Spit and Polish, Oh and grease!

[sirch345]

I finally got around to stripping out the swinging-arm and linkages to grease all the bearings etc! while I was at it I decided to polish up the exhaust headers and the rear-set footrests, also clean off all the muck that had come off the chain that builds up over the years, and give the chain a good clean while it was off!
The reason I got around to all this was I bought a Maxton spring for the rear shock so I had to remove some of the parts to fit that!

Chris.

[dookie]

Love the look of the downpipes m8 how long did they take and what with?

[SterlingCG]

looks great... have you got any before photos?

[iggy1966]

Nice one Chris

make a huge difference with th down pipes shiney

[kevg]

You fancy doing my downpipes now.
yours look great.

[sirch345]

Love the look of the downpipes m8 how long did they take and what with?

Cheers Dookie,
After trial and error I ended up purchasing a set of three polishing wheels (3 different grades of wheels 4" and 3 different grades of compound) that attach to an electric drill, all for £20 from a local tool shop, the hardest part is the two crooked bends as the 4" wheel is to big to reach all of the pipework, so I had to revert back to the wet and dry and autosol for those areas.
I didn't really take much notice of how long it took, at a guess I would say somewhere between 6 to 8 hours just for the actual polishing, obviously that will vary on how bad your pipes are.

The only downside after all that work is after a couple of rides the headers have already changed colour, to a goldie bronze colour, which at first I was quite annoyed about but now I actually quite like it, imo it looks quite expensive. People have said that the quality of the stainless steel is not that good and I would definitely agree with that Anyway have a look at the pictures:-

looks great... have you got any before photos?

Cheers Sterling,
I fully meant to do that, but forgot to at the very beginning, but here's a couple part way through the process:-

Nice one Chris

make a huge difference with th down pipes shiney

Cheers Iggy.

You fancy doing my downpipes now.
yours look great.

Cheers Kev.
I'll pass on your kind offer if you don't mind

[Zer0Zer0]

Excellent job chris old boy!... if you keep them sprayed with WD 40 ..that should keep em nice n shiny..i would hate to see all your hard work turn to rust . i was going to ask why you are doing this now given the weather.you should be out n about on it......but i see from your sig.. you got a bloody garage full o bikes [lucky git]...

[thumper]

you have to much time on yer hands , but what a job , better than new i bets

how do you like the avons????

[cupasoop]

Never mind the bike....get yir garden weeded

[alan]

Well done Chris they look very nice i started doing mine but soon got fed up i think i will chrome plate mine much easier

Alan

[tony.wilde1]

great work there chris.

[sirch345]

Excellent job chris old boy!... if you keep them sprayed with WD 40 ..that should keep em nice n shiny..i would hate to see all your hard work turn to rust . i was going to ask why you are doing this now given the weather.you should be out n about on it......but i see from your sig.. you got a bloody garage full o bikes [lucky git]...

Cheers Marty,
I thought the same thing, why strip your bike down this time of the year, but to be honest I wouldn't have done in the winter in the cold, damp and wet. Not my sig Marty, I only have the one bike now.

you have to much time on yer hands , but what a job , better than new i bets

how do you like the avons????

Cheers Graham,
Yea I know I need to get out more
As for the Azaro's they suit me fine I like them

Never mind the bike....get yir garden weeded

I passed on the message to the gardener (my Mrs) apparently there is no weeds in that flowerbed, even the one in the wall is a plant but that was not quite how she put it

Well done Chris they look very nice i started doing mine but soon got fed up i think i will chrome plate mine much easier

Alan

Cheers Alan,
That's taking the easy way out (perhaps not on your wallet ) but remember what happens to chrome, it turns blue

great work there chris.

Cheers Tony

[Stormin Ben]

Well done Chris they look very nice i started doing mine but soon got fed up i think i will chrome plate mine much easier

Surely Titanium nitrided would be better
Then its gold to match the rest of the bling bits on your bike

Sirch,
Nice job. I know wot you mean about them changing colour though -I did mine last year (using wd40 and a scouring pad) Went back on shiney silver, and a few weeks later were a nice bronze colour to match the blade fork legs.
TBH I'll not be bothering to do them again, just wipe over with some wd40 every once in a while to keep them bronze, rather than rusty brown

[Stratman]

Looks fantastic Chris - I think a polishing kit for Christmas would be a good thing to wile away the long evenings - it looks realy good mate.

[pmcq]

Wow.... fantastic work there Chris!

Would be tempted to get myself a kit also. But the danger would be that I'd start polishing everything! Hmmm.... wonder would my cage look good in silver, or maybe those Storm wheels or my bicycle :-)