Ducati Sporting Club UK - Metal Experts

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Have them vapour blasted to give a nice satin finish then just gently wipe them over with some wire wool and you end up with a slightly shiny satin effect, works very well on alli to.

I polish mine with the mandp 3 mop kit great results then I use autosol to keep them shiney :cool::cool:

Quote:

Originally posted by Derek
As for the footrest hangers. These are anodized and to polish them you will need to remove the anodizing first. Easiest way is to spray them with oven cleaner and leave them for a few hours. Naval jelly type rust remover will also do it - it's the phosphoric acid in it which does the business aparently.
Once you have removed the anodising you should be able to polish the hangers using the normal abrasive method of emery and/or wet & dry followed by metal polish. Remember though that once the anodizing is off they will tarnish quite quickly especially if you get road salt on them so you may want to lacquer them to keep them looking good longer.

Nothing seems to touch the anodising for me. Bought some oven cleaner (Mr muscle) didn't seem to do anything to it. Ended up cleaning the bloody oven.

Quote:

Originally posted by Col996s

Nothing seems to touch the anodising for me. Bought some oven cleaner (Mr muscle) didn't seem to do anything to it. Ended up cleaning the bloody oven.

I did a Google search and came up with this.

"Stripping anodized aluminum is fast and easy. You need sodium hydroxide to do it. It is available commercially at chemical supply places. You can use Crystal drano (29% sodium hydroxide). Use you hot water and about 1/2 cup to a gallon. Let part sit for a few minutes, part will start to bubble. That is when the anodized coating if off and now your going into the aluminum. Use gloves and well ventilated area!! Wash part immediately in cold water. Now to the restoration part. You can sand and polish at will, that takes a good buffer, compound and know how. Which I will not go into now. I restore parts professionally, including the reanodized process. I recommend anodizing the part. I put the hard protective coating back on the part for years of trouble free cleaning."

And this response to it!

"Fast and easy, maybe. Dangerous, absolutely. Just one more reminder that every year trained professionals wearing protective gear are seriously injured when something goes wrong making up solutions of sodium hydroxide. It has an enormous "heat of solution" / "heat of dilution". This means when sodium hydroxide is mixed with water, it heats up the water. Not a big problem if a small amount is well mixed into a large amount of cold water. But if a small amount of water mixes with a large amount of sodium hydroxide (which can happen even in a large tank with poor mixing), that small amount of water is instantaneously turned into steam and erupts the contents of the tank all over the operator.":o

Maybe safer just to polish it off with abrasives and elbow grease.:(

The exhaust will polish to a chrome like finish if you do it right.

I used the following method on my supersport.
Using a DA sander, sand the pipes starting with around 180 grit and going up through the grades to around 800 grit. This will remove all the tarnish and smooth any flaws out of the pipes. If there are any nadgy bits or crappy welds then you may need to use coarser grits to start with. Once that's done the pipes will be lovely and smooth and silver in colour, with quite a good shine already. I then used a proprietary polishing wheel and block set mounted in a drill to polish the pipes. I mounted the exhaust in a vice and simply moved it around as I went.
This method gives a much nicer finish than just using polishing wheels as you don't end up with that slight ripply look that you always seem to get if you do it that way.
Once done, simply give the pipes a quick buff with autosol whenever you wash the bike, easy. :P

Sounds a good method Desmojen although perhaps not everyone has access to a DA sander [dual action] and 800 grit discs like you and me.Work in a bodyshop by any chance?
Going to need to do some polishing on my new DP Titanium hi level exhausts.My boots have melted on the upswept section!
When i polish carb tops at work i use a buffing head on a bench grinder and polishing soap.

Yep, anything like that would work and the sanding discs are readily available from your local paint factor, or friendly painter!

the secret. well its not a secret:lol: the higher revs, on your mop,creates better heat , thats needed with proper polshing soaps. you need do use a fine grit. to start with then you use a polshing mop with polshing soap. then finesh with a polshing mop which takes the soap off. any soap can be buffed with lime. to remove excess. you . well with pratice find ,which way to run the mop. metals can have a type off grain.. industral polishing spindles. start at 75000.revs..have fun. ware safety gear.:D

opps 7500.revs:lol::lol: