I polished all my cases and now they look like crap!

[80gs1000e]

:x ........ ....... ](*,) ..........

I polished all my cases and now they look like crap! Last week it was actually warm for a few days so I went into the shed to pull the tank out to ride to a fellow GSers house to work on his bike. Well, after I rolled it out....I looked at my cases puzzled. Just before winter I had taken them off, polished to a mirror gloss with my bench buffer and could not have been happier. Well.... all my work is down the drain. I've got gook/oxidation/something nasty all over every inch of anything chrome. WTF!!?!!???! Do I need to clear coat everything to avoid this in the future? I think that in the shed (leaky old bastard that it is) my bike/bikes are getting moisture on them... .drying...getting moisture on them....freezing.. ...warming up.....drying... getting wet....and so on. Now I'll have to redo the job over. Perhaps I can polish them up while on the bike but....how do I keep this from happening again? I even used Mothers as a last step thinking it would prevent this. Do I need to plastic wrap the bike? Arrrgh...

[AOD]

Man that sucks.

Clearcoat sounds like it would have helped...that's the only thing I can suggest. The fender and the fairing I painted last winter are doing okay still (base coat and clear coat) and they sat outside everyday until August or so.

~Adam

[houndawg]

i polished my cases too ,but i used east woods diamond clearcoat [for bare metal]they stayed as shiney as the day that i did them.

[Poot]

what did you use to polish your cases?

I polished mine in late september, and even after my road trip (and just getting the road-grime off) they are still mirror-like.

I used autosol metal polish, and did most of it by hand, though some with a power-tool.


poot

[Jay B]

After shining them up with a good polishing use a good wax on them if your not going to clear coat. I polished parts of mine 2 years ago with no clear coat and a good metal polish (Turtle Wax) keeps them looking great.

[KEITH KRAUSE]

A good coat of wax will help you keep the shine longer. You'll still see cloudiness over time. A couple of blankets is a good idea to help the whole bike with corrosion/dust. High humidity/moisture will accelerate the problem.
I keep my cases polished up with drill mounted buffs and Eastwood's white rouge compound. Eastwood's has lots of different size buffs to help you get into most areas. My favorites are the 2 and 3" round buffs. I can polish about 90% of my cases, forks and wheels, without removing anything. The rest is by finger. :roll:
Like I've said in other posts, you have to do some work to keep the shine up.

[80gs1000e]

Thanks all for the info. I am not wanting to pull all the pieces off and do the clearcoating that it perhaps should have. I'll repolish, wax the crap out of them and do better winter storage prepwork.....I was so sad to see the bike in that state after countless hours of polishing. Blankets, what a great idea. I'll do that.

[KEITH KRAUSE]

Blankets, what a great idea. I'll do that.

I thought everyones bike had blankeys! 8O
Blankets really help keep the majority of moisture from the whole bike, especially if they're of an absorbant material. This helps not just the aluminum and chrome, but the electrics, instruments, etc.
I live in California where it's drier, but I can tell the difference between wipe downs now, compared to years ago when I didn't cover the bike. And my bike has always been garaged.

[Joe Nardy]

Hmmmm............my polished stuff never gets dull. Isn't your hundred year old shed heated?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[80gs1000e]

Hmmmm............my polished stuff never gets dull. Isn't your hundred year old shed heated?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

OOOOOooohohhhhhhh...... :x .......no my one hundred plus year old shed is not heated, nor do I have air powered tools nor do I have a computer in there nor do I have a fridge full of drinks!

At least my dogs aren't 100 years old! 8)

[Joe Nardy]

Hmmmm............my polished stuff never gets dull. Isn't your hundred year old shed heated?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

OOOOOooohohhhhhhh...... :x .......no my one hundred plus year old shed is not heated, nor do I have air powered tools nor do I have a computer in there nor do I have a fridge full of drinks!

At least my dogs aren't 100 years old! 8)

How about a stereo with CD changer? Drill press?

[KEITH KRAUSE]

Hmmmm............my polished stuff never gets dull. Isn't your hundred year old shed heated?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

OOOOOooohohhhhhhh...... :x .......no my one hundred plus year old shed is not heated, nor do I have air powered tools nor do I have a computer in there nor do I have a fridge full of drinks!

At least my dogs aren't 100 years old! 8)

How about a stereo with CD changer? Drill press?

And I thought you were a nice guy! Making fun of a poor fellow GSer when he's down. :roll: I guess you never really know someone.
I'm so upset I'm gonna go to my nice warm garage, pop a cold one, sit down on the couch and wash away my tears in surround sound.
Good thing the blankets are on the bike so the lighting doesn't reflect off my cases and blind me. :twisted:

[80gs1000e]

.............. ........... :twisted: ALRIGHT!!! THAT'S ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

[Nerobro]

Aluminum is really crappy looking unless it's coated with something. Taht somethign has to be aluminum oxide, or paint of some kind.

I've had a lot of polished stuff in my time. (paintball likes shiny things) The only way to keep aluminum looking good is with clear anno, or clearcoat. And in that case it can looking very good, for a LONG time.

or... you could do the high preformance thing and put on a thin coat of flat black engine paint. Black cools better.

[jonr]

Domino,

I was shocked to see some sort of CRAZY growth on my bike today when I went to remove the exhaust. ANYTHING that was aluminum had strange white powdery dots (almost like growths) on it. I know clear coat or wax would have prevented this, but it's "growing" on the fins of my heads, parts of the lower forks, etc. There is a strange look to a lot of things in this garage and even the valve cover on my friend's Radian had the white specs.
WTF?

Oh and anywhere I had small spec of rust on the bike BLOOMED into an entire patch of rust?

I feel your pain... ](*,)

-jon