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I bought my wife a 2013 SuperLow for Christmas and all the engine covers and shiny bits are kind of cloudy lookin. Can these bikes be polished or is all the shiny stuff coated with something?
Interesting - we have a 2011 SuperLow, bought new. It no longer looks brand new, but the shiney bits don't look too bad. I'm going to guess that the polished parts have a protective coating on them, which has been common throughout the bike industry for decades. Most of the covers, fork sliders etc are made of easy-casting alloys which don't do too well when exposed to atmosphere, especially by the sea. Hopefully someone with recent experience will call by soon, as I'm interested to see what to do.
I've seen Flitz and a Mother's power ball do wonders to aluminum, and that would be my recommendation to clean it up.
+1 to what Cvaria said. A lot of labor to go through polishing aluminum. You'll likely have to remove the exhaust and left foot controls to get the covers polished as well, so that adds even more to the labor for a short term gain.
I vote chrome
Last edited by Rengnath; Apr 13, 2018 at 10:36 AM.
There is a product called Purple made by California Custom. They have a Chrome polish and Aluminium Deoxidiser. I have used the Chrome polish and it works really well.
I am unsure.
I think the polished pieces are coated with clear paint.
The derby cover for example.
Start with a paint polish.
If it works great.
I'd think the cloudiness is purely in this clear coat.
Else use paint remover and strip the clear paint off.
Then polish directly on the metal w/ metal polish like Mothers or Semi Chrome for example.
Good luck.
All the chrome (and aluminum) unpainted parts on my bike shined up really nice with autosol and then a bit of wax.
but Mothers products work just as well.
it's a lot of work. ongoing, pain in the butt work. but I was always of the opinion that a clean machine works better. unless it's a Jeep.
I used Mothers Mag and Aluminum. The forks and triple had clear coat on them that had to be removed. The engine covers and rocker boxes did not.
It took me 4+ hours per leg to file off the casting lines, sand and polish. I spent the better part of a day on the triple tree.
Mothers magic ball or something like it is money well spent.
Some great advice here. I use Peak aluminum polish. We use it on aircraft. Its pretty good stuff and last a good while. You can get it in small lots and a little dab will do ya. Elbow grease keeps the shine. Good luck!
All of the above are good suggestions. There are many ways to polish. Of course the easiest way is to replace with chrome.
I've used coke and aluminum foil method to remove rust from chrome on spoke wheels (not my fat spoke wheels) and it worked...I was skeptical but it did work. Wheel actually look new when I was done...and not much elbow grease was needed. I wish I kept before and after pics but it may still be on here somewhere.
I am about to restore a 1980 Ironhead and will be using the coke and alum. on all chrome surfaces like the air cleaner and exhaust. Will use metal polish and 0000 steel wool the crank/primary covers. Then give it good polish/wax.
The trick to chrome is keep it cleaned and polished...don't let it go. good luck.
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Polishing covers
