Cleaning Exhaust Pipes

[indybobm]

What is the best, most non-intrusive, way to clean and polish the exhaust pipes. I have the usual chrome polishes and cleaners but there must be some secret formula that works great.

I was thinking of using 0000 steel wool with some Mothers Chrome Polish. The pipes are not in bad shape, just need to be cleaned up.

[Pete]

I use any good grade of cleaner/wax and 0000 steel wool. Been doing it for years, works fine for me.
Be sure and buff it off good as leaving any steel fibers will surface rust.

[Jess from VA]

The best and easiest (all)metal polish I've ever used is BomsAway.  It makes aluminum look like chrome if you work long enough.  Much easier/quicker to use than any paste polish like mothers, eagle1, etc.  Never-Dull cotton wadding is good too, but not as good as BomsAway on good cotton cloth (like Tshirt).  A little bottle can easily last a couple years too.



Use oven cleaner to get off boot/rubber burns.

You can use 4-O steel wool and metal polish or even WD-40 to clean chrome, but you cannot press hard in polishing or you can/will leave swirls/haze.  I have used it many times on tougher rust or corrosion, but you must let the wool do the work and not get impatient and press hard.... practice on out-of-sight areas first.  

After wheel cleaner and soap and water, I use 4-O steel wool and BomsAway on my cruddy aluminum rims,  then polish or polishing compounds on power buff wheels on a drill.

[ShiftHappens]

I had a couple of spots (I think burned on sole of boot) that I had a extremely difficult time removing. After many attempts, the thing that worked for me was nail polish remover.

[Chrisj CMA]

If its old chrome thats lost its good shine then 0000 steel wool works great.  If its good chrome (very shiney) it will be ok chrome (not very shiney) if you rub on it with steel wool even a tad too hard

[hubcapsc]

My headers still clean up good. I go after them with water (or sometimes joes juice) and
this:



-Mike

[John U.]

Bronze wool works for me and is softer than chrome so it won't scratch. That is, it won't scratch if you clean the grit off the pipes first and use a polish/cleaner.
The only drawback is that bronze wool is not cheap. If your hardware store doesn't have it a boat supply store will. I got some at Lowes recently.

[Jabba]

HOT pipes... and car wax.  Use a COTTON rag that's folded over and over and over.  And gloves cause it'll steam.  Leave the bike running.

It takes some elbow grease too.  But that's the best way I have found to get goo off the pipes without scratching.

Jabba

[9Ball]

I use a method similar to Jabba's for removing burnt on rubber and plastic.  Once the pipes are up to operating temp, I use a wad of Nevr Dull polish and wipe softly over the rubber.  Be sure to wear gloves to protect from steam and heat released by the vaporizing polish.

http://www.nevrdull.com/

[indybobm]

HOT pipes... and car wax.  Use a COTTON rag that's folded over and over and over.  And gloves cause it'll steam.  Leave the bike running.

It takes some elbow grease too.  But that's the best way I have found to get goo off the pipes without scratching.

Jabba

Does the wax burn off? Will anything actually stay on hot pipes?

[Jabba]

The wax goes away... and the pipes look like new.  eventually.

Jabba

[MarkT]

WD40 is an excellent chrome cleaner.  You can wet a 0000 steel wool pad with it, dampen the chrome and let is sit for a couple minutes, then carefully wipe off the bugs etc. DON'T SCRUB.  Don't use any abrasives like Scotch Brite unless you want to cover your chrome with scratches.  Don't use any steel wool courser than 0000.  Chemical cleaners like Easy-Off work on burnt-on junk.  Heat also helps, as others have said.  Don't run the engine too long after it's at operating temp or the pipes will blue.  You can remove really stuck crud with a NEW razor blade.  New so it won't have burrs on the edge that scratch.  Be careful using a blade, work carefully with small movements, a blade can scratch.  If you scratch up your headers then want to trade in those pipes to me - those scratches reduce the value and what I will pay for them.