Headlight Mounts Polished - nice.

[seano]

very nice job, is it hard to take them off to do this?

[seano]

Just bought this 2008 but it's been in storage for 5 years. Three of which were spent apparently unprotected near the ocean in a car port out on the open then another 2 years uncleaned after a 1,000km road trip so the corrosion is substantial. However apart from that it's a great bike so I'm slowly restoring the brightwork. I had a bit of a go at the forks and the areas I did (mostly the front straight sections) came up great so need to re-do them properly getting into all the small tight areas near the tops and bottoms but in this post I'd like to show how the headlight mounting brackets came out.

I restore headlights for a living so I just applied all my normal paper techniques except on a headlight I'd wet sand but on these I dry sanded. Not 100% perfect but good enough for me. I'll be protecting them with SiO2 clear ceramic coating (paint protection) which I use in my business so I have access to a few drops (all that's needed). Normally this stuff costs AUD$250 per bottle so probably too expensive to buy just for this purpose (although it can be used on paint and wheels too). It's experimental because it's not specified for use on raw polished aluminium so I'll be a test. How long will it be before I know the SiO2 has protected them? By that, I mean, unprotected after how long would I start to see tarnish appearing under normal use? If (say) 3 months then if after 6 months they still look shiny I'd consider that a success and a possible solution to regular re-polishing we all dread/love. The Ceramic coating I use says 7-10 years. Wish me luck.

And now...the results including one breathtaking "before" photo.

[/quote                                                                                                                                                                                     very nice job is it hard to remove them to do this?

[gsxbarmy]

very nice job, is it hard to take them off to do this?

Not really @seano - best way to remove them is to drop the front forks out of the yokes (and then you can also do the fork oil at the same time  )

[Del]

only thing with polished parts is once mirror finished you need to keep on top of them to maintain the finish - looks great when done though

[horse]

very nice job, is it hard to take them off to do this?

Not really @seano - best way to remove them is to drop the front forks out of the yokes (and then you can also do the fork oil at the same time  )

On my K8 from memory you don't need to drop the forks , if you take the bolt out of the headlight shell and support it there are two 6mm bolts that hold the alloy bracket to the steel fork support then they come away i would say 10-15 minutes would do it but being old maybe my memory is from another bike? will check when i get home , Alzheimer's is wonderful ! new friends every day and will be able to hide my own Easter eggs in a couple of months!

Horse 

[gsxbarmy]

very nice job, is it hard to take them off to do this?

Not really @seano - best way to remove them is to drop the front forks out of the yokes (and then you can also do the fork oil at the same time  )

On my K8 from memory you don't need to drop the forks , if you take the bolt out of the headlight shell and support it there are two 6mm bolts that hold the alloy bracket to the steel fork support then they come away i would say 10-15 minutes would do it but being old maybe my memory is from another bike? will check when i get home , Alzheimer's is wonderful ! new friends every day and will be able to hide my own Easter eggs in a couple of months!

Horse

Yes, think you are right @horse my memory now of removing them is dulling as was some considerable time since I last removed them on a 14!

[seano]

LOL  thanks guys for the help STAY SAFE!