Cleaning stainless exhaust .......

[buelllord]

I have fitted a new M4 exhaust to my SV1000 and on the first ride I melted the heal of my boot onto the stainless steel. Does anyone know how to clean it off ???


buelllord

[Don]

Mother's brand metal polish and some clean newspaper followed by WD40 and soft cloth.

I usually just have a go with WD40 first though... works for me on most occasions.

Good luck...

[zx10seb]

If there is rubber left on your exhaust then it should have gone brittle after it cooled down. it should just pick off.......

Are the pipes polished or just a dull st/st finish.
You could clean the area with a st/st wire bruch to get all the rubber off.....then you could use the autosol and a buffing wheel in a drill if it polished. You may want to pickle it afterwards so that it doesnt corrode......

To pickle use a pickling paste is the easiest way.

Hope that helps.... the thing with the wd40 is to try to put the oils back in the surface to stop corrosion, best aplied to finished surfaces. i.e you would clean st/st surfaces and hobs with baby oil to clean and give a nice surface.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Get it hot again and wipe it off. Then polish with a metal polish to get the stain off.

[BlackCatPhotography]

AutoSol is stuff of the bike Gods. should be in everybodys tool kit. Soft cloth, or use 0000 grade stainless steel wool, not too much pressure lest you scratch it, but you have to really lean on it before that happens. For boot melts usually a tiny bit of the stainless steel wool and half a pea sized blob of autosol, comes right off.


**correction pointed out by Desmo, should be stainless**

[Desmo]

or use 0000 grade steel wool

Never use steel wool on a stainless exhaust. You end up with mild steel fibers embedded in the stainless and that leads to rust spots.
Use stainless wool only if you must.

[BlackCatPhotography]

** Yes sorry shal edit, stainless steel wool. Did not occur to me to add stainless as thats all we have at work, we just call it steel wool because we are slack and ocker. Dont angle grind near plastics either or you will be trying to figure out why your plastics are rusting!

Thanks Desmo nice save!

[thugsfatboy464]

Would not use Autosol as its a bit abrasive

[Infusi0n]

i am pretty sure that's the point, you are going to need something abrasive to get off melted boot. I don't use autosol but i use stainless kitchen cleaner since those surfaces don't tend to like too much abrasive, oh and green scouring pads as they are softer than the metal, they will scour the area but not scratch the stainless.

[Ulyssian]

Let the exhaust cool down overnight then cover everything on the bike from overspray, then get out the oven cleaner, spray it, let it soak then wipe it off,
You might need a couple of goes,Use Yellow scouring pads if you must, or White is even better.
Then use a good stainless, or chrome polish.
Bob

[BlackCatPhotography]

hmm some good methods to try here, could always start with the mildest and work up to extreme until something works for you. Cleaned hundreds of boot marks off with autosol, it is abrasive and that is the idea, but if you go easy on it then you dont scratch it. If you attack it with brute force, yes, you will scratch it. Id bet i can scratch stainless steel with a green scouring pad if i tried, and a lot of my kitchen utensils would agree with me All polishes are abrasive, if they were not then they would not polish. the degree to which they are abrasive varies though. When i was younger and poorer, toothpaste from the bathroom worked just fine on aluminium and chrome hehe not recommending it though.

[buelllord]

Thanks you lot for all your great advice, the only product I had at home which was in your suggestion list is Autosol. It is a little abrasive so I thought I would try something I had in the kitchen cupboard, "Mr Muscle", applied with a green scourer, it worked a treat and did not mark the stainless.


Thanks you lot ............................


buelllord

[19andrew59]

This a way I was told some years back for getting crap off stainless/chrome pipes.
I've used it and it works.
The pipes have to be dead cold.
Thoroughly dampen a clean rag with bug and bar remover.
Wrap the rag around the pipe(s).
Wrap a water dampened rag around the bug and tar rag, this is to stop it drying out.
Wrap the lot in Gladwrap and leave overnight.
Remove in the morning and the majority of burnt on road crap will just wipe off.
To polish them, I use Brasso and Chux.

[drewski201]

been wondering how to go about this....handy to know. thanks

[Slipin]

sounds so damn crazy eazy i bet it works !!! will deff try this and post up some pics ..bfor and after ... bug cleaner u say !! track it down tday and do it tnite !

then again theirs more rust than gunk ..errrr .... maybe a sand and chrome dip for my babies

[Nudge]

oops. thats where they come from. was desperate to get road gunk off of extractors in from of mixer box, then got this rust rash.

(Steel wool on Stainless) Desmo's post. wish i had known that.