I just spent 4 days in Galveston,TX and wind has blown sand and salt water on my black matted Street Glide. I notice that a film like layer is on my color, how do I clean it up? Also, some rust has shown on some weldings of the pipes, how do I get rid of it?

 

4 Days 100yds from the gulf and you're surprised? When we are in any coastal town, bikes get rinsed off 2x day while we are there.

Wash it, rinse well. Not sure what to use on the flat paint.
You can use naval jelly to help clean up the rust.

 

Soap and water?
aka: Washing the bike.

 

You can rinse salt off with water. If you want protection, there are products like Boeshield but I don't know if there's anything that will stay on a hot exhaust pipe. Find a big auto parts store and see what they have.

 

There is a rust converter that will turn rust into a black, solid surface. You can apply this to any joints where rust is showing. It will get rid of the rust, and if done with an artist brush, you won't even be able to see it because your bike is black.

As for the salt residue, put water in a bucket and pour in a box of baking soda. Add a little bit of baby shampoo and wash your bike with this. The baking soda will neutralize the salt and stop the corrosion (salt will pit your paint microscopically) and the baby shampoo will wash away the junk.

Once you are done washing everything off you can use S100 Total Cycle Cleaner (http://www.s100.com/s100_tcc.htm) to bring the sheen and "new look" back to the black paint.

Also, don't forget to spray inside the rubber boots on the throttle and clutch cables with silicone to prevent any rust from corroding your connections. If you pull back the rubber and you see rust already forming, you can use naval jelly to get rid of the rust. Naval Jelly will damage paint so you don't want to use it on painted surfaces.

Don't neglect your seat(s) or any other leather material either. Use Lexol leather cleaner to clean them good and then Lexol leather conditioner to restore the oils to the leather.

 

Just frequent rinsing with water. I've lived on the salt watershoreline most of my life. I'm not a freak about "washing" my bike, and actually I think I've only used "wax" once on one of them (several bikes ago).

My bikes are always older ones and frequently get compliments on how good they look. I usually just use water, sometimes regular soap, and when drying...I use an oily old shower towel. I like using oily towels on the bikes...and I find it works well helping protect the metals from salty ocean air.

I'm sure there are tons of "magic promising the perfect finish" products out there...I'm just saying the old fashioned method works well for me.

 

After you get it clean you could buy a cheap (<$20) waterproof bike cover to use when the bike is parked in a similar area. When finished with it just give or throw the cover away.

 

S100 Engine brightened works pretty good on the black parts.

 

A week spent on the beach in Corpus Christi and then another 5 days to KC cost me a set of spoked rims and rust anywhere it wasn't painted, front end started pitting a month after washing. 2 weeks without a car wash was all it took.

 

That is just wrong! Here on the Nova Scotia Atlantic coast the same thing happens unkess you keep it clean and put the polish to it. We also have residual salt dust from road salt to contend with.