| Author | Message | ||
     Brightbuell |
For those of you who still have blue dirty headers and want a great almost free way to clean and shine your headers all you need is one green scotch bright pad and a very small can of WD40. Spray WD40 on the pad and start scrubbing in 2-4 in areas for about 30 seconds and just keep going untill you have scrubed the entire reachable area of the headers. Then for a few min use longer scrubbing strokes to even it all up. Then take a clean old cotten tee shirt and rub off all the now black WD40 untill you dont see any more black comming of on the shirt. And thats it your done. Yes its that easy. You dont even need to polish them with any thing else. You dont need to spend any money at all. The blueing will not return if done thoroughly. After a hundred miles the pipes will start to turn bronze, and they look great when they do. You can repeat every 3 to 4 months. They will stay brighter longer each time. Here are some before, right after, and a feww hundred miles after. Before with about 6000 miles.  Right after polishing.   A few hundred miles later.  You can use a follow up polish right after you use the WD40 before you start it up but you dont need to. Your pipes will smoke a tiny bit and thats it they will look great for a long time. Even when the turn bronze they still look great. Remember every time you polish them they will stay lighter longer. I was stressed out about how to get them looking nice, and I spent good money on bullshit products. I am very happy someone shared this on buellxb.com with me so im passing it on. I hope it helps someone here. | ||
| Iman501 |
i wonder how that would look on my blue 9r?.... | ||
| Buellxb12r425 |
I love it... Thank you... I was having the same problem with trying to find something to make my pipes that color... Im doing it tomorrow... Thanks again...  | ||
| Iman501 |
question-so everytime you polish them again do they return to that silver color in your second and third pictures? or once it turns bronz does it stay that color and only lighten up when you re-polish it?.... | ||
| Bads1 |
That works well only on headers that have the blasted type finish well because polish does not do well because of their rough finish. The older style polish will work. | ||
| Firebolt020283 |
Brightbuell was that just a coincidence or did you get your oil filter on purpose to match your bike? | ||
| Artic_12_r |
Looks nice man. I should have done that instead of having mine ceramic coated. Where did you get that filter? (Message edited by Artic_12_r on February 17, 2010) | ||
| Firebolt32 |
Then take a clean old cotten tee shirt and rub off all the now black WD40 I got a few H/D shirts that would come in handy for that... | ||
| Roysbuell |
I have an 09 Lightning how can I tell which style of headers I have and if this would give me these results. I only have 2000 miles on the bike and my headers look like crap, almost like surface rust. | ||
| Boney95 |
You've got the same headers as he, both your bikes are 09's. | ||
| Brightbuell |
Its a car quest oil filter. It was on my bike when I bought it. It looks great how it matches every little detail. I will replace it with the same kind the next time I change my oil. I did not notice it being out of the ordeary until my girl took that picture. Yes, every time you polish them they will return to the silver color and slowly go back to bronze, but they look a little bit better each time. I would recomind taking off your chin faring to get an inch lower so you cant see the line from dirty to clean. Yes, Harley shirts work great to remove the grime. LOL | ||
| Brightbuell |
Wipe off as you go, put a towel or card board between you pipe and motor for easier clean up. And spray the pad not the header. | ||
| Iman501 |
That works well only on headers that have the blasted type finish well because polish does not do well because of their rough finish. The older style polish will work so would this work on my 03 headers?.... | ||
| Ridesinnm |
BrightBuell, thanks for posting this. Gonna be cleaning up my '09 XB12SS. | ||
| Bads1 |
so would this work on my 03 headers?.... No not in the same fashion. You need to use a variety of sand papers and then polish. Or with alittle effort use... Flitz and apply with papertowel and vigorously scrub then buff off with a soft cloth. Thats how mine are done and they look awesome. | ||
| Xenox |
Bads1 say what grit range on the sand paper? I'd like to see some pics of your header! Thanks....... | ||
| Iman501 |
1+ xenox! pics would be great! once you sand them down a bit and say "polish" did you use wd40 as well or what? | ||
| Buewulf |
So what was the first year model with the "newer style" header? | ||
| Bads1 |
Mine wasn't done with any sand paper. Mine was done with nothing but Flitz and PaperTowel and a soft cloth. Others have used various grits to get out imperfections. Mine I kept those imperfections because it is the character of the stainless.  | ||
| Badrap |
Crazy looking bike!  | ||
| Xenox |
Bads1 very inspirational and truly a work of art.......... Ok so nothing but flitz and the terms you mentioned nice results, I guess one can polish on the bike . You most likely polished yours off the bike? | ||
| Bads1 |
Nope on the bike..... and thanks!! | ||
| Xenox |
Cool, good to know! | ||
| Delta_one |
IMAN501 yes it will. mine are polished and I have an 03.} | ||
| Iman501 |
IMAN501 yes it will. mine are polished and I have an 03. } it'll work with just the wd40 thing? or with bads1 way?... | ||
| Brightbuell |
Here is a link on what you can do with your headers. http://www.buellxb.com/Buell-XB-Forum/Buell-Firebo lt-XB12-XB9/Header-looks-ugly.-What-can-I-do | ||
| Iman501 |
thanks for the link brightbuell! sounds like the newer ones were the ones with the coating to make the wd40 idea a no-go unless you sanded them down remember that you cant polish all headers...the newer models wont polish because the coating on the pipes are different...i have an 07 and those can be "cleaned" but not polished...i believe the cutoff year is 05 and the guy that posted right above him said he did his headers w/ the wd40 and his profile says he has an 04 12r.....so from them its sounding like i could do this with my 03 9r headers, but here on badweb it seems like i'm getting both yes and no's from different people I'd really like to do this. and i know its possible, its just wd40 and scotch pads are in my barn right now! haha | ||
| Xenox |
So when we polish pipes on the bike , how thorough are we? Do we get on the insides as well , are there any trouble areas and any advice on how to deal with these? | ||
| Xb12srider |
Thanks for the tips, i have an 04 xb12s and i used a scotch bright and some wizards polish i was very impressed the way it looked and i only spent a half hour doing it. | ||
| Xenox |
Are there any cosmetic tips on removing rust from the flange nuts? I really want to avoid replacing them if possible.I'm thinking brass brush and WD? |
