Chrome Polishing Tips & Techniques

Let's take a look at Chrome plated components on your motorcycle. The most common chrome plated component is the exhaust system. The exhaust system itself is generally exposed to high temperatures, especially up at the end where it attaches to the cylinder head. This is the area that's most commonly covered with a heat shield. And the reason for that is then you get bluing in the chrome. When chrome itself blues, what you see is the heat penetrating from the inner wall of the pipe, to the outside chrome surface. The chrome plating process itself retains the heat. Once the chrome builds up so much heat it discolors. You really shouldn't get extensive bluing in the muffler section of the exhaust. If you are, chances are the motorcycle's not tuned properly. When it comes to cleaning the open or exposed chrome portion of the exhaust system, always use care. Don't just grab the first product you happen to see and start rubbing away at the area that is most commonly viewed on the exhaust system. If you're going to try a new product always try it on a discreet location of the exhaust. For example, the inner part of the exhaust where the exhaust bracket moans, you can see this exhaust has quite a bit of staining. Whether it's stained from improper washing, not drying it correctly, getting the pipe warm while it was still wet, or someone happens to put a rubber heel or sole of their sneaker on an exhaust pipe. The thing I like to do when I happen to have rubber on the exhaust pipe, I like to use a nice non-flammable penetrating oil. Again, you want to try and get the rubber as soon as it's on the pipe, don't let it cool down and harden warm back up. If someone happens to put their heel on the exhaust pipe try and remove the rubber from the pipe as quickly as possible. Couple of products out there are already contained in like a cotton wadding. All you really need to do rub gently. You'll see it starts to lift a lot of the staining, and then wipe it with a clean cloth. You'll see the luster of the chrome returns and the stain is basically removed. Again, always start on an exhaust with a new product that you're not familiar with, on an area of the pipe that isn't exposed. When it comes to extreme bluing, let's talk the first 10, 12 inches of the exhaust system as the hot exhaust exits the cylinder head. This extreme bluing, what's happened the chrome plating itself has literally burned off what you see left here, the golden blue colors, is the nickel that's left in the Chrome plating process. You'll never return this section of the pipe back to the original luster of the chrome finish. All you can really do, and if you're that, that concerned about the bluing under the heat shield, that you're going to remove the shield and clean it. All you can really do, is try and rub out some of the bluing on the pipe. Again, you can use a high-speed buffer. You can use a small three inch orbital buffer with a cutting pad, you can use cutting compound, you can use a number, there's a plethora of products out there. You can use a number of metal polishes, Chrome polishes, metal sealers, a lot come already embedded into a core cotton or a cloth wadding material. Again, try a bunch of products before you just rush out and buy one of everything you see, see people you know see what they use, see what they recommend, see what they happen to have on the shelf. If they have something you want to try get a little bit of it, or borrow the container they have and return it to him When you try it. If you find you like it, then purchase it just don't go buy one of everything off the shelf, and go home and try everything on the exposed surface of the exhaust. Another thing to remember, no matter what you do to the chrome finish make sure any residue that's left behind from the polishes, is removed before you start the motorcycle and the exhaust gets hot. If you leave wax or Polish on the chrome surface and it gets hot, chances are that polishing material will stain the chrome. If you happen to use something that's too aggressive on the exposed chrome surface of the pipe and you scratch it, there's really no way to Polish it out. You'll have to either deal with the scratch the damage that you created or replace the chrome component. Nine out of 10 times it's cheaper to buy a replacement chrome component. Then have the component, remove it from the motorcycle send it out, and have it re chromed. The re-chroming process involves stripping the entire chrome piece, back to a metal, to a bare substrate. Then applying each of the chroming materials whether it be nickel or chrome, whatever the process whatever that particular chromer uses, has to start from a clean base metal or base substrate. So if you cause a few minor scratches, be aware the cost is going to be to regrow the entire component. Again, back to burnt rubber on a hot exhaust system, a lot of times if you catch it as soon as it happens, you can just wipe it away with a clean cloth or a clean paper towel. Again, wipe it, fold the towel, so you're not smearing the hot rubber all over the pipe. Never use a razor blade to peel burnt rubber away from a chrome pipe. No matter how careful you are you're gonna scratch the chrome surface. As you can see on this Dyna, obviously someone along the line stuck a boot heal and melted rubber on it. What the owner did, he either used a very coarse Brillo pad, a Scotch-Brite pad or even a razor blade to peel the rubber off. Again the best bet while the exhaust is warm, while the rubber is still soft and fresh try to wipe it away, get as much of it off as soon as you can. Once chrome, the integrity of chrome plating is compromised, there's no repairing it. You can Polish and Polish and Polish. The integrity of the finished chrome surface, it's ruined. All you're going to have is a dull spot with scratches in it. The more you Polish, the more the chrome plating you'll remove the more of the underlayment materials, nickel for example it'll be exposed. The more you remove the chrome, the bluer the exhaust pipe is going to get. Again use regular good quality glass cleaner, I find that works best. If you want to Polish your chrome use a high quality chrome Polish. Polish it, make sure you wipe off any of the residue before you start the motorcycle, expose the exhaust system to heat and physically bake the chemicals of the Polish into the chrome.