Polishing headers...... does this sound right???

[Jobe Zeebuh]

I personally think wd-40 is a waste of time. And messy.

 

[PonyXB12]

 

[PonyXB12]

I had header wrap on, made pipes all rusty and nasty. I did not remove the pipes, I did remove the right scoop and chin fairing. I used a lil 3" grinding wheel and brown 3M cookie to get the crap off then wet sanded it with 400 grit by hand, then polished it with a polishing wheel on a lil angle grinder and stainless polish. They turn Gold after you ride it. If you go finer than 400 grit it would look even better.

 

[Chetjay]

Looks like I'm a little late to the party but I'm currently hand polishing my headers. Didn't take them off the bike. There was a fine pitting over them entirely so I started off with 50 grit sandpaper. I don't use wd40 or any sort of wet stuff. Just sandpaper and elbow grease. Here's how they look after 50 all over. I think I'm gonna leave the dark areas around the welds but continue polishing the rest.

 

[stensg]

Is there any way to get the 1125 headers looking like this? I used the pads and wd40 and mine are nice but gray in color

 

[d_adams]

Not without a buffer and buffing compound.

 

[icecoldcoasty]

im not a fan of chrome on buells. but damn D adams those headers look amazing. Are they the ti force headers or are they custom because they look great

 

[d_adams]

I made them. They're just polished stainless steel, not chrome, they've turned a bit gold now since I rode the bike after that pic was taken.

 

[RamAirZ]

Here's mine with just Mothers Polish on a paper towel, did a couple passes with it, header on obviously.

 

[thrstrmech]

green scotch brite pad, WD40...followed up by Mothers paste polish, not a chrome finish, better yet just simply clean looking...if I wanted to be a chrome jockey, would have bought a HD or some other make chromed out POS

 

[LoneStarBeer]

So, along with the WD40, could you use the red Scotchbrite pads?

 

[nicholas900]

Old post, but I'll bite.

Sure you could. I would suggest using red scotchbrite pads in a twisting motion. It will leave light "rings" around the pipe and look nice. Use WD, or just any auto parts store polish. You are just cleaning it up. From there for upkeep I've found Zep stainless aerosol cleaner from home depot works nice. Spray it on a rag, wipe the pipes down and leave it. It will smoke off on the next start up. It does a nice job.

Actually polishing is different. To really polish you need a polisher, adapter or air compressor with little bits and use different grades of the polish that comes in waxy looking sticks. You'll use different grades of wheels for each stick. You would be actually polishing it to a mirror finish. I polished mine:

Polishing and cleaning are different.

 

[sewerman]

After I sanded mine down I used #0000 steel wool and Mothers and it works great. I do it once in awhile with a cold beer and the garage stereo going. Good karma for my 12R

 

[mrlogix]

Good karma for my 12R

 

[Sirius815]

^^ +! [up]

 

[nicholas900]

You shouldn't use steel wool on stainless. It will cause rust.

 

[Sirius815]

...Interesting. I have never used steel wool on the headers, just various grits of sand paper. Will it rust even after cleaning off with polish?

 

[Cosworth]

I just started sanding with 1k wet paper and wd40 then moved to 2k and finally used blue magic rubbing it in with paper towels. Ive notice paper towels are rough enough to polish headers very well, better than microfiber rags etc.

all by hand no buffer etc, 1k and 2k paper

 

[mrlogix]

wow Cos, that looks good

 

[Cosworth]

Thanks logix, Really didnt take too long maybe 4 hours on the initial polishing to get out all of the factory bending marks. They start bluing pretty quickly maybe 2 hours worth of ride or so. So every so often I re-polish them. In all I like that the pipes stand out against the black bike. Especially now that I have deans pipe on there!