I've spent hours and hours polishing just about everything on my bike, and despite breathing in 3 pounds of metal flakes, my bike looks great. However, the Aluminium is starting to pit again. Outside of wax, is there anything I can do to keep the aluminium from crapping out after a few months?
Now you know why Honda painted/coated the engine originally.
FYI. It is not aluminum. It is aluminum alloy. The metal amalgams are not stable when exposed to atmospheric gasses and impurities.
Right you are, TT!
And, the road dirt, like antifreeze and road "tars" will pit it real quick, too. The OEM clearcoat was supposed to slow that down.
I have discovered over the years that polishing with Simichrome (not cheap!) makes it last longer than any other polishes I've used. I've tried several other rouge-like or metal polishes, but the Simichrome-polished parts only seem to need attention once every few years, instead of once a year (or more). And I've recently found that if I polish those other parts with Simichrome over the other stuff, it makes them last longer, too. And, with some elbow grease, it can remove the pitting too, I recently discovered.
So, when my engine comes out next time, I'm gonna get a can of the stuff instead of these little bitty tubes...
That ceramic stuff sure looks nice in these pictures, though...
