Detailing Your FZ6

[bdevries]

Hey everyone,

I'm wondering what products people prefer for cleaning their bikes? If you have any before or after pictures of your bike after it was cleaned with a specific project it would be great to see them.

I recently ordered S100 total motorcycle cleaner as well as S100 engine brightener. I've heard a lot of good things about these items. I'm also going to be using my standard polishes/waxes/protectants for my car on the fairings, tank, and any other painted plastic parts. As for the bikes engine/drivetrain components, I'm hoping that the s100 stuff will do what they say it will.

What are your favorite cleaners and tools for cleaning your bike? Post tips for getting into problem areas too!

Edit*** Also, what does everyone use to polish their exhaust?

 

[Humperdinkel]

This.....

This, for the chain/sprockets & wheels.....

And this for the the shiny bits.....

I also find a bit of this helps too....

 

[1Animal1]

Rule no.1 - Do not use a pressure washer

I too have transferred a lot of my detailing kit from the car to the bike - for general maintenance I use Megs last touch detailer and more recently a new waterless product bike specific from a firm called Ecotouch.

For full clean my bike gets rinsed and then washed with sudded water using Megs Shampoo plus and dried using large MF. Currently looking at brushes as my Ez wheel brush really isn't stiff enough.

I then use a combination of these items for final finish.

Werkstat acrylic jett for all painted areas
Werkstat Prime as a base for the Jett and for the wheels
Britemax twins for all metal work
PB's trim restorer for plastics (also brings the seat up very nicely)
Megs wheel gel for the edges of the tyre (be VERY careful not to get any on the main tread!).

Just before the cold weather hit, I managed to rotary my tank to remove light swirls. I attacked this with Megs #105 and #205 as the paint seems a lot harder than I gave Yamaha credit for! Used both on soft and medium grade Lake country hydro tech pads. This combination also seemed to work really well for my perspex screen which had some nasty scratches on it.

I have to say though, detailing the bike is a massive PITA compared to the car.

 

[agf]

the exhaust: elbow grease, gumption and a scourer and did i mention elbow grease

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner and it works every time !

 

[1Animal1]

the exhaust: elbow grease, gumption and a scourer and did i mention elbow grease

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner and it works every time !

I've not found anything to bring the exhaust up - though a mate is supposed to be getting back to me on an acid wheel cleaner that he uses which removes the manifold stains VERY easily.

Quite a few say that wire wool/scourers scratch the chrome finish - is this not the case?

 

[agf]

the headers are stainless so it cleans off the gunk and polishing is up to the individual but if you want to be jealous there are a few bikes here on the forum to drool over

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner and it works every time !

 

[bdevries]

Great info here!

I'll keep an eye out online for that 'elbow grease' stuff!!

I assume that the headers would be the move labour intensive part to clean on these bikes, and I'm not sure how I feel about scouring them to remove the stains.. there must be some sort of cleaner out there!

 

[erburtt]

Using scouring pads isn't recommended, I use "Mothers mag and aluminum polish" it works great, there's lots of threads on here about shining your headers. the quick version of it is; use a damp cloth to get all the dirt off, apply mothers to a clean cloth (anything will do, preferably something like an old t-shirt cut up since it will put up with lots of abuse) and rub onto header tubes, I work one at a time and wrap the cloth around the tube so I can sort of saw back and forth on it. Just keep going, the polish and cloth should start turning black, this just means its working, once you think you've done enough, keep going. If there are really hard to get water spots I used a very fine grit wet sand paper with a bit of the polish to take care of them. Once you get them all clean and shiny they are easy to keep up, just touch them up with the polish periodically.

Oh, and I know power tools are tempting when it comes to this, I gave in and tried them too, but all they really accomplish is spraying the polish absolutely everywhere on your bike and ruining all the detailing you just did.

 

[bdevries]

Using scouring pads isn't recommended, I use "Mothers mag and aluminum polish" it works great, there's lots of threads on here about shining your headers. the quick version of it is; use a damp cloth to get all the dirt off, apply mothers to a clean cloth (anything will do, preferably something like an old t-shirt cut up since it will put up with lots of abuse) and rub onto header tubes, I work one at a time and wrap the cloth around the tube so I can sort of saw back and forth on it. Just keep going, the polish and cloth should start turning black, this just means its working, once you think you've done enough, keep going. If there are really hard to get water spots I used a very fine grit wet sand paper with a bit of the polish to take care of them. Once you get them all clean and shiny they are easy to keep up, just touch them up with the polish periodically.

Oh, and I know power tools are tempting when it comes to this, I gave in and tried them too, but all they really accomplish is spraying the polish absolutely everywhere on your bike and ruining all the detailing you just did.

Thanks for the info.. I can imagine how much of a mess that would make. My bike is at my parents place in another city (recently bought it) and I cant remember all the little details of things. Are the headers somewhat easy to remove? I wouldn't mind setting them on the kitchen table and doing a bang up job on them.

edit- also found this link that's pretty awesome! thats why Id like to get the headers off the bike!

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/auto-detailing-101/27263-cleaning-polishing-stainless-steel.html

 

[erburtt]

Are the headers somewhat easy to remove?

They aren't too bad to remove, but it would be a good idea to replace the header gaskets if you take them off instead of reusing the old ones so there's that to take into account.

Here's what I managed to accomplish with them on the bike:

Before:


After:

 

[bdevries]

holy crap, nice work!

you did all of that without any wet sanding? in that case, maybe I will keep them on the bike and do the sawing back and forth motion like you mentioned... and ya, I won't deny it, I'll like put a sheet over the rest of the bike and then use mothers powerball haha! gotta try it at least!

 

[erburtt]

LOL The powerball is the exact thing I tried, it actually seemed to take longer, I think cause I couldn't put as much pressure on it as I could with wrapping a cloth around, I could actually feel the cloth and header heating up a bit from the friction I was causing when I was sawing on them really fast. The powerball also doesn't get in-between or behind the headers and was always hitting my front fender.

The after pic was with some wet sanding, but it was a 2000 grit and I probably spent 5 minutes total with it, really only used for the really tough little water spots.

 

[marke14]

Hmmm, I might have to try that Mother's Mag and Aluminum stuff. I've given up on my headers long ago, they no longer resemble anything close to "stainless steel" any more!

 

[bdevries]

LOL The powerball is the exact thing I tried, it actually seemed to take longer, I think cause I couldn't put as much pressure on it as I could with wrapping a cloth around, I could actually feel the cloth and header heating up a bit from the friction I was causing when I was sawing on them really fast. The powerball also doesn't get in-between or behind the headers and was always hitting my front fender.

The after pic was with some wet sanding, but it was a 2000 grit and I probably spent 5 minutes total with it, really only used for the really tough little water spots.

Haha ok, we'll see what happens. My dads shop has a million different rotary attachments so I might be able to figure something out, at least for the accessible areas.

I'll pick up some sand paper too, did you use polish with it or literally just the wet sanding following by a rag with polish?

Also - which mothers polish did you use? There's 3 different ones available..

 

[erburtt]

I think I used the sand paper with the polish, cant remember exactly, It will work just as well either way. I'm ashamed to say my exhaust doesn't look nearly that nice right now, The early and late riding season in Ontario does not lend itself to keeping a clean bike

 

[bdevries]

Ok, I'll experiement with it.. I guess it's pretty tough to mess SS up with 2000 grit sandpaper!

As for the Ontario roads.. I hear ya. I'm originally from the Kitchener area, and recently moved to Ottawa. It sure makes me grateful for the Southern Ontario roads.. this is insane up here in Ottawa.. Ive never seen such brutal roads!

 

[FZ6AH]

They aren't too bad to remove, but it would be a good idea to replace the header gaskets if you take them off instead of reusing the old ones so there's that to take into account.

Here's what I managed to accomplish with them on the bike:

Before:


After:

Whats the equivalent product in the UK that i can possibly use to get my header pipes looking like that please

 

[bdevries]

Cleaning/Polishing Stainless Steel - Auto Geek Online Auto Detailing Forum

probably the best write up ive seen on polishing headers.. lots of pics!

 

[outasight20]

LOL The powerball is the exact thing I tried, it actually seemed to take longer, I think cause I couldn't put as much pressure on it as I could with wrapping a cloth around, I could actually feel the cloth and header heating up a bit from the friction I was causing when I was sawing on them really fast. The powerball also doesn't get in-between or behind the headers and was always hitting my front fender.

The after pic was with some wet sanding, but it was a 2000 grit and I probably spent 5 minutes total with it, really only used for the really tough little water spots.

Nice work! The heat is partly from the friction but mostly from the chemical reaction taking place when the polish reacts with the crap on the header.

 

[bdevries]

Nice work! The heat is partly from the friction but mostly from the chemical reaction taking place when the polish reacts with the crap on the header.

Do you mind explaining what you mean here?

I've always been told to keep buffer speeds down unless moving quickly across a surface as the friction is what heats things up, and thats where you run into problems ruining the surface..

Never heard of any sort of chemical reaction heating things up while polishing..