Props to the Header Shine Idea!!

[speedybuell]

I dont remember who had the idea to shine the headers but much props to them! My headers were looking pretty bad from the break-in period. It only took about 30 minutes and they look great!

 

[Somthngfrce]

I tried shining them up a while back with some mothers polish. Didn't get the same results you did. I got 10% of what you got. What did you use on your headers?

 

[speedybuell]

I used bar keepers friend for the inicial wipe down. Then I used a metal polish from eastwood.com (eastwood has the best stuff in the world for restoring anything)

 

[Somthngfrce]

Thanks! I am on it... lets see if mine comes out that nicely

 

[Thulsadoom]

Did you take the headers off to shine them? Those look the business!

 

[speedybuell]

no, I shined them right on the bike! They are pretty easy to get to (at least all the parts you can see anyways)

 

[mrdozer2you]

How come they look so smooth....mine have sort of a texture to them? Will this work for me?

 

[speedybuell]

probably because I scrubbed them with a plastic scouring pad with Bar Keepers Friend cleaner on it before polishing them

 

[mrdozer2you]

A plastic pad will polish metal? What year is your bike? Maybe the pipes are different.

 

[speedybuell]

no that wasnt to polish, that was to knock off any dirt and crud. The metal polish from eastwood.com is what put the shine to it, they were badly blued. My bike is an 2008.

I would first use this pre-polish if your pipes are bad :
Pre-Polish Prep Eastwood.com

then I would follow that up with a metal polish like mothers or neverdull from advance auto parts (any wheel/metal polish)

but that pre-polish is awesome - I have removed rust and surface flaws from various metal types, it is a must have around the home shop

 

[speedybuell]

Here is the photo reference for your viewing pleasure:

also must use paper towels for the metal polish (trick learned from someone else on here ...)

 

[mrdozer2you]

Oh so I see...your pipes started out silver and not the gold like on the older models.

 

[LeFox]

Oh so I see...your pipes started out silver and not the gold like on the older models.

dozer, you'll get the same result with your headers.

the texture (cross-line) is still there, but you can hardly see it because of the shine.

this is also a 2008 with the original headers.

 

[speedybuell]

no my headers started out very golden, and very blued