Cleaning up tarnish & corrosion from engine & rims

[DJW997]

Hey guys,

Was wondering what would be the best way for me to clean up the tarnish & corrosion from various places on my bike. I've tried Brasso wadding on the rims, spokes & engine, but it doesn't really seem to do anything. The rims and the spokes should be a mirror-like finish. In one of the pictures below, you can see where I used some wire wool on the starter motor, and the spot that I did cleaned it up really nicely, but I'm not sure if it's the best material to be using. Would it be taking off too much material, like the zinc coating, or whatever is used to protect the metal from rust & corrosion, etc.?

Nasty looking rim and spokes.

A bit of corrosion & tarnish on the caliper. Is there any way of saving the swingarm from the rust without re-spraying the whole thing?

Starter motor after a bit of wire wool.

Some more tarnish on the engine.

Do I need to use something lightly abrasive or something to remove this stuff, or does it just need a lot of polish & even more elbow grease? Maybe one of those polishing bits for an electric drill or dremel?

Any thoughts or tips are gratefully recieved! Thanks guys.

[DirtyDT]

Rims/spokes

Once they have corroded then the cheap option is paint the spokes. Chrome rims can be re-chromed providing they are still serviceable, round and not too battered. The best way is to get them re rimmed and spoked. I tend to go for stainless (for both) as this keeps its colour and shine for a long while.

Caliper

Autosol if not too bad or rubbed down and painted.

Swingarm

Off the bike strip and repaint.

Using an anticorosion spray prolongs their looks (ATF or the likes).

Never use a wire brush or wire wool on Aluminum. You will end up with small particles of steel wire embedded in the softer ali and this rusts leaving a horrible mottled effect.

As much as a pain, it is always better to take the parts off and do them properly.

[Prichard XT]

TBH it looks like a bad bit of corrosion

you could polish the s**t out of it just make sure you use a good lacquer

or find a electroplating (chroming) company

[Prichard XT]

dirty DT got it spot on

[DJW997]

Cheers guys, I'll try more polish the engine and rims/spokes. The swingarm can wait for now, I can't have the bike un-ridable for the moment. Out of interest though, what would be the process for prepping the rims & spokes for paint if the polish doesn't work for me? I wouldn't miss the chrome, black would be fine, but I just can't stand it looking all corroded and stuff. Do you sand/strip the chrome or whatever off and then prime & spray? I suppose, again, it would be easier to un-lace the wheels, but I can imagine that being a bit of a ball ache to re-lace and true up afterwards!

[drewpy]

use wet and dry paper (soapy wet) with the wheels off. the white stuff is alloy coating itself.

use progressively finer then you can get one of those wheel buffers that fit the drill.

this is a lot of work but if you want it shiny, elbow grease is the only way (unless you pay someone to do it)

same for all the alloy on the engine.

you could also try Alloy wheel cleaner as its phosphoric acid and and tooth brush, then polish as before.

[DirtyDT]

Same as Drewpy said. Washing up liquid in the water for the wet and dry.

Never sprayed over chrome but normally just Hammerite smooth straight to metal spray.

[DJW997]

use wet and dry paper (soapy wet) with the wheels off. the white stuff is alloy coating itself.

use progressively finer then you can get one of those wheel buffers that fit the drill.

this is a lot of work but if you want it shiny, elbow grease is the only way (unless you pay someone to do it)

same for all the alloy on the engine.

you could also try Alloy wheel cleaner as its phosphoric acid and and tooth brush, then polish as before.

Is this procedure for polishing? Out of interest, would the rims and spokes themselves be made of chrome, or just chrome plated steel? If I was to do a proper re-spray, would I sand off all the chrome plating and spray as usual? I'll get hold of a polishing wheel and see what results I get. Failing that, I'll have break out the sandpaper & elbow grease I suppose!

Same as Drewpy said. Washing up liquid in the water for the wet and dry.

Never sprayed over chrome but normally just Hammerite smooth straight to metal spray.

Is the hammerite to spray straight over the wheel as it is, no prep (apart from a good clean & degrease I suppose)?

[Iceni]

For the alu parts.

Brass wool,
Brass suede brush
Toothbrush

For the steel parts

Steel wool
Wet and dry paper
Flapper wheel and cordless drill.


Wet and dry and the flapper wheel are too abrasive on the Alu parts. You'll end up removing a lot of metal. On steel it's fine.

Your chrome parts will either be steel electroplated, brass electroplated, Aluminum electroplated or plastic.

The pipes/wheels ect will all be steel. Pure chrome is brittle and useless as a construction material.


Some of the other components like light fittings and engine covers have a good chance of been plastic or aluminium. Your best solution here is to have a look at the inside or back of the item and see when you discover. Using wet and dry on a Alu/brass plated section will look aweful, The plastic sections tend to be cheap to replace so it's not as disasterous.


You can aslo use a brass wire wheel on the engine, You HAVE to make sure the brush is 100% brass and not coated steel. This will allow a bit of time saving since you can use a drill and blast the tarnish away.

This is all from expirience with honda gx160 engines from the race kart scene. I have little knowelege of bikes

[DirtyDT]

Hammerite over the cleaned parts, tis great stuff. A new rim and spokes would be about £200 to £250 a wheel in stainless, plus the tyre. One of my rears is off at the moment, once I have collected it from the tyre place I will pop up a picture.

[DJW997]

For the alu parts.

Brass wool,

Brass suede brush

Toothbrush

For the steel parts

Steel wool

Wet and dry paper

Flapper wheel and cordless drill.

Wet and dry and the flapper wheel are too abrasive on the Alu parts. You'll end up removing a lot of metal. On steel it's fine.

Your chrome parts will either be steel electroplated, brass electroplated, Aluminum electroplated or plastic.

The pipes/wheels ect will all be steel. Pure chrome is brittle and useless as a construction material.

Some of the other components like light fittings and engine covers have a good chance of been plastic or aluminium. Your best solution here is to have a look at the inside or back of the item and see when you discover. Using wet and dry on a Alu/brass plated section will look aweful, The plastic sections tend to be cheap to replace so it's not as disasterous.

You can aslo use a brass wire wheel on the engine, You HAVE to make sure the brush is 100% brass and not coated steel. This will allow a bit of time saving since you can use a drill and blast the tarnish away.

This is all from expirience with honda gx160 engines from the race kart scene. I have little knowelege of bikes

Thanks for this, very useful information! Would my crank case be steel? Obviously the side covers are painted, but the case itself?

[DJW997]

Hammerite over the cleaned parts, tis great stuff. A new rim and spokes would be about £200 to £250 a wheel in stainless, plus the tyre. One of my rears is off at the moment, once I have collected it from the tyre place I will pop up a picture.

Great, thanks! Is that from the TS?

[DirtyDT]

Yep.

Here is the stainless rim and stainless spokes after a simple wipe.

[DJW997]

Yep.

Here is the stainless rim and stainless spokes after a simple wipe.

Woah, that's pretty damn good! Why don't they make this stuff from stainless in the first place?

[DirtyDT]

They like cheap manufacturing costs. You could ask; why do they make cross head screws out of metal as soft as cheese while you're at it.

[Iceni]

Woah, that's pretty damn good! Why don't they make this stuff from stainless in the first place?

Stainless has different properties to regular mild steel. It's a lot softer, and more ductile. This means components that take a lot of stretching warp very quickly in stainless, It also wears a lot faster. Regular mild steel is also very cheap.

Something you might not know is you can force stainless steel to rust. If you contaminate stainess with regular steel rust then the stainess will begin to rust as well. This can be very important if your working in a location where there is a mixture of materials on hand. You can correct stainless after contamination with acid. And this process must be done if your welding stainless for the same reason. Copper grease also helps prevent this contamination.

Parts where ALU and steel meet will cause the ALU to rust. This is a sacrifical rusting due to how the materials conduct electrons between themselves. This is used a lot in martime applications to make steel components last longer. But your bike may suffer, where you have an ALU block with steel bolts. You can counter it with copper grease. This is the reason your engine bolts are hard to remove. Even tho the bolts always come out reasonably clean looking.

[DJW997]

They like cheap manufacturing costs. You could ask; why do they make cross head screws out of metal as soft as cheese while you're at it.

They like cheap manufacturing costs. You could ask; why do they make cross head screws out of metal as soft as cheese while you're at it.

Ha! Fair point.

Stainless has different properties to regular mild steel. It's a lot softer, and more ductile. This means components that take a lot of stretching warp very quickly in stainless, It also wears a lot faster. Regular mild steel is also very cheap.

Something you might not know is you can force stainless steel to rust. If you contaminate stainess with regular steel rust then the stainess will begin to rust as well. This can be very important if your working in a location where there is a mixture of materials on hand. You can correct stainless after contamination with acid. And this process must be done if your welding stainless for the same reason. Copper grease also helps prevent this contamination.

Parts where ALU and steel meet will cause the ALU to rust. This is a sacrifical rusting due to how the materials conduct electrons between themselves. This is used a lot in martime applications to make steel components last longer. But your bike may suffer, where you have an ALU block with steel bolts. You can counter it with copper grease. This is the reason your engine bolts are hard to remove. Even tho the bolts always come out reasonably clean looking.

Ah, so that's why you use copper grease on brake caliper bolts. I really should know more about this stuff, I did a machining course at college the other year!

Anyway, I had a go at the wheel with a used scouring pad & water. I hope it's not too abrasive?

The spoke that I used it on cleaned up really well! I think they're just caked in chain lube. As for the rim though, it's cleaned the corrosion off, and it's actually got a bit of a shine to it, but there are little dull dark spots. Is this where the plating has worn off?

[DirtyDT]

Scotchbrite pads are good to rub things down with too. Not the washing up type. Check out flebay for auto paint scotchbrite. I also use tack cloths for wiping down before paint. Not too expensive. Fleabay again.

[DJW997]

Scotchbrite pads are good to rub things down with too. Not the washing up type. Check out flebay for auto paint scotchbrite. I also use tack cloths for wiping down before paint. Not too expensive. Fleabay again.

What's the difference? I'll keep an eye out.

[DirtyDT]

Different colours = different grades. Info here but use fleabay when you buy. LINKY