Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Exhaust Any Suggestions?

I got my bike back from the dealership the other day. Durring the accident one of the headers was damaged and had to be replaced. Before the accident I had two very blue headers (which I really liked the look of) now I have one perfect chrome header and one very blue header. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do. I bought some Blue Job chrome polish and it does exactly what it says it does, the only problem is that after an hour and a half of rubbing I managed to polish a one inch circle out of the entire blue header. So here's my options

1) continue with the blue job, a bit at a time untill I get the whole thing done

2) try to use some sort of electric device like a polishing head for my power drill or a handheld orbital buffer (if anyone's done this I'd love to hear about the results)

3) take the blow toarch to the new header to blue it out

4) heat wrap the headers so you just can't tell

5) buy a new header (which I really don't want to do because I really don't have the money)

or

6) leave it the way it is, looking like it has a black eye

Any thoughts or other suggestions would be great.

Hey Tim!
Glad you finally got your bike back! I have alot to say on
this subject, so I'm making this quick post. I'll edit it
with more text so I don't get stung by the time-out.

Edit
Ok, here we go:

As far as making the new shiney one blue, Maybe you could
re-jet that side way lean 'till you get it a matching shade?

Or, if you want to polish the blue one to look like new,
perhaps I can help. You've seen my bike in person, and you
posted pics of my bike for me(thanks again). No blue for me!

I've posted at length about this before, but don't know how
to link you to it. Search for it if you can figure that out,
or pm me, and I'll call you(I'm better at talkin' than typ'n).

Uncle Charlie

Quote:

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(I'm better at talkin' than typ'n).

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No kiddin?

Wise guy!

...or, you could paint one half of the bike one color, and the other half another.

The blued side should be something classic- like British Racing Green.

The chromed side could be Black (face it, nothing looks better with chrome than black).

Then you would have a 2-face evil villain triumph thingie goin on...

Just ride it as is until the new one turns blue.


Nothing to be ashamed of - stuff happens.

How long could it take before the new one started showing some color? You could even look at it as an incentive to ride - the more you ride, the better she looks!


I'm thinking you still run the air injection? If you liked them blue, keep them blue! I like the blue headers too, but - caught up in all the hype, and all the suggestions from all here to remeove the A.I. asap after purchase, I pulled my A.I., and though a bit "yellowed", my headers never blued.

With my TORs now, mine sounds and looks more like a hot-rod, and the blue headers would be fine. What can I do to blue mine up (short of a blow torch or re-installing the A.I.)?

will have same problem in a couple of weeks when bike comes back so please post how you got on and if you found unclecharlie's post on this .i was thinking of getting a new header to match. then removing air injection as i think the new header will never get like the old one (5,500 miles ) even in time ? but once you go down that route hoping it will blue the same you cant go back. also not sure ????

To remove pipe blue with the least amount of effort, get a spiral sewn buffing wheel and an arbor to spin the wheel in a drill, and some green rouge (scroll down a bit).

To remove the blue on the little collar on the header that sits near the head,
a felt bob is handy to reach the nooks and crannies.

It's helpful to wrap the drill chuck in some masking tape, so that the spinning chuck does not mar the chrome. Keep the wheel moving, and check your progress by wiping the chrome with a clean cotton rag as you go. Loosen and turn the oil cooler lines up and out of the way for buffing, then return them to original position when finished.

As far as bluing the new pipe goes, I can only guess that a torch should work, but I have no experience with that. Perhaps the dealer would give you the crashed pipe as a sacrificial test piece? The traditional wisdom of keep the flame moving comes to mind.

Tim, I'm about 100 miles west of you if you want to drop by and use my wheel and compound.