Motorcycle Detailing ???

[Louie_Blu]

Never really have done a Bike before, guy calls me today has a 2003 Honda Shadow 750 he says has some rust on it, my question is - are there any good write -ups on Motorcycle Detailing, I know I would have to be-careful with Washing due to electrical, and tank and fenders I would use my Griots 3 inch Orbital , but what about the chrome I've done Chrome Parts before on cars but there must be something for Motorcycles, what would you guys do or use ? thanks for any help

Louie

[Bigpat]

Bike paint tends to be on the soft side so make sure you start light, ive never done a bike for anyone other than mine i dont have any chrome now but when i did i used to like simichrome as a polish, and bikes are pretty weather resistant.... ive ridden my (all. Full fairing bikes) in all kinds of rain..when NY got that hurricane a few months ago my bike was at my GF place... had to ride it home because i didnt have a place to store it inside.... still no problems, hope that helps i know its not much tho

[SeaJay's]

I'm by no means an expert at detailing bikes, but I do get the occasion Harley come my way.

You can get the bike wet, it's not going to harm it. Just don't go flooding the battery etc with water. Usually I will spray the whole bike down with a degreaser/apc mixture and then do my normal 2 bucket wash. Then rinse with a light flow of water.

Having a blower of some sort makes drying WAY easier! Then you can go to town polishing up the chrome, paint, etc.

I have several different metal polishes that I use based on what I'm working on. The P21s polishing soap works great for bikes and bigger areas you can get into. I also use P21s metal polish (the one in the tube) or optimum metal polish.

Depending on how bad the rust is you may want to pick up some 0000 steel wool. Obviously try a terry cloth towel or mf prior to using the steel wool.

And make sure you have some band-aids ready! Polishing up bikes is a knuckle buster!

Oh and S100 Engine Brightner is great for any flat black painted areas on the engine. You can usually pick some of this up in your local Harley shop.

Hope this helps. I'm sure TLMitchell will be jumping in on this. He's helped me a few times with motorcycles.