I rarely clean the aluminum on my bike despite all the riding I do b/c I am yet to find anything that will restore my aluminum from all the corrosion & keep it that way with weekly cleaning. I just clean my paint n chrome as of now. I wipe down the aluminum but I do not try to clean away all the stains & corrosion b/c it will be back within hours.
I'm riding a 1989 FLHS with a polished aluminum engine, so if anyone knows a product that works please let me know!

 

I use Never-Dull on polished aluminum,,,there is no grit,,just a cottony fiber,,,the more you use it the cleaner the aluminum gets,,,and a little goes a long way,,,,it will turn black from the impurity's coming out of the aluminum,,but it keeps working until it dries out,,,

 

Nevr-Dull is good stuff for regular cleaning. If it is really bad you may need to use polishes. Polishes are different grades, like sandpaper. IMO there isn't a lot of difference in brands, judge them by color. Green polish is coarse, blue is medium grit and white is fine. red (jewelers rouge) is extra fine. You can get them in solid bars, pastes or liquid.
If using a powered tool, or machine to do your polishing keep it at low RPM.

After you get it cleaned up, a coat of wax will help keep it looking better, longer.

 

Here are 4 "general options" - there are definitly many other ways to get this done as well...

Option 1 - screw it, wash the bike and live with it.

Option 2 - quick and dirty way to get it relativly cleaned up - mothers mag and aluminum polish with a regular towel and a little elbow grease. 000 steel wool can also be used with the mothers and it cuts through the stains and gunk better than the rag, without scratching up the aluminum as well. Espeacially on the rear wheel...

Option -3 - decide enough is enough and you want it to gleam. Sand it down ( dry and wet sanding till you reached 1500 - 2000 grit. Then mothers mag and aluminum polish several times until it gleams - you can stop when all the Jack and beer is done and your hands are covered in black and there a little sore.

Option 4 - like option 3 - except you unbolt all the crap and send it to a polisher and have them do it.

I went with option 3 on my 89, it is an old cop bike - so there is hardly any chrome on it at all. Afer a weekend of being stuck in the garage from the ice and snow , lot's of Jack and lots of elbow grease, the forks, wheels, cam cover, oil pump, heads, primary cover and the tranny covers all friggin glisten. For the engine block ( mine is raw aluminum ) cleaned it all down with lots of brake cleaner and then used mothers with a few scrub brushes, did not want to have a polished motor, but have it cleaned up well, it did the job....

 

Theres a product called semi-chrome that I used to use on my Triumph cvers, kept them looking real nice. My Harley has the chrome covers etc.

 

Most polished aluminum has a clear coat over it (paint). Over time the clear coat get nicks a scratches in it and the inviroment gets to the aluminum and corrosion starts. Corrosion grows causing the clear to release and the cycle continuses.

The first step to get it to shine is to get whats left of the clear coat off. This can be done in two ways.

Sanding, very time consuming, hard to get in corners, lots of work.

Paint stripper, quick but dangerious. if you get it on somthing you don't want stripped your screwed.

If you stripped by sanding, continue sand till all the nicks and scratches are gone. If you chemically stripped now you need to sand to get the scratches and nicks gone. Any grit over 800 you should be wet sanding. progressive sand through 2000 grit. Your finished when you reach a smooth dull gray finish.

Time to polish, again there are two ways. Hand and mechanical.

If you sanded to 2000 hand polish should fine. Mother aluminum polish.

Mechanical you can stop sanding at 1200. High speed buffing wheel and jewlers ruge for soft metal. Put the buffing wheel in a electric drill. Start the drill and while running apply ruge to the wheel to load it and then start working the aluminum. When you think your there do a hand polish with the Mothers alumimum polish. if its' not good enough repeat with the buffer.

I have a right angle die grinder with a 4" buffing wheel and I can redo a badly tarnished mag wheel in about a hour.

But, from then on your going to have to polish it on at least a monthly basis.

Replace it with chrome.

 

It's winter...Take it apart and polish the parts on a bench mounted buffer using the appropriate wheels and compounds. Once it's done, you can easily maintain the shine with a little rubbing from Mother's a time or two a year.

 

stepping back a minute ( and referring to earlier post) Many aluminum surfaces have a clear coat.

IF the clear coat is OK- don't ruin it!

I have seen too many take abrasives to the clear coat ( "trying to clean") and ruin the clear.

aluminum oxidizes easily, once exposed then you are into a lifetime of polishes (simi-chrome, never dull etc.) and elbow grease.

one of my Pals ( and a rider new to HD ) ruined his road king wheels.



Mike

 

Thanks a lot for all the great posts guys. I have a lot to consider. I don't think I can wrench well enough on a bike yet to break it down & clean it but I am going to go out & get some more supplies & try some of the methods on here. I think I will see how clean I can get it over a couple days & how long it stays clean with weekly cleaning. If the corrosion comes back I may just slowly replace the covers with new polished aluminum or chrome. The good news is I have an old aluminum turn signal mounting bar that is filled with corrosion, it will be a good start point for wet sanding & buffing experiments.
To address some concerns, I really doubt there is any clear coat left on the aluminum. Oil pump, primary cover, rocker box covers, & forks all have lots of corrosion on them. I can polish them up week after week but the stains & corrosion remain. Just shiny stains lol. I'll play around with lots of these suggestions since it is winter & there is little to do besides pretty the bike up!

Thanks again to everyone for all the great replies!

 

Here are the results of using Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish I used for horrible water stains on my engine heads. I have included before and after shots. I found this forum vey helpful and want to return the favor.