Cleaning and scratch removal

[Derpdiherp]

Hey all, a few quick questions about keeping a bike in top nick.

Do you all have any recommended cleaining and polishing products? I've been using water and some washing up liquid for heavily oiled areas ( like left side of the swing arm etc ) and it's doing ok so far, but I reckon in winter it'll be a different story, so I could use a decent cleaning agent. Also with my bike being the fastest colour (black) it's needing a polish, I'm hoping it'll remove some of the tiny scratches in the paintwork.

One more question. My exhaust has a few scratches on it from me getting it into the back yard of my house, it's a major squeeze, I think it's stainless steel, any hints on shallow scratch removal?

Cheers 

[nick crisp]

I'm currently using Muc-Off products to clean mine as I get a good discount on them. Nano Tech cleaner for engine & chassis, after using their Degreaser on swing arm, wheels and other heavily soiled areas. I don't use the cleaner for paintwork, but just clean hot water, a chammy leather to wipe down, then just good ol' Mr. Sheene to polish. Dedicated polishes are better, but I can't be arsed at the moment. I also have a multi-brush set from Muc-Off, 6 different brushes to help get into all those awkward places. Very soft absorbent cloths for paintwork.  I also use the degreaser on the chain with a medium brush, rinse off thoroughly with the hose (cold water), run an old rag around it, then lube well. Chrome, ally and stainless, just Autosol, which will tidy up the finer scratches. You can spend an absolute fortune on cleaning kit, but with a few basics you can do a surprisingly good job. Footrest pivots etc are then treated to a little WD40. Tyres and brake calipers/discs are thoroughly hosed off after degreasing to get rid of any overspray. And I hate doing it all, cos it gives me chronic back-ache!

[mickvp]

First and foremost, if your using washing up liquid (i.e. fairy liquid) on your paintwork - STOP! fairy liquid contains micro abrasives to help its degreasing action and so repeated use can inflict more swirls (micro scratches) onto your paintwork...

Now. polishing. I assume you will be polishing by hand? if so, one of the best products out there for hand application is Autoglym Super Resin Polish (you can get it from halfords etc). this is an All-In-One type product, which has light cutting ability and so will remove a small amount of swirls, i also has a lot of fillers in it, so it will fill a LOT of swirls on your paintwork (this is not permanent and will wash off eventually - after 4 or 5 washes approx.), it also has a mild sealant property so will sheet water off if and provide a basic level of UV and dirt resistance. This is ok and will make the bike look good for a while, but you will need to re-do this every 4-6 months to keep it looking good. using "proper" polishes can remedy the problem more permanently.

If you want to properly bring back the shine to your paintwork you should ideally be looking into something more intensive which properly cuts paintwork and will restore the shine to the paintwork in a more permanent fashion. The Menzerna range of polishes is good for this, or if you want to go old school there is the likes of Farecla G3 and G10. This is of course a much more skilled process, and there is a risk of striking through paintwork with this process (it is also likely you will use a polishing machine for this instead of simply by hand).

For general cleaning/degreasing, a dedicated wash product for vehicles is suitable (this can be something as basic as zip wash from halfords, which is only a few quid, or if you have access to Costco, you can get 25L of turtle wax wash and wax for about £20 ). For degreasing I can recommend something like Bilt Hamber Surfex HD. this is a fairly cheap degreaser which is very effective. alternatively, if you want to keep thing simple, and dont want to go hunting for products: Tesco sell a cleaning product called "Daisy", which is an all purpose cleaner. this can be used for most general purpose cleanign and degreasing, and is concentrated, so you can alter the dilution ratios to suit the application. this is also only £1 for a 1 litre bottle (which is dilutable) so is pretty cost effective.

stainless steel can be polished with either Britemax twins metal polish, or autosol, and this should remove some slight scratches and bring up the shine (you can see some examples in the review for britemax twins here: http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/sh...p?t=152466 ) Again, if you want to do it "on the cheap", tesco sell a product called "bar keepers friend" which essentially does the same thing

If I were you, and was looking for a simple, high impact, low fuss (and low cost) methodology to restore the paintwork and give some good sheeting abilities, my purchase list would look like this:


Tesco Daisy (or Autosmart G101 which is essentially the same thing)
Autoglym Super Resin Polish
Collinite 476s wax

a coat of SRP and a coat of 476s on top should see you with around 6 months of water sheeting abilities and the bike should look good through this meaning you only need to clean with a very weak daisy/g101 solution in between, and use a stronger mix on the wheels/engine/unprotected parts.


rambling again....better stop now :lol

[Derpdiherp]

Brilliant that's exactly the kind of info I was after, special thanks to mickvp - that Britemax Twins looks like it'll do the job on the exhaust perfectly, they look like surface scratches rather than deep so I'm hoping they'll buff out just like the guy in the posts did.

I'll get those three items on my shopping list and give it a good clean some day soon, with the rain on the way I'm probably going to wait a little while.

[mickvp]

ill be hanging off till winter to remove the scratches on mine, as it will be much easier to machine if i strip the bike (but will be using SRP till then to reduce the visible marks). .

ill make a guide at the same time though and hopefully take some of the mystery and black art out of using a machine polisher - its really not that hard if you are careful and methodical in your approach

[jason1]

Try GT85 for your engine etc , protects and gives a high shine . cheap as chips too .