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My apartment complex stopped providing water for washing vehicles. A couple of weeks ago in frustration and desperation I pulled the bike into a spray car wash and hit the bike while the engine was hot. No damage but the head covers were very hot and the soap cooked into them. They're pretty badly stained.
What's a good product for cleaning the aluminum heads back to their original shine? I've managed to polish most of the stains out but it's been a bi!@#! Lesson learned. Thanks.
Try a Mother's power ball or a Dremel with a polishing bit. I have used both with some Eagle 1 nano polish. It has worked great for me.
I wonder what the chemical reaction here is and if the motor needs to be hot for it to happen.
It's called hydrogen embrittlement. Atoms of hydrogen literally slide into the aluminum metal matrix, meet up with other ions, expand causing the powdery surface corrosion. The hydrogen atoms come from the soap/aluminum reaction and hot water greatly accelerates the process.
Aluminum boats and airplanes are generally washed with special ph balanced cleaners.
As a sidenote, if you do get polish on the wrinkle black, clean it off the best you can and then take a dry-erase marker to it. It darkens the cracks in the wrinkle black. Then just wipe it off. Works like a charm.
Just curious, won't the complex allow "bucket wash and rinse"? Clean with one bucket rinse with the other, quite common in Europe. Washed my bike at a hotel once the same way. Do you know some one with a wash area you could go to, wash after it cools down. The polishing will require a lot of elbow grease and time. My product of choice is "Mother's Aluminum Polish", good luck.
The one time I washed my bike I used a couple of big squirt bottles to wet the bike down, and then a bucket of water/carwash soap and a sponge to wash then rinsed off with the squirt bottles. Worked pretty good. Might do that again some day...
bottom line... NEVER power wash a bike! you force water in spots that it does not belong!
Joe..(off topic) I've been looking for a grey/black A/C filter unsuccessfully..would you be a sport and tell me who makes or sells what you're running. Thanks
Joe..(off topic) I've been looking for a grey/black A/C filter unsuccessfully..would you be a sport and tell me who makes or sells what you're running. Thanks
I masked around the screen and rattle canned mine black.
mine is a Stage 1 with K&N filter... I love it... made my cap from an old coffee can lid, and trim ring... shot it all black with epoxy paint... LOVE IT!
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