Commando polishing trick

I like to ride my bike but that is no excuse for having a grubby engine. The Commando should not leak any oil (Mk3) and mine doesn't. So now there is nothing to impede my somewhat psychotic impulse to have a shiny engine. I used Autosol for years but recently switched to the cheaper and more available good old Mothers aluminum polish. In the past I would polish the cases to a mirror shine with a soft clean shop towel only to have them grubby a few days later. I would then repeat the cleaning process. Now here's my trick (I'm sure know this but I didn't) it's the mighty......paper towel. The paper towel cleans the surface and brings back the shine WITHOUT using more polish. They are cheap, light, and easy to carry. I know paper products are slightly abrasive and some might worry about this fact but I have been using this method for months and it works great. Give it a try.

Hm Cdo75, I use paper towels all the time but ain't tried it for recovering a mostly fresh glean. i know newspapers is the stuff to polish off last step in glass cleaning, cool. What do ya do about the rusting fasteners w/o the oil coating?
I'm going to try a spritz of clear coat, but with my luck likely heat and coagulate to a tanish gummy finish : (

makes perfect sense, i never thought of trying paper towel, nice one

One of the best paper products for polishing anything from eye glasses to metal is the good old coffee filter. Its micro fiber, lint free and won't break apart.

I haven`t tried it yet but I here that Gibbs is pretty good at preserving metal. http://www.getgibbs.com/ It is suppose to keep oxidation at bay.
I`m going to give it a try next when my KL73 runs out. I spray down the bike,(not the brakes),every once in a while, and the bike hoses off nicely, stays somewhat shiny without rubbing.

Commando75 said:

I used Autosol for years but recently switched to the cheaper and more available good old Mothers aluminum polish.

Click to expand...

+1 on the Mother's alum polish. Here in Florida, like Commando75, I would expend the effort to do the Mothers treatment and have dungy cases the next weekend.

I posted a thread several months ago "Keep the Shine" where I touted the qualities of an aerosol cleaner with Carnauba wax made by Sherwin-Williams. Anyway, I bought two of the cans (16 oz each!) while at a gas station where this kid had set up a booth in the parking lot. He saw my VW Jetta's yellowed headlights and told me he could have them crystal clear in 5 minutes. I told him I'd buy two cans if he could pull that off. Sure enough, spray, wait 1 minute and wiped the yellow off! Anyway, tried it on my bike's covers, Z-plates, rims, etc. after the Mothers treatment and WOW, the aluminum would stay mirror-fresh for weeks on end. Unfortunately I tried to get more of the product for my other Norton mates and found out cans I bought were the last of a discontinued product now illegal to produce because of high solvent (VOC) content needed to liquefy the Carnauba....bummer.

Since then, I've found another product that claims to provide the same results...I'm going to give it a try when my last can (now 1/2 full) is gone:

http://www.blackfireusa.com/blivcaspcla.html