autosol!

[CdnMedic]

I saw some of you guys have used Autosol to clean up your pipes, so I searched around, found some and cleaned them up today.
Used the finest steel wool scotchbrite I could find, applied the polish, rubbed off all the crud and cleaned them with a clean rag... this is what it turned out like!
Before, halfway, cleaned and a just for fun pic!

 

[afpreppie04]

Looks much better! I've used that blue stuff from auto parts stores with some success, still has spots here and there though. The problem I have is getting in the little spaces, I have stubby fingers. Did you take the headers off to polish all the areas or is there some secret technique I've been missing?

 

[CdnMedic]

I just got on my hands and knees, and spent about 5 minutes per pipe.
no real technique, I'm just very picky with it, I got right in there, and literally scrubbed it.
I would put the polish right onto the pipe, and clean it really well untill it was black/grey from the polish, whipe it off with a rag, and do it again, for each pipe.
I'm kind of picky when it comes to this stuff... That comes from doing autobody for a few years, and spit polishing many many boots for inspection, so I guess I have experienced fingers?

 

[REO Scorpio]

I just got on my hands and knees, and spent about 5 minutes per pipe.
no real technique, I'm just very picky with it, I got right in there, and literally scrubbed it.
I would put the polish right onto the pipe, and clean it really well untill it was black/grey from the polish, whipe it off with a rag, and do it again, for each pipe.
I'm kind of picky when it comes to this stuff... That comes from doing autobody for a few years, and spit polishing many many boots for inspection, so I guess I have experienced fingers?

+1

That's exactly how it should be done. I got the autosol from amazon, and a big bag of 0000 steel wool in the paint section at HD.

Worked so much better than products avaialble locally at Autozone, etc IMO.

Apparently German engineering applies to polish as well. Go figure.

They look great btw. Good job on the pictoral of the process, really highlights the difference.

Scorp

 

[jtarkany]

I just got on my hands and knees, and spent about 5 minutes per pipe. no real technique, I'm just very picky with it, I got right in there, and literally scrubbed it.

Watch it now, this is a family friendly forum :spank:

 

[Motogiro]

Just did mine with steel wool and Blue Magic Metal Polish. It has a strong ammoinia smell.

Your pipes turned out great! It really makes the bike look overall better.

Cliff

 

[OneTrack]

I saw some of you guys have used Autosol to clean up your pipes, so I searched around, found some and cleaned them up today.
Used the finest steel wool scotchbrite I could find, applied the polish, rubbed off all the crud and cleaned them with a clean rag... this is what it turned out like!
Before, halfway, cleaned and a just for fun pic!

Scotchbright will clean off the crud, but won't polish as nicely as the much finer 000 or 0000 steel wool and Autosol. Try it, it'll really bring out the shine.

 

[CdnMedic]

I meant it was the super fine steel wool... Looks like I have more work to do lol.
On another day after the next rain when I have nothing to do, I'll go out and give it another round of polishing.

 

[YamaSpeed]

Autosol is good stuff. I used on my kitchen sink with the same gauge steel wool as used for my pipes. When the sun hits you need shades on while in my kitchen.

 

[zixxerboy]

have you guys tried "Mothers mag and aluminum polish" ?

I used to think autosol was great until I used mothers.

 

[afpreppie04]

That comes from doing autobody for a few years, and spit polishing many many boots for inspection, so I guess I have experienced fingers?

I hear that about the boots, I usually cheated and used a lighter though Anyways I think I figured out what I was doing wrong. I went according to the bottle and it said use a cotton cloth, so thats probably why I still have spots, cotton doesn't scrub very well! I'll have to give some very fine steel wool a try one of these days.

 

[Dunny]

Looks much better! I've used that blue stuff from auto parts stores with some success, still has spots here and there though. The problem I have is getting in the little spaces, I have stubby fingers. Did you take the headers off to polish all the areas or is there some secret technique I've been missing?

If the little spots you are talking about are like little pits in the pipe, I had the same problem, then I used a fine grade wet and dry sandpaper on them then continued with the Autosol.

 

[Wolfman]

Autosol rocks.....the longer you spend doing it, the better the shine gets....but it does require wet & dry sandpaper for best results....

:rockon: