Removing Rust

[Red01]

If you can clean it enough to remove ALL traces, you stand a chance, otherwise, it'll keep coming back and you'll have to start over again.

[Forde]

orionburn get the metal polish to it, and get it off quick or itll pit the metal

[pmackie]

It's tough, but wipe it with CLR, clean it with polish, and then keep it well waxed. That will slow it down...once the chrome/nickel plating is pitted, the rust will likely keep showing up.

[orionburn]

Despite being in the 30s last night and trying to snow I managed to wash the bike and get it cleaned off. Didn't have any CLR at the house but used some of the chain cleaner I had and it helped, then scrubbed it down with soap and water and dried it off. Still need to get some polish & wax put on, but looks like it'll be ok. No permanent damage or pitting.

Just glad I had to move the bike out of the garage the other day. The way the weather has been again it may have sat untouched for another week or two.

[gsxr400 racer]

this is more than likely from years of bug juice splatter not being washed off among other things acid rain, salt, hell lets just blame it on the ozone.

[Vidrazor]

Well the weather was finally nice enough for me to hunker down and get cracking on this. Someone over at sporttouring.net suggested using 000 fine steel wool with CRC or WD40. Man, that works great! I only got a chance to try a small area on the forks, but it worked like a charm. Got some tiny pits in there from the rust, but I can live with that, I'll just stay on top of that from now on.

What really surprised me is how well it works on the painted wheels. I was a bit leery at first, but if you're careful and use a good amount of lubricant it just blows the oxidation clear out of there in no time. It's would've taking me ages using wheel polish. I'm gonna try it on the rusted areas behind the fork on the frame to see how that goes. Once I get most of that off I'll treat it with a rust sealer and spot paint the area.

The only real problem area seems to be the gold on the front disk. I was trying to take the rust spots off it, but only the paint was coming off! Not sure why that was, as the steel wool was working like a charm everywhere else. I'm going to have to have a bit more finesse with that area.

So far I've done mostly the lower part of the bike. Gonna work my way up during the week. That steel wool is a chore saver. I don't feel so bad about tackling all the rust and grime that's built up on my bike now. This thing is actually going to look respectable again!