Hey all,
Long time member here on HDForums but I've been pretty inactive and off 2 wheels for a while now.

I bought a 2009 Iron 883 new from the dealership and had LoJack installed. The system never worked and it was draining my battery so fast I couldn't even ride it to work and park it for 8 hours.
After getting stranded at work twice I parked it and forgot about. It sat with a dead battery, old fuel, and oil for 5-6 years in a shed. The neglect was real.

Last year I took it to the dealer to have it checked out. They changed fluids, put a new battery in it, and said it was fixed. But within a week the Lojack killed the battery. Long story short no one (me, the dealer, or LoJack) knew where the device was on the bike. My dad and I were able to find LoJack and disconnect it. I thought that was the end of it but the "new" battery was dead. Took it in to get tested 8 days after the warranty expired. Still working on that but I need to get started on cleaning while I wait.

I'm looking for recommendations on how to deal with years of sitting in a shed. It's been rained on several times and sat in the weather for a short time.
I've taken pictures detailing the carnage.

Not concerned about the pipes here. They're being replaced (see last image)


The rust here appears to be limited to a steel plate that's bolted on (maybe a shim?) since the wheel itself is Aluminum (correct me if wrong).


I'd like to completely get rid of the rust on the forks. Any recommendations here?


There's a lot of dirt here but under it seems to be some sort of corrosion on the headers and black engine parts below.
From reading here it seems like 'Pig Spit' is the best solution for this? After a thorough cleaning of course


Closer picture of the corrosion and/or discoloration of the black.


More discoloration/corrosion. The rust on the plugs surprised me. I thought the dealer had replaced the plugs last year. If I want to remove that bit of rust I suppose I just need to replace the,


Closer picture of the white corrosion I'm talking about.





These are Hooker Troublemakers I bought in ~2010. Within a month of having them on the bike the paint faded and they began to rust so I took them off.
This past weekend I fully disassembled and sanded them down. Two coats of high temp flat black paint are what you see here. You can still see the pitting if you look close but hopefully the rust will have stopped since it's all painted over.



So far the only thing I think I know is the pig spit for the black. Any/all help, suggestions, and insight is welcome.
I have a lot of years of neglect to make up for.

Thanks!

 

This would be my process.
1. Cover any electronics you don't want to get want
2. Hose off as much crud as possible, no pressure washer
3. Sonax full effect wheel cleaner for the wheels
4. Boars hair brush and a all purpose cleaner, made for automotive use. Not something you use in the house. Scrub everything down you can, not the paint.
5. If you have to, take the tank off. Makes it a lot easier to get to everything.
6. Wash the paint

 

Thanks for the reply.
In the past I've used S100 pray for the cleaner. Would you recommend that for use here?
What boar hair brush do you recommend? Only ones I found online were for brushing your hair not cleaning.

 

This is what I use

https://www.autogeek.net/lug-nut-brush.html

 

WTF is lowjack? An aftermarket security? As for cleaning, lots LOTS of rubbing and elbow grease.

 

Used to be a popular device for tracking stolen vehicles

 

Close....

 

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Bikes are stupid easy to steal. LoJack isn't theft prevention but vehicle recovery.
It ended up being a waste of time and money.

 

Thanks everyone for the input and recommendations. I purchased some S100 cleaner, Pig Spit, Sonax wheel cleaner, and Eagle One chrome polish.
I washed the bike using the S100 spray while scrubbing in places that needed it. I let is try and then used the Sonax to clean the wheel and applied Pigspit to the engine. As a test I applied some Pig spit to the oil tank to see how it looks.

Here's a few pictures:













The corrosion on the engine is almost completely gone. I missed a few spots as it's hard to tell once the bike is wet. I'm going to wash it again in a week or so and focus on the areas that need more love.
The pitted rust on the chrome forks improved significantly from the chrome polish which I'm really happy with.

Any further suggestions are welcome.

 

Keep rubbing ! Looks good.