I have the February issue of Baggers with the RK custom on the cover. The owner used scotch brite on the chrome to give it the look of brushed nickel or stainless.

I think this looks pretty sweet and was considering trying it myself. I dont want to just jump into this and mess my primary up or something. Has anyone tried this before? Maybe some steps on how to do it?

 

Practice on a piece of scrap. Remember the word "straight" as in rub with as straight a motion as possible.

I've used it on stainless steel, on aluminum, and on chromed steel. Once done on chrome, it can't be "undone" like it can on aluminum or stainless. And it requires maintenance to keep it looking fresh, and that can be a PITA 'cause you can't use the regular polishing methods without redoing the 3M bit. But it excels at keeping a set of old scratched up POS exhaust pipes in bidness!

 

Interesting concept.

Makes me think about covering my car with door dings, to hide the existing ones.

Sorry I couldn't help that! LOL I bet it is a good look on the pipes and will try that on a test piece some time.

 

I have done it using a sponge sanding block. Makes it a lot easier to keep it sanding for straight lines. I did it on my battery cover to highlight the lines on it and used it on my brake light cover.
https://www.hdforums.com/forum/membe...the-chrome.jpg

 

Well I can tell you this: It's a lot of work. Very hard. I helped my son do a lot of pieces on his FXDXT and I can't imagine doing anything as big as pipes. Then again we had to do it by hand because of the contours of the pieces, so I guess if you could rig up a block or something to take the pressure, I guess that would be a lot easier.

Personally I think it looks great and don't find it to be a problem to keep up. Then again the whole reason behind it is to look raw, so we never polish those pieces. Just let em wear.

If you're going to do it, I recommend a liberal application of WD40 to lubricate the scotch brite.

 

The maintenance comes in when doing aluminum. If there is a protective finish on the aluminum, it is removed during the process. That allows the aluminum to start its usual corrosion. On chrome-over-steel the many scratches allow the base metal to more readily rust.

 

Ok my bit in this as I actually sell stainless steel - On chrome / very bright finish surface there is very little what we call "rough ra" - in otherwords the surrface is very smooth and water will just simply fall off same - as soon as you start to work the surfact you are putting a grain into the material which means tiny "valleys" that in fact water will lodge in over time unless you cleal off very regularly - this can lead to what looks like rust but is the water oxidizing in the grain and leaves a brown mark - Unless you can get the pipes professionally polished to a min 400 grit which would be a level down fomr a mirror / chrome finish I would not in my opinion attempt to satin polish your self - Unless you really like claening your bike non stop -

Alum surfaces would be even more likely to show this "rusting effect" -
The higher the finish the less base maintence you will have - I know chrome is a pain in the *** but believe me if you dont get the polishing done right it will give you nightmares -

Fine dust will also sit in the grain of the polish if you do not have the polish high enough -

Ok that me finished being a nerd but if anybody needs any help on metal finishes please pm me -

K