Messed up metal with degreaser...is it fixable?
 

Hello, well I have never done something so stupid. I have used simple green before and didn't see anything happen with it before. I went o wally world and was going to buy some simple green but found another all purpose cleaner that was more for the money.

Ok so I have a ton of caked on black crap on swing arm and under body. I thought if I used some decent cleaner I can get it off.

Well I am so upset realizing I think I ruined the aluminum with this cleaner. The aluminum is all discolored now and the only thing I can think of is powder-coating or what not but I cannot afford this right now. I thought when I was putting on my new brake lines I got some oil on the aluminum and it seemed it cleaned it up like it dried it out or something. So I oiled it all up and it looked good again....

BUT NOPE, washed th bike and its all back. Attached is a pic....please help my loser self.

You can see how the metal is all discolored and near the shock it is also looking very dry. I messed up huh.

Try aluminum polish. When I detailed cars I used degreaser on the tires and sometimes it would get on the wheels. They would look exactly the same way. Just polish it up and it should look fine. I prefer Mothers brand

Think my buddy had mothers polish....I thought he tried it but I will get some aluminum polish and try that. Funny how the chemicals react.

You should be able to polish it. When it turns black it's oxidizing... in other words turning to rust, but we all know aluminum doesn't rust. A REALLY fine grit sand paper.. think 3000 or finer can get the black off if polish doesn't work itself.. then just polish it up. It may be a 'you always have to polish it now' kinda thing.

I just recently used brake parts cleaner to clean my swingarm and some other parts of the frame because I was installing LED lights and it did a good job.

The metal polish should work to restore the clean metal look, but try a little brake parts cleaner in the future to get rid of dirt spots.

It helped me!

Roger, Got it...brake parts cleaner to clean...polish and pray to get good look back. I was also thinking since I drilled holes for spools and picked a bad area (hole in exhaust) and this metal problem....swingarms arent expensive on ebay but I am sure they are a pain in the arse to install huh....I saw some black ones that were nice.

Someone has been trying to sell a 600rr swing arm conversion around here. You could go that route

It looks like its turning white to me:icon_shrug:
If you do have to sand it, wet sand with 2000grit. :icon_idea1:In fact I will go sand my slip on with some 2000 and polish it back to greatness :icon_dance-twist: Ill take some before during and after pictures

600rr swingarm conversion? Whats the difference? What will it benefit me? I was thinking since I messed up on spool hole placements also I saw some on ebay for like 55 bucks or so and are black ones. I like the black ones better.....ANYONE have one to sell? WHERE IS THIS 600rr swingarm haha

I love these forums

From what I hear it improves handling. I think it looks better:icon_wink:

As far as polishing my exhaust....im out of polish and the store was closed when I went to buy some:icon_shrug: