How to make your bike shiny again?

Regarding engine: I pressure washed mine to get the dirt off... hardly worked. I mean it's clean, but not sparkling.

Someone on here did a rebuild last year and their bike came out pristine. They said they used Brillo pads (or similar) and a degreasing agent.

Just be careful with the chemicals because some degreasing agents are dangerous without proper personal protective equipment (breather, mask, gloves, etc.).

soda blasting on aluminum parts looks pretty nice and is quick but its a matt finish

to make things shiny takes lots of time and hard work .. its rewarding but i go riding instead

What about Plastic gas tank. Was white now kind of yellowish. Does Anyone have a any ideas ??? But not painting the tank.

Rainerio said:

What about Plastic gas tank. Was white now kind of yellowish. Does Anyone have a any ideas ??? But not painting the tank.

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If your not worried about a mat finish use Soft Scrub with Bleach and a grey or green Scotch Brite Pad. Use a red scotch brite pad if you want to get real aggressive. It will leave a very flat finish. Do not use this method on any other color plastic as it will show scratches left from the pads. You can get away with it only on white.

mattwilkinson said:

Would I be better off getting a buff attachment for a 1800rpm drill or 7000 rpm angle Grinder?

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If you want to polish alloy. Get a bench grinder and put the screw on side extensions on it to take buffing wheels. Buy the three different wheels and the three different compounds. Take the parts off you bike and polish like a pro. Then spend the rest of your life trying to keep the shine up with autosol. At least once a week or once a day in humid climates. This is great when your young and want to impress people who like shiny things.

Then as you get older and have less time for folly, you buy a bead blasting cabinet and a big *** compressor and blast all your polished alloy to a nice dull maintenance free grey. Then once in a blue moon because you've neglected it for long enough you spray some alloy cleaner on it and hose it off. Then stand back and admire the grey and white streaks it left all over it.

Company's like POR15 make a lot of products to coat chrome or alloy to permanently protect their finish. I haven't used them so I can't comment. But they would be worth investigating.

My Harley came with too much chrome. I got sick of keeping on top of the patina, washing it once every 18 months just wasn't cutting it. So I replaced all the chrome with bead blasted alloy. What I couldn't replace, I painted with cold galvanising paint. Looks the same and holds up great.

Spray the whole bike in WD40 or similar.......!
Makes the dirt come off more easily also. I often do so, when the bike is newly washed. Looks, and smells nice! Just keep it away from the brake discs, and if you get any on your exhaust pipe it will do some smoking when you start up. But thats no problem, it's just for some seconds.

mattwilkinson said:

I can barely afford a buffing pad let alone a whole grinder

Nah thanks, i'll look into it! I was just thinking of going super cheap as no way would funds allow for bead basting cabinet, and i have no room for a bench grinder

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You can buy the buffs with the compounds in a small kit that will fit onto a drill. That's your next best option. You can polish on the bike. The kit is around $30-40 or something like that at auto stores. I think I saw one in Autobarn. Supercheap might have them as well. But there is not much alloy to polish on a Berg.

As for getting the wheels shiny, they're anodized silver so they will never be super shiny. Unless you go crazy and remove all the anodizing so you can then polish the alloy. If you use a buff on the wheels you will cut through the anodizing.

Dirt stains engines, especially when left on for a few weeks. Probably steel wool or a small brass wire brush and bicarb of soda paste or some CLR or CT18 alloy cleaner and time.

Exhaust will tarnish from the heat.

Plastics can be shined with products like plastic polish from an auto store. They can also be polished with a loose calico buff and the blue polish stick. The trick is slow speed as high speed will melt the plastic. The buffs are available in a small size for drills. But there will be one in the kit I mentioned earlier. A $2 can of tyre shine from Crazy Clarks is good to finish it off.

https://www.motul.com/us/en-US/products/oils-lubricants/e9-wash-wax-spray-na

This is what I use. Leaves a thin wax layer to protect against rust, but it is also a dust magnet... I actually prefer to clean dust than rust

OldMan said:

https://www.motul.com/us/en-US/products/oils-lubricants/e9-wash-wax-spray-na

This is what I use. Leaves a thin wax layer to protect against rust, but it is also a dust magnet... I actually prefer to clean dust than rust

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Maxima makes a paraffin based chain lube that I've used to coat bikes with for storage. They look like crap when you pull them out, but after degreasing it's all shiny and new. I sprayed it on my mountain bike when it was new, about 17 years ago. I recently degreased it as it was looking pretty crusty. Looks brand new still.

My experience with restoring plastic tanks fenders etc. When yellowish and dry. I used 180 sand paper to get all the dry yellowish off. Then I went to a finer paper around 400 to 500 and finally a wet and dry 1500 grit. Then use a cutting polish and a final polish. Will look as new. Motor I use a wheel acid diluted 50/50 and spray on for about 10 to 15 seconds then rinse with water. Be careful of the wheel acid as it does darken magnesium but brings aluminum back to standing new unpolished finish. You can buy a spray on detailer for your motor. It does work well and I used it on my Harley to bring the black heads and case back to the factory look. Just a few ideas. I can not remember the finishing product for the motor, I think Bell Ray was the manufacture.

I have just used Autosol Plastic Polish (blue tube) to polish the white plastics on my WR450 which had become tarnished from saddlebags and sheepskin grinding in the dirt and dust (its my daily driver and does not get washed very often at all) over several months.
I was rather surprised at how white the parts came back up. Very good product. (normally all it gets is a spray with MotoMuck and a waterblast).

Sanding and buffing plastic is a bit like buffing alloy.... you have to keep it up or it returns to dull rather quickly.