| Author | Message | ||
     Hooch1 |
I took Hooch out for a long run yesterday and noticed at the end that my headers had been daubed with glossy black paint in places. I'm guessing some malcreant did that after I left Hooch to cool after my weekend ride and I just didn't notice. No idea what kind of paint it is. It's dried and baked on quite nicely thanks to yesterday's ride. Any safe way to remove that offending dye without marring the original finish on the pipes? BTW, what is that finish anyway? Thanks all for your suggestions! Hernando | ||
| Bads1 |
Oven cleaner. Let it sit and wipe off. | ||
| Moosestang |
The pipes have a finish? Just looks like metal to me. | ||
| Barnyard |
If the oven cleaner does not work try goof off but be careful with it you can make a bigger goof with it! You could even try WD-40 | ||
| Simmadown |
I've heard from some harley guys that a penny works great on their chrome pipes when they melt something to them. Takes the residue off right down to the chrome without causing any scratching. Not sure how this would work on our headers though. | ||
| Scrapin |
It's probably not paint, any chance you ran over a plastic bag lately...? They have a tendency to melt on contact. (Message edited by Scrapin on August 05, 2008) | ||
| Jimduncan69 |
my header has managed to melt a couple of back packs and both pair of rain gear i have owned.......hmmm maybe i should be more careful. although since i have had my headers ceramic coated. everything just wipes right off. | ||
| Moosestang |
While we are on the subject, has anyone painted the headers with high temp engine enamel? How hot do the pipes get? Mine seem to cool off real quick. | ||
| Jimduncan69 |
Damnut has some pretty sweet custom paint on his headers. send him a PM i am sure he would be glad to point you in the right direction.....  | ||
| Speedfreaks101 |
My .02 Take this time to polish your pipes. Use roll type emory cloth (available at a welding supply or ACE Hardware) and sand the pipes. The finest grit you can get in a roll is 320. Then use wet sand paper and work up to 1500-2000. Then use Eagle One Nano Polish. Your pipes will turn gold after your next ride and it looks great. | ||
| Bads1 |
You can't do that to 06 pipes. They have a coating of their own.} | ||
| Speedfreaks101 |
What kind of coating? And if it is damaged then why can it not be sanded off? | ||
| Aussie_xb12ss |
I have an 06 (well 07 in Oz but definitely stamped 06) & I have used the wet & dry on mine. Comes up great. | ||
| Moosestang |
Anyone have pictures of before and after wet sanding? If your pipes aren't damaged, can you go straight to wet sanding with 2000? | ||
| Aussie_xb12ss |
You probably could but I doubt you'll get a nice smooth finish. I started with 800 grit & worked up to 2,000 grit. Here's my before & afters. As you can see my headers were practically brand new before hand. About 100 miles old.  About 2 hours later before going for a ride.  About 8,000 miles later & they haven't just been polished either. The bits of blue are the reflection off my tool boxes.  & that's not really a RSS you see there either. It's just a figment of your imagination  | ||
| Punkid8888 |
WOW, that looks pretty sweet, Did you remove the piped to do that? | ||
| Aussie_xb12ss |
No, just took the chin fairing off so I could get all the way down. | ||
| Speedfreaks101 |
Trust me on this, pics do not do it justice (and I have not seen his bike in person). Pics just can't capture how good they really look. | ||
| Hooch1 |
Thanks for all the tips, guys. I'm pretty sure it's paint but I'm no expert! Huh, I thought the headers on my '07 12R had some sort of finish to attain that goldish hue and texture. Is that really just bare metal??? | ||
| Moosestang |
I just sanded mine today. I started with 400 grit(all I had), then 600, then 1000, then wet sanded with 2000. While 400 wasn't rough enough to get all the pits and scratches out, it does look 10 times better than before. I'll probably do it again with some coarse sand paper. before  after  | ||
| Superman217 |
Ok, correct me if I'm wrong, but you guys got your headers that shiny just by sanding? And without taking them off? How often do you have to polish them after you do that? I was thinking about using header paint, but that would look PHAT on my 09 XB12R, cheaper to. =) | ||
| Superman217 |
Ok, I did it and I actually like it. I decided to do it because I got some stuff on my headers so it was either sand them or spend money getting them done. Since I'd rather spend the money out with the boyz I sanded. =)  I only used 800 and 1000 grit but it turned out pretty good  |
