How to do this

[lawrie]

Advice please fellas, the last 1400 resto I did had really bad downpipes, it didn't matter as I had a nice replacement assembly to fit, so the awful stainless ones were relegated to somewhere under the pile!!
HOWEVER, I tripped over them the other day & thought they are perfectly sound & too good to scrap, SO, I want to try & tart them up, I've done some research & it seems that soaking in white vinegar is one way to go, I've tried various wheels on the buffing machine with limited success.
Anyone here  had them this bad & managed to revive them??
Picture is how the bike was when I got it.

[froudy]

Try some Solvo Autosol on a green pot scouring pad

[grog]

re chrome or powder coat, shame to see them go to waste.

[Del]

I had a similar mess and I cleaned up with Astonish Oven cleaner - good stuff and not too harsh on the steel - use it with stainless steel wool and a pot scourer and theyll come up as good as new

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Astonish-Oven-Cookware-Cleaner-500g/dp/B000TBK7PI

[gsxbarmy]

Surprised you have had trouble with using buffing wheels Lawrie, as usually that does the trick.

As Del says, or, I use Belgom Alu, applied with rough stockingette I obtain from Halfords

[Mick_J]

Be careful using the green scouring pads, they will scratch the shit out of the pipes, better to use the white non abrasive type.

[VladTepes]

Check out my bike thread in members rides.  Polished with Various grade discs. Came out great.

[lawrie]

Check out my bike thread in members rides.  Polished with Various grade discs. Came out great.

In a word, WOW.
Mightily impressed with that, when you say, 'various grades of discs', what discs are you on about, I have a selection of soft & hard MOPS & brown, white & blue soaps, but none seem to make much difference to the tarnished S/S, and solvol simply shines the brown.
I use a 3hp buffer that CANNOT be stopped, so 'lack of pressure' aint the problem!
The one pipe I've tried is a bit 'sorta-shiney' -ish, but I can't seem to make it much better, so I'm definitely  doing something wrong!
BTW, I've done a lot of ALLOY polishing & had no trouble at all with that.

[VladTepes]

I'll grab the details for you tomorrow my time    edit: see below.


Yep it's an entirely different kettle of fish compared with alloy....

[VladTepes]

I used polishing discs like these for an angle grinder to polish those headers and exhaust pipes.

http://www.toolking.com.au/search.php?Search=&search_query=polishing

These things are pretty much a kitchen scouring pad on a grinder wheel but more industrial. 
Use your best judgement when it comes to grades.  Maybe try a finer one and if results aren't what you want then try a coarser one and go back from there...


Essentially to get rid of all that road grime etc you are sanding it with increasingly finer grade grit discs  (you don't use compound with these) and after you've cleaned it all up THEN that's when you start attacking it with pads and compound.

There's a lot of shit to shift so if you start with traditional soft pads and polishing compound you are on a hiding to nothing.

Do take care to control the piece and grinder well so as to not damage the piece or have things fly off into space... those discs spin quickly.  No need to apply much pressure, let the tool do the work.

Once I'd done as much as possible with the angle grinder I did the finicky bits (around the hooks etc) with a dremel and suitable polishing pads/compound.

[Snapey]

Scotchbrite wheels are the way to go. I only use the 25mm wide ones but use a couple of grades. Finish with mops of course.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/3MIndustrial/Abrasives/Products/~/Scotch-Brite-Multi-Finishing-Wheel?N=7581697+3293242505&rt=rud

[gsxbarmy]

Scotchbrite wheels are the way to go. I only use the 25mm wide ones but use a couple of grades. Finish with mops of course.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/3MIndustrial/Abrasives/Products/~/Scotch-Brite-Multi-Finishing-Wheel?N=7581697+3293242505&rt=rud

Absolutely agree Pete - just have to be careful about grade that you don't go too aggressive 

(just thinking if some look for 3m Scotchbrite wheels, they may not realise that there are different grades, as well as sizes and widths).

These are great for getting lacquer off cases and fork sliders as well.

[lawrie]

Great, thanks lads, I knew you lot would come up trumps, BTW, I've seen these things before, but never even thought about them regarding the pipes cleanup.
I'm off to buy a selection.
Watch this space.

[froudy]

This was a stainless system I polished for a mate of mine. I used various polishing mops and grades of compound to get them like this.
Took me about 2 hours from start to finish.

[Notty]

Wow Froudy !! so is it the same to polish fork legs ?  do I need to remove them?