SIMICHROME POLISH

[R. J.]

When I need to polish chrome, brass, silver or aluminium I turn to SIMICHROME polishing paste. A little bit goes a long way. It even works on things like watches, rings and bracelets. It won't harm precious stones It comes in a 1.76 oz tube. It's made by Happich in Germany. I get mine from Cycle Goodies of Daytona. Price is $12 per tube. Here are pics of my muzzleloader brass parts before and after.

 

[Ed]

We sell the stuff and I've been using it for decades. Costs me nothing since I use it on many used sales bikes. That for metal and the S-100 product for painted surfaces are the only polishes I use.

 

[R. J.]

I've been wanting to try the S-100. So it works good on the satin black engine parts.

 

[Ed]

The polish is only good for getting a shiny finish. The only way I've been able to restore satin or flat is sanding and repainting. You can often feather it in for a quick fix which is impossible with gloss. I think the original finish on most older black engines was a semi-gloss. Rustoleum makes a good 2x black enamel in flat, satin and semi-gloss. I don't use primer and bake those paints on so surface prep is critical.

 

[JohnH#II]

S-100 has a lot of different products. I use the pre wash spray foam on most all of my bikes if I even wash them. Easy to use. Cleans well. Cleans off the grime of a long ride. I see they do have an "engine bright" product but I have never used it. Might not be what your after. But they have a lot to choose from.

 

[R. J.]

I've never had any luck with Rustoleum products. It takes for ever to dry. How do you put a motor in an oven to bake it on. If I do my ZL 10 motor it will be done with powdercoating. Only if I have the motor rebuilt. Thanks for the S-100 info.

 

[Ed]

I never painted a whole engine or anything big. The 2x blacks are enamels I only recently started using. They offer more choices when matching textures. Usually, I grab a can of no-name enamel that's already been used and needs to be used up or thrown away because it doesn't spray right. Never really had a durability problem with any as long as it fully dries which can take forever without baking. There's also self-priming paints formulated to stick to aluminum and stainless better most.

 

[R. J.]

I used to use our kitchen oven to bake on paint until we got the 1 K oven/stove. . My Wife said no more cooking bike parts. . About 15 years ago I had my Wifes Brother Ron paint chrome and aluminium parts for my Nighthawk at the Body Shop. All the paint has pilled off since then. They all will be powdercoated next time.

 

[Ed]

I put the self-etching paint to the test by only cleaning the surface of my Bolt's accessory side panels and not roughing it up. It only had a light brushed factory surface that was exposed to the elements for a couple weeks before I found the paint at Pep Boys. Paint got scratched by scraping against the sharp fender stay (my fault and it doesn't show anyway) but it doesn't wanna let go anywhere, even at the edges of the scratch. It's been about 2 years so far and still looks perfect. I did the same for the stainless engine covers and they look perfect, too. It really shows when black paint comes off a shiny metal. If that ever happens, I'll go straight to powder coat.

 

[Ed]

Here's the edge of the side cover that gets scraped. I need to stick some protective vinyl over that area because it hits whenever I remove it. I picked at it hard with my fingernail and it won't come up.