Best way to clean rust off my SS? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Best way to clean rust off my SS?

sid_for_speed

Well-known member
Noticed rust on the headers ....looking at some you tube vidoes...ppl using lime away (acid) to get it off...it's used on Chrome ..not sure how it would react with steel..

Any recommendations to get heavy rust off of headers?.. will CLR work? I'll throw in pics of the headers soon..
 
Your 2013 600RR has rusty headers? Silly Sid, should've bought a Gixxer. Even a Ninja would have been a better choice.
 
"Heavy" rust? Is the header on the '13 CBR600RR a form of stainless steel or are they just crappy mild steel?

If mild steel and they have "heavy" rust it's probably too late to do anything about them. If they're stainless you might try a Scotchbrite pad and some CLR. But stainless shouldn't experience "heavy" rust. Some types (e.g. 304) will show a light surface corrosion which is normal.
 
I have used steel wool with good effect. Not sure how well it would work on rust, but worked great on my tarnished FZ6 headers. There's about 40k km's between the two pics. Took maybe 30 minutes in total once I started with the steel wool, wasn't getting anywhere with Mother's.

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I've had luck with autosol if you can't really feel the rust. If it is thick enough to feel it, something abrasive will likely be required.
 
I have used steel wool with good effect....

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Holy that's nice! can you do mine next!



Stainless steel is iron that has been alloyed with chromium, the iron part naturally rusts and the chromium content remains naturally brilliant. Historically manufacturers built double walled header pipes to keep the chrome plate good on the outside, down side is the added weight plus the potential for a rattle noise where the inside pipe barely touches the outside pipe.
 
17U2xxb

Dunno if pic is visible but here it is...

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What do you guys think?? Beyond repair? or will CLR and steel wool do it?
 
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You can try but will take some serious elbow grease on your part. Try blue magic metal polish and a really fine steel wool.
 
Oh my, that don't look good, his pipes were tarnished and yours are totally rusty. If you did remove them completely and manage to clean them down to fresh exposed metal, you would want to paint or coat them with something or the oxidation process will just happen faster next time.

Gun blue <- is a heat resistant dye process that is applied to bare metal with the intent of reducing oxidation and rust.
looks pretty cool too.
 
willing to take the pipe off your bike? bead blast clean and use a high quality, high heat paint. I hear harley dealers have the best specific high heat black paint.
best luck.
 
What concerns me is rate of oxidation..bike gives out a lot of heat..you can feel it through the triple tree area...I wonder if the issue lies deeper .within the engine....or its just the headers are not dissipating eneough games due to rust buildup inside and out..
 
Yep, it is literally raw flame going through that pipe on a regular basis, then even further down the pipe your cat converter tries to burn up any leftover hydrocarbons, that gets stinking hot too.

... the amount of rust is the result of high iron content in the alloyed metal, only way to slow it is to prevent further oxidation of the iron.
 
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I'd bead blast those and have them ceramic coated.
 
I'd bead blast those and have them ceramic coated.
sweet! that would do it,
but I think I might invest in brand new pipes if I was paying to have them ceramic coated, inside and out?
 

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