Exhaust headers

Alien1200

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Sep 22, 2020
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20
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UK
Hi,

Only have XT few week. Exhaust headers are looking a bit tatty. Will probably clean them up over winter, but hard to tell if they were originally polished, painter black or somthing else?
Any advice would be helpful.
Thanks
Allen
 

Jlq1969

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May 5, 2018
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Location
Argentina
steel wool, but the thinnest so as not to scratch. Wet with water, until the dirtiest part is removed. When the stainless steel appears .... you can continue using the stell wool with a fine paste of car paint polishing, "without wax" .there is also "blue job" .... but I think it is for a final termination.. The best thing would be to remove the exhaust
the first pic is thin steel wool, the second photo is thick steel wool (scratches)
546559DA-778B-44A5-8295-93D4839E92BB.jpeg17F58B6B-D495-43E4-A5B9-6EF932FBE092.jpeg
 

jrusell

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Aug 23, 2017
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Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
Use fine emery cloth/sand paper(wet sand) and you can bring them back to a nice polished ss finish, almost chrome look. I use long strips, wet with lots of water.
It will not last very long but when you heat them up they turn to a nice goldish hue.

I normally do a touch up every winter when I am bored. Easier to do removed from bike, but completely doable while on the bike as well.
 

STenitus

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Feb 21, 2015
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Alabama
The steel wool referenced above is "0000" or I think even "00000" super fine. Use with caution.
 

Chaz

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Dec 30, 2018
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Location
L’Islet, Quebec, Canada
I have use a Wurth extra fine steel wool on a rotary air tool for mine. 1st step the extra fine steel wool to clean the grime. A lot of acetone for cleaning also. 2nd step : I’ve polished it with a cotton wheel mounted on a bench grinder with polishing paste. And a lot of Autosol polishing paste ! It was nice and shiny but didn’t last long!
 

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Don in Lodi

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Clean all finger prints off after install or you'll wind up with discolorations all over the place. My pipes had a large blue spot where it almost seemed you could see the whorl from the print from some tech's thumb.
 
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