Advice for cleaning off/preventing rust

Nothing gets close to ACF-50 for prevention, once cleaned start using this!

[dizzyblonde]

Originally Posted by fizzwheel

Do you mean the exhaust headers, the first bit after the pipes come out of the engine ?

If so, its not rust its burnt on dirt and road grime, and the only way you're going to get that off is as said with alot of elbow grease.

Personally I woudlnt bother as its hard to keep it that way. As as soon as it rains you'll get crud over it all again.

Originally Posted by Tomtoms

yeah thats the part i mean, ill clean it up to get the muck off, then will try and prevent it getting bad by cleaning it often!

Ok as an expert of shiny downpipes I'll give you the tip that I give everyone asking this question
Go to Asda, and buy your self a bottle of 'barkeepers friend'


put the amount of powder you require in a pot and add water to make a paste. wack it all over the downpipe. Go and make a brew and wait a few minutes. RInse slowly, whilst rubbing it with a green scourer. All the brown kack comes off.
From the initial clean off (depending on how bad it was ) you could use wet and dry, from 240 down to 1200. Then with autosol and fine wire wool, shine her up.
The barkeepers friend does make the pipe a little dull at first, but once you've done the rest you'll have a pipe like this

[Drew Carey]

Lou, quick question (as I have the BKF and am attempting this at the weekend).....how much maitenance is required to keep it this way or will it get very rubbish very quickly again? Just not sure it is worth it on a fully faired bike.

[dizzyblonde]

The BFK will pull of a lot of brown sludge, it eats a lot for breakfast(its harmless to your hands)
The hardest part is going through the wet n dry process, as its tedious, and takes hours. But once you've got it down to how you want it, autosol on fine wire wool keeps it great. I've kept the black one clean just on autosol, did have to wet n dry it after the winter, but now it gets an occasional rub.

I've not had to use the BFK since the first time the crap came off

P.s it doesn't take it all off, but flippin heck it'll move most of it

this was it before..if you were wondering!!!

i find the more i use autosol it sort of builds up the layers and find i dont need to wet and dry my downpipe and polish it with autosol it.... I usually turn the engine on as soon as ive done and im hoping that its baked the auto sol on now