wrong here - it really comes down to what you will be happy with. If you look close you will see that I also have polished rocker boxes, polished engine mount, polished rear brake lever, whatever you call the engine bracket over the pulley cover, and the boomerang/shifter assembly on the other side of the bike. I am not going to polish the forks, but am going to do the swingarm. One of the beautiful things about polishing (other than the price if you do it yourself) is that in both SS and aluminum, scratches are easily sanded out, but so far that has been a non-issue. As far as not noticing the rest of the bike or confusing it with bathroom fixtures - you decide for yourself....  This picture is before I re-polished the pipes when they were off. I had not polished them in any way beyond dry paper towel in almost the year prior to this shot!   | ||
| Warlizard |
They look much better in these pics. They don't overwhelm you and blend in nicely. Matter of fact they now look just like mine, that didn't require sanding. It is a beautiful bike, as are all the tubers. I did notice you still have the wrap-around shifter. That was the first thing I took off. How can anyone think the wrap-around looks good? Not to mention all the slop. What kind of shock do you have, it sure looks like the recalled one? | ||
| Fasted |
my bro likes his boomerang AND stock seat AND solo speedo on his 99 m2. go figure i changed all on mine most of the rest of the moto world doesn't understand why we buell. obviously, some of us don't understand differentiation either. i am glad that everyone has THEIR OWN ideas about cool. it makes it easier to find your bike in the parking lot at homecoming. | ||
| Warlizard |
Good points, though it's kinda like the fat girl in spandex. She thinks she looks good and we appreciate her right to differentiation. Nonetheless she still looks like too much sausage stuffed in a casing. |
