Hi all!

I've been working on a '83 xs400. It seems to be mechanically sound now so I'm starting work on the cosmetic issues. The person who had it before me turned it into a major Franken-bike (I was appalled). I got most of the stock parts back on but the engine cases are really dull. The exhaust pipes also have a lot of rust so I'll probably just have to replace them at some point. Does anyone have experience with cleaning/polishing these old dull covers??

By the way, here's a "before" picture. Note the weird seat with no grab bar and the taped on rear fairing. The fairing was taken off some other bike and taped on to the frame with two tree sticks as support. But hey...I got it for $500.

Nice lookin bike for $500!

My advice would be to take it to a professional polishers or else it will take you HOURS of elbow grease with autosol!

If you have electric polishing mops that will make it quicker but to be honest you will get fed up half way though lol

By the way, here's a "before" picture. Note the weird seat with no grab bar and the taped on rear fairing. The fairing was taken off some other bike and taped on to the frame with two tree sticks as support. But hey...I got it for $500.

those downpipes dont look to bad, autosol and plenty of rubbing needed, little bit of wirewool gets the big bits done with autosol on it. Smells lovely when you warm it up after too..

For other polishing, a good set of polishing mops on a drill and different 'soaps' will bring the other stuff up nice, have to be carefull tho not to slip!!!

Alternatively there are good bike shops or metal workers that would polish up various bits for a small charge.

Somebody tried to make it into a HD...dumb asses.

But for $500 bucks, looks allright!!

Nice bike, Chicken! I thought I had the wrong handlebars on my bike, but you have the same. My problem with those bars is, the plastic piece on the throttle cable under the grip will break easily if the bars are turned to the right. DON'T TRY IT, if you think you don't have enough clearance from the tank! I was thinking of getting a taller set of risers for mine, or taller handlebars, before I put my new throttle cable on. My bike was painted over a couple times before I bought it. It's original color is red! When I bought the bike, it was blue. I just used a can of black Krylon on the tank and side panel. The tank has a ton of bondo on it. I'll paint it proper during the winter. It's missing the right side cover. I have the battery cover, but that right side cover that covers the battery cover has been hard to find. I need to find the proper front fender too. Here's a pic of mine:

Hey Gnash!

Our bikes look identical! I wasn't too sure about the handle bars on mine either but I guess they must be stock after all. I'll post an updated pic of my bike in a day or two. I'm still missing the left side cover and I haven't had much luck on eBay. I found one recently but the person is asking $80 for it!

For old chrome I use some chrome polish (i've got some crappy turtle wax brand chrome polish)..

Oh and don't forget #00 STEEL WOOL. Put some chrome polish on the steel wool and start rubbing away. It takes off alot of the rust and burnt on crap on your pipes. Pretty much takes the rust off of anything (light pitting, surface rust of course)..

no idea on the aluminum, i still haven't tried to polish mine.

To polish the engine (I have an 82' I cleaned last summer) the thing I found that worked the best for me, mind you it still requires a bit of work is to warm up the engine first, then after the bike is turned off and the metal will not burn your fingers off, use some Blue Magic Metal Polish on any type of towel, it almost instantly give the metal casings a bright shine, and takes off all the tarnish. Trying to use this on a cold engine, just didn't work for me. For me it made the engine look brand new again, should have done it years ago. Good Luck,