Spit and Polish, Oh and grease!

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sirch345
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Spit and Polish, Oh and grease!

Post by 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.
(1) headers polished.jpg
(2) headers re-fitted 2.jpg
(3) headers re-fitted.jpg
(4) headers front pipe.jpg
(5) rearsets polished.jpg
(6) shock + arm re- fitted.jpg
(7) nearing end of job.jpg
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dookie
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Post by dookie »

Love the look of the downpipes m8 how long did they take and what with?
There was a time i used to care
SterlingCG
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Post by SterlingCG »

looks great... have you got any before photos?
iggy1966
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Post by iggy1966 »

Nice one Chris

make a huge difference with th down pipes shiney :D
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."
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kevg
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Post by kevg »

You fancy doing my downpipes now.
yours look great.
cheerz

kev
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sirch345
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Post by sirch345 »

dookie wrote: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:-
headers-front-goldie-colour.jpg
headers-goldie-colour.jpg
SterlingCG wrote: 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:-
My-headers-VTR.jpg
My-headers-VTR1000.jpg
My-headers-VTR-before-polis.jpg
iggy1966 wrote:Nice one Chris

make a huge difference with th down pipes shiney :D
Cheers Iggy.
kevg wrote:You fancy doing my downpipes now.
yours look great.
Cheers Kev.
I'll pass on your kind offer if you don't mind :lol:
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Zer0Zer0
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Post by 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 :wink: . 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]...
I AM THE STRANGE MAN YOUR MOTHER WARNED YOU ABOUT......
Have a sweetie and stop crying........
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thumper
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Post by thumper »

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

how do you like the avons????
just because your breathing doesn't mean your alive
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cupasoop
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Post by cupasoop »

Never mind the bike....get yir garden weeded :wink:
Rich.

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alan
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downpipes

Post by 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 :lol:

Alan
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tony.wilde1
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Post by tony.wilde1 »

great work there chris. :D
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sirch345
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Post by sirch345 »

Zer0Zer0 wrote: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 :wink: . 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.
thumper wrote: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 :lol:
As for the Azaro's they suit me fine :!: :D I like them :!:
cupasoop wrote:Never mind the bike....get yir garden weeded :wink:
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 :wink: :lol:
alan wrote: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 :lol:

Alan
Cheers Alan,
That's taking the easy way out (perhaps not on your wallet :lol: ) but remember what happens to chrome, it turns blue :!: :lol:
tony.wilde1 wrote:great work there chris. :D
Cheers Tony :D
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Stormin Ben
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Re: downpipes

Post by Stormin Ben »

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

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
I've got an inferiority complex
But its not a very good one!
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Stratman
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Post by 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.
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pmcq
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Post by 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 :-)
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