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Quickly remove rust on chrome

53K views 26 replies 21 participants last post by  oldenslow 
#1 ·
I know this may sound harsh,but for light rust and even some heavier stuff,wet or dry black sandpaper works pretty well. The rust I am describing was heavy enough that it looked like half rust half chrome on the exhaust trumpets. I used some already used 400 grit and just wetsanded it. Very quick and it did not scratch the chrome. If you use new sandpaper,600 grit may be a starting point. I found this to produce a smoother surface than steel wool,because it cut the rust down flat with the chrome ,leaving no bumps like steel wool does.
Another sandpaper trick is to take brand new sandpaper and sand brand new sandpaper of the same grit to break it in a little. Sort of like turning 400 grit into 500 grit
 
#9 ·
SOS pads are the best,
As ADVICE goes, sandpaper is a bad idea because it WILL scratch the surface if you are not REALLY careful.

SOS isn't really good either because the SOS brand includes some products that have pumice and will scratch worse than sandpaper.

The best and safest combination is 0000 steel wool and WD 40.......or just scraping with a wooden stick. :thumbsup:
 
#11 ·
Newbie

I just got my first bike a week ago tomorrow. I live about a mile and half from the beach and was wondering if I should be coating my bike with some rust off or anything to prevent rust. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Also, I bought my bike and there is a minor scuff on the paint. Any suggestions on this besides bringing it to the dealer.
 
#12 ·
The only way to prevent rust near a beach is to wash it all the time and keep it in the garage. I live about 20 miles from it too. i just wash it as often as I can and have a cover for it. the previous owner lived on the water so it had pre existing rust that I'm not too worried about. I used the coke and aluminum foil on my 75 RD200's fenders. it worked to get the rust off but it didnt help the pitting.
 
#13 ·
getting the rust off

there is one option not mentioned here. remove the rust by whatever means you can. do not use any oil. after the rust is removed, there will be pitted areas. send the part to be media blasted on the pitted areas(not sand blasted!), then have the part powder coated with clear powdercoat. No more rust problems. some powder coaters will properly clean the part and lightly polish it before coating it. if they won't, they will tell you how to do it. I have polished aluminum parts to mirror bright and had them powder coated and they will never corrode again. Once on, the powder coat will not come off,(if properly cleaned are the parts). short of using a grinding wheel, the coating is very scratch resistant. I live in southern louisiana, and the humidity here will make your yard-dog get a coat of rust, but don't send him to the powdercoaters!
 
#27 ·
Of all the ridiculous knocks on WD40 I have heard in my lifetime -- and there have been plenty -- this has to be the nuttiest. Absolutely untrue. It is a combination of petroleum-derived ingredients, with CO2 as the propellant in its aerosol form. It is not the best rust preventive, but in no way promotes rusting.
 
#17 ·
I don't think you do. Paint you can go the final step and buff it. But that too is removing material when it comes right down to it. That is if you have enough layers of paint of the same color. At some point you'll hit the base layer or primer. But on chrome I think the only way to get it perfect is to re-chrome. Everything else is just different levels of acceptable. In both cases I've done, at 5 feet it looked good. But up close I could always see the flaws.
 
#18 ·
Hmmm...well that sucks. I mean I'm aware that the entire nature of polishing is basically scratching the existing surface in a progressively finer and finer manner, but at some point don't the scratches become so fine that they are indistinguishable from the original surface? Is there not an option like that for chrome such as progressive use of wet/dry sandpaper followed by the progressive use of polishing compounds? I would think that by the time you finish buffing chrome with a really fine polishing compound that the surface would be pretty much perfect. I'm not sure if that is the way to go about it, or if there is an equivalent method using some other materials or process that works better for chrome. It just seems like there should be some way to do so even if it involves a bit of labor. Eventually you would obviously burn through the thickness of the chrome finish if either you removed too much or the finnish was thin to begin with, but within that limitation there must be some way to do this.
 
#19 ·
Chrome is harder then most common steels used in motorcycles so the 0000 steel wool generally will not scratch a chrome surface if used carefully. It will, instead, scrape off the rust that is coming through the pores in the chrome. What causes the scratches is when the rust particles, which are more abrasive, are then dragged back and forth over the surface, or other abrasive matter gets into the steel wool. If you use clean 0000 and are careful you will not scratch your chrome.

Paint is much softer, of course, and will be easily and horribly scratched by the steel wool.

Sandpaper, no matter how fine a grit, is a mineral product and will always be harder then chrome and will cause scratches. If it is a very fine grade it will "polish" the metal by causing very fine scratches, but it is still abrading the surface of the chrome. Same with most metal polishes.
 
#20 ·
Good to know, and thanks for the reply! I've got some brake caliper pistons & calipers in front of me right now as I'm writing this, and I'm about to start cleaning them up a bit. Caliper pistons & their bores have some unique concerns when it comes to dealing with them, so it's good to get all the information I can before starting. I'm hoping that I can get most of it cleaned up with just some acetone. I already tried brake fluid with some success, but there is still some stuff that needs to be cleaned up. IF, and probably when, the acetone doesn't get everything off I'll probably use some 0000 steel wool for the bores. I'm not entirely sure what I'll do or how far I'll go for the bore seal recess or the pistons. The seal recess needs to be clean to not stick, but it also needs to not be scratched or have material removed at all. The pistons really need to be nice and smooth without any sticky old brake fluid or rust on them. Particularly in certain sections. I think that I will probably use the steel wool very lightly if needed. I've heard people use far more aggressive methods without messing things, so I should be okay as long as I'm careful. Not ideal probably, but it's what I've got. Thanks again for the info on the 0000 steel wool.
 
#21 ·
I use 0000 steel wool and WD40 to clean calipers up frequently. Brass brush dremel bits are handy, too. The small flat ones get right into the seal grooves.


0000 steel wool is a shop staple for me - use it to clean up metal all the time.
 
#22 ·
The 0000 steel wool worked great for the pistons which now look perfectly polished, but the 0000 didn't quite cut it for the bores.

I'm going to have to come back to this project later as it is now 11:00 am, and I have not yet slept from the previous day. I try to do that whole sleep thing once every day or two whether I need it or not. I really didn't put a lot of effort into it, and I'm feeling stupidly tired...so it's possible that influenced things.

Fortunately I can be a little less gentle with the bores, so I will give some coarser steel wool a shot. I've also got some 400, 800, and 1500 grit sandpaper around here if that doesn't work. I'm really wishing that I had a dremel or similar device right about now. Even some wire brush attachments for a drill would be nice. It would really be perfect for this with a light brass brush on it. A stiffer nylon one might even work with the speed of a decent rotary tool. I really don't have much of anything around the house at the moment in the form of a brass brush tool. If I get desperate enough I might break out the grill brush...not kidding... :-(

The one thing I'm a little hesitant with still is the seal groove, but not from lack of information...just lack of experience/confidence yet. I'm sure that hesitation will disappear once I start trying to clean it, & end up not getting anywhere being particularly gentle. I've never actually done this job. I've usually just ordered remanufactured calipers. I know that I've seen all kinds of people post things about being super careful with the groove though. I understand why you don't want to damage it of course, but I have to admit that I'm a little dubious when it comes to my ability to damage it without doing something pretty stupid like using a cutting disc instead of just a cleaning tool. A steel wire brush probably wouldn't be a good idea either, but a brass brush seems pretty safe to me as long as I don't go crazy with it. Brass is softer than steel...should be all I really need to know.

At least I've got nicely cleaned pistons already. They should make the calipers stick a lot less. Particularly when combined with the general cleaning/flushing of the bores that I've already performed. Once the seals are really cleaned I should be ready for assembly. Some of them were pretty nasty, and the pistons had a lot of gunk on them. It looked like brake fluid deposits. Everything was in good condition still, but it was all just really dirty. It's possible that the lines themselves had started to corrode, or perhaps that's just what happens when the previous owner never once flushes his brake fluid over 10 years. I finished bending & crimping myself some new brake lines last week, and I replaced the rubber hoses with new SS braided hoses on all 4 corners. The new hoses will hopefully reduce pedal issues. The last ones were fairly dry, and were starting to show signs of cracking. Get these things put back together with some fresh DOT4, and my brakes should be much happier. I've flushed my brake fluid every 2 years since I owned it, but I'm thinking that the previous owner did NOT! Oh, I also discovered that steel wool and some acetone did a great job of bring the caliper housings back to looking nice & shiny. Took virtually no effort or time. The previously baked and caked on dirt, dust, and debris practically just melted off in the presence of a little acetone. Just be sure to keep your acetone away from your hydrogen peroxide unless you enjoy trips to the ER/Morgue/or friendly neighborhood FBI district field office. Just kidding, you're fine...you'd need sulfuric acid & a deathwish also. (Too soon for TATP jokes? Eh, who am I kidding. It's never too soon for jokes about insanely unstable high order explosives that are sensitive to...basically everything and can be made in your bathtub if both your IQ & your will to live is lower than a hooker's standards) On that note, it's probably definitely time for me to turn this magic doohickey off, and go to bed before I decide to keep talking.
 
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