When I took my hard bags off yesterday to do my Spring detailing on the bike, I noticed all the bolt holes for my rotor are rusting.

I guess sand paper inside those tiny holes is the only way to get rid of it? Gonna be nearly impossible.

I should have known to q-tip a little WD40 in all the bolt holes, never even thought of it until now

 

I don't know how you want to handle that but you can buy this rust inhibitor at like ACE or TRU-VALUE, I am sure many other stores too but if you take a Q-tip and dab it on the rust it will stop the rust dead in it's tracks, keep it from rusting any further and when it dries it turns the rust into like this shiny black kind of look to it. It's not a black that stands out either, it's very subtle plus if it's under your bags where no one can see it, thats cool too. I have 2 brands here. They are Rust treatment by Permatex and Rust converter by Klean Strip. They are both the same thing. Good luck and let us know what you did and how it turned out for you.

 

WD-40 and a small metal bristle brush like for cleaning a gun bore might work.

If you get them cleaned up, some people use clear nail polish in the allen holes on chrome bolts.

 

Use some rust inhibitor, and then chase the threads with a tap. After that, any of the preventive treatments will work fine.

 

Run a tap the same thread size as the holes are now in and out a few times, it will clean it up. That's what I did to my no longer used stock bolt hole for the exhaust on my Fatty.

 

went to Ace Hardware, got some Allen head stainless steel bolts and put in the unused bolt boles.

 

+1 on the clear nail polish.

 

I had a similar issue. It's very easy to fix rust inhibitors are popular, also CLR. That's what I used. A cotton swab and some CLR let it set about 3 minutes and cleaned it out. When I finished all the bolts I gave the bike a very thorough wash to remove any chemical remaining. Then I used clear nail polish in every chrome bolt and black for black bolts whEn it was dry. My problem was solved.

Don't use abrasives or sand paper or anything of the sort! You're more likely to damage something than fix it, and a bolt isn't worth the risk.

 

Peg, glad to see you still have your bike.

 

Lots of good suggestions here. Will try this weekend, see what happens.

Yeah kept the bike for this year. I need it - it's my only source for relaxation in the midst of taking care of my elderly parents, which God love them, is just like taking care of kids