Never polished exhausts before but it`s on my "to have a go" list for the winter. You can get cheaper kits on ebay for drill or bench grinder use. Bench Grinder 12pc Metal Polishing Kit 4" x 1/2" BGK0-4001 | eBay Aluminium, Brass, Steel Metal Polishing Kit 4" x 1/2" Fits Drill | eBay
Me too. the SF is having an engine blueprint this winter so its the perfect opportunity. Thanks chaps. You've found something useful for me to do on Christmas day.
This is mine after a few hours with wet & dry and autosol...... it was a mess before I started, 10k miles in all weather and never cleaned once..... Life's to short to be cleaning exhaust pipes..... or so I thought until I decided to clean it....
I did the ones on my 916 with a drill and some mops. Took a few hours but I exited my garage covered head to foot in tiny black splatters. I looked like one of those Minstrel acts of the 20's. It was up my nose, in my ears...I vowed then to send any others to some other schmuck to do instead. The 1198 got ceramic coated instead.
Thanks for this - my Hyper termi single system needs cleaning but I'm a lazy fooker and I don't like shiny, so I'm going to try the welder's pickling paste as see how that goes
Oven cleaner spray on stuff make sue it doesn't go anywhere near alloy, works a treat or place in plastic bin bags spray leave for a few minutes hey presto
Hope you're being serious... He said wet and dry AND Autosol! Wet and dry is the dark grey kind of fine sandpaper that can be used either dry or with water to make it more effective and last longer by washing the dust produced away. So he used that first to get rid of the crud and produce a dullish shine, then finished with Autosol to get the final finish. Like normal sandpaper, wet and dry comes in various grades, so it's a good idea to start with a coarser grade first, then a fine one.
Use the wet n dry with autosol. Working up through the grades then autosol on its own. Comes up quicker.
Autosol is a cutting paste. That's why they don't recommend using it often on chrome plating. By using it on stainless you are speeding up the process of removing the pitting. Still not as good as using mops and soap though.
I'd expect the Autosol to wear the wet and dry faster, as it's harder than the stainless. Never having tried it, I don't know though. I use the mop and soap method.
I might give this a go myself , mostly my pipes have been kept shiney but the manifolds are boggin,, if I drop the manifold will i need new gaskets on there,, ????????
The small mops that can be found on eBay for polishing. The soaps are different grades. The small mops with a straight shank for using in a normal power drill are good enough for a DIY jobby.
yep,, ok,, I know what you mean now..:Shamefullyembarrased: I was thinking of a wire wheel on the drill or grinder,, that's usually how I / we clean up welds at work
What I have used wet and dry for is polishing up stainless Allen bolts. Stick the bolt in the chuck of an electric drill and go through the grades of wet and dry to get a smooth, shiny finish, then finish up with Autosol or similar to get a mirror finish. If you want them to look really good, you can put a piece of dowel in the chuck of the drill, a dab of Autosol in the socket of the bolt and polish up the bottom of the socket. The bottom of the socket is effectively faceted, so if you can get a mirror finish in there, it sparkles and twinkles like jewellery. Autosol is not the only polishing paste out there. Autoglym and Peak also work well. For keeping my pipes sparkly and for removing the gold oxidation before it turns too brown, I favour liquid cream metal polish. HG make a good one, which you can get in Homebase. Interestingly, I find the Termignoni, larger bore pipe turns gold much more slowly than the original Ducati one and the Termignoni can polishes up to a beautiful mirror finish and never oxidises at all...
I found the manifold really manky on mine.So, used a wire brush in a drill to get through the cack.I didnt bother to polish afterwards......nice finish.
