:thumbup::thumbup:
Cheater! :spank::spank: Sure looks good tho! Let us know how it holds up Mr Ceramic!
Polishing Exhaust Headers
- Thread starter fiveboltmain09
- Start date
:thumbup::thumbup:
Cheater! :spank::spank: Sure looks good tho! Let us know how it holds up Mr Ceramic!
BlahBlah
Will do!
Will do!
eeyore
Junior Member
Got around to polishing my headers today. I think i may do one more polish before i put them back on the bike. They come off so easy i figured it would be easier on my tall body to polish them standing up rather than laying on the floor of my shed. 
Question; should i put never seize on the header bolts upon reassembly?
Here are pics of the before...
Here is how i kept them from moving while polishing them off the bike. I drilled a small hole in the support bracket thats welded betweeen the 2 middle pipes and screwed them to a piece of 4x4 i had laying around. I then used a piece of a tie down strap to keep the back from moving and really lock the headers in place. Worked out really well. I held the 4x4 in my bench vise and polished them with ease.
Here is the almost final product. I may go over them one more time. They make look a little yellowish in the pic but i think the white balance is off in my camera.
Question; should i put never seize on the header bolts upon reassembly?
Here are pics of the before...
Here is how i kept them from moving while polishing them off the bike. I drilled a small hole in the support bracket thats welded betweeen the 2 middle pipes and screwed them to a piece of 4x4 i had laying around. I then used a piece of a tie down strap to keep the back from moving and really lock the headers in place. Worked out really well. I held the 4x4 in my bench vise and polished them with ease.
Here is the almost final product. I may go over them one more time. They make look a little yellowish in the pic but i think the white balance is off in my camera.
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eeyore
Junior Member
Question; should i put never seize on the header bolts upon reassembly?
For the most part its just going to run and/or evaporate IME. Anyway, they don't salt the roads in the winter here so I personally have no need for it. But others may.
When you install the gaskets, place the least damaged side towards the head. Also, recheck the nuts after a few rides as they will deform and may loosen a bit.
When you install the gaskets, place the least damaged side towards the head. Also, recheck the nuts after a few rides as they will deform and may loosen a bit.
Koissu
Junior Member
Well I got 1 done. Ah! Very satisfying but the other pipes are not nearly as easy. Just making the discolored parts shiny.
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Koissu
Junior Member
I found some extra elbow grease under the sink ; )
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JayyVee
IT Overlord
Great thread, so I will pose a Q here; My pipes were likely never cleaned when I bought the bike last year (filthy, looked like I'd been out supermotoing with it!), and I just hit them with an hours worth of elbow grease and Mothers mag. The 1 and 4 pipes are pretty decent, 2 and 3 (getting more road grime) are still pretty bad, and overall many patches of discoloration still exist. Basically I polished up the stains, LOL.
I saw some say no to sandpaper, then others saying 1200 wet grit paper worked wonders. (and appeared so too)
I'm thinking I need to hit it with something else 'once' to get then clean, then Mothers will keep em polished.
Can anyone chime in? Is 1200 grit wet paper clear to use w/o scratching them up? Or something else possibly?
I saw some say no to sandpaper, then others saying 1200 wet grit paper worked wonders. (and appeared so too)
I'm thinking I need to hit it with something else 'once' to get then clean, then Mothers will keep em polished.
Can anyone chime in? Is 1200 grit wet paper clear to use w/o scratching them up? Or something else possibly?
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"Mothers Mag and Aluminum polish" and a bunch of elbow grease with a micro fiber cloth...
NO STEELWOOL or light sandpaper... A buffing wheel is fine too.
NO STEELWOOL or light sandpaper... A buffing wheel is fine too.
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Koissu
Junior Member
I polished for about an hour with denim and Mothers and was in the same boat. Outer pipes were pretty good, inner ones, I felt like I was just polishing the discoloration.
I was too cheap to buy a Mothers Ball or Cone. In an earlier post, I think FinalImpact mentioned using the red scotch brite, rubbbing compound, then Mothers. This is essentially what I ended up doing. I used a green scotch brite (a bit too rough - couldn't find the red), then 3/0 steel wool, rubbing compound (w/ denim), then Mothers (w/ denim, then microfiber). I cut a pair of denim jeans up the crotch and used each half. When dirtied, turned it inside out. The length made it really easy to get leverage and work all angles of the pipes.
I tried 4/0 steel wool but it did nothing. I plan on hitting it again with Mothers as there are some very light scratches you cannot see in the photos.
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Taz3
Junior Member
Can't wait to do this1!!!!!
raja777m
Ride like you own it..!
Shampoo, Scotch Green and Yellow dish scrub, Mother's Mag and Aluminium and a MicroFibre cloth, and very little elbow grease, after all I learned I love my Bike, but I'm lazy, Couple of iterations should set it.
Result:
But no matter how careful I wash my bike every week, Why can't make my bike look as in Benji's Naked conversion pics? Is that the camera effect or I should start wax-polishing, buffing., etc?
I usually, Do a bike wash/shampoo wash, dry it with Microfibre cloth, Oil the o-rings. How do you guys do it every time?
Result:
But no matter how careful I wash my bike every week, Why can't make my bike look as in Benji's Naked conversion pics? Is that the camera effect or I should start wax-polishing, buffing., etc?
I usually, Do a bike wash/shampoo wash, dry it with Microfibre cloth, Oil the o-rings. How do you guys do it every time?
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gnyce
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Sigh.... I started out the day with a nice (almost Spring-like day) ride, and then moved on to to the throttle body sync (I built, using this forum's instructions, a manometer). That went quite well, and was pretty fun. I had NO intention of polishing my headers... but dammit, the pics that ppl have been posting look _really_ nice, and my brother has a chromed-up Suzuki Boulevard, so... I started in. I guess I should be thankful for the impetus. It's not done, and I do like it, but it's definitely a bit of work. How bad is the upkeep (once you have it looking good)?
Before syncing...
FIrst pass, headers...
Before syncing...
FIrst pass, headers...
zixaq
Elite Member
Is there any point to doing this other than aesthetics? I can't imagine how many hours it would take to get any part of my exhaust looking like that, and it would be covered with road grime and mud again the next day anyway . . .
IAMJUSTIFYD
Junior Member
The pipes look great! On average, how long do think it took some of you to do this? couple hours?
payneib
Member
To be honest, I'd say no. I've polished mine the old fashioned way several times, and I've recently started using Optiglanz. Doing it the old fashioned way takes hours. And I mean hours. Using the Optiglanz is much better, it's a case of spraying it on, waiting, then rinsing it off. But the result is always the same. It looks brilliant when it's done, but within an hour of riding they're back to tea-stained brown. If you've got any rust spots, or big lumps of tar, I'd say get stuck in. But there's no point trying to keep it like that on a regular basis.
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My bike is for pleasure only so I generally don't get caught in the rain, ride down muddy roads, etc.
Maybe every two months, I'll re-clean them, maybe 45 minutes tops...
If its a daily driver, nasty roads, crap spewed up, it'll be a MUCH longer project and probably not worth it.
I never took steel wool or anything stronger than cleaner on them as not to screw up the SS finish and make it worse later..
Maybe every two months, I'll re-clean them, maybe 45 minutes tops...
If its a daily driver, nasty roads, crap spewed up, it'll be a MUCH longer project and probably not worth it.
I never took steel wool or anything stronger than cleaner on them as not to screw up the SS finish and make it worse later..
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