Passenger Foot Rest

[Donvito]

I want to clean/polish the passenger foot rest assembly. The aluminum is tarnished or oxidized and I'm wondering what the best/easiest method of shining them up. Is it chemical, compound, or sandpaper? Then, what to use to protect them afterwards, clear coat or some type of wax. I'm attaching pictures. One is worse than the other for some reason.

[Marcarl]

They have a clear coat on them, so first you need to remove the clear coat with paint and varnish remover stripper, or brake clean sometimes does an awesome job.

Then you'll need to either sand it (600 grit+), maybe some steel wool and lastly a buffer. Then you can clear coat it, or keep it bright with a product called Classic Cloth. I don't know their website right now, will post it later when I get home.

[dingy]

Those floorboards are going to be a chore to make very shiny. It will be difficult to get an even glossy finish around the lettering that is cast into floorboards (YAMAHA).

 

I would suggest that you paint them some acceptable color and call it good. You can prep the surface with a bead or sand blaster. From experience, you are better off using a chemical to remove the clear coat, don't try to blast it off. It's tenacious. I prefer aircraft paint remover, red can, Auto Zone has it. Stuff is strong, so be careful with it.

 

You will need to remove rubbers from it either way. Getting out is fairly easy. Getting back in is a tad harder. I ended up tying a fishing line around the rubber protrusions, feeding line through hole, lubricating rubber and then work it through each hole. It can't be just pushed back through hole, has to be pulled. I recall someone else a couple of years ago posting a different technique to do this, but don't recall what they had done.

 

Picture shows Tweety's floorboards for an idea what painted ones would look like. These are powder coated and have held up well.

 

Gary

[Flyinfool]

Another option is to remove the old clear coat, then paint flat black or color to match bike, then put a brush finish on all of the high spots, the letters and border will then be brushed aluminum on a colored background. then clear the whole thing. that will look nice and the smaller visible aluminum area will be easier to do.

[mbrood]

Stripping the clear is fairly straight forward, then I use BlueMagic metal polish on a buffing wheel on my drill. Lowes didn't know "why" they keep it with the large shiny aluminum pickup bed tool boxes... hint, hint. It's a relatively slow process but the results are real sweet. If your corrosion is more severe, you need to get a more agressive initial compound

 

As noted the rubber "dimples" holding the inserts in can be teased out fairly easy, getting them back in proved a challenge... take a 3" section of a drinking straw and slit it down the side, one end opens for the nubbin and the other end closes (overlaps) to go in the hole in the step and use that to compress the nubbin and guide it in, much like a seal guide tool, it's best as a three handed job.

[Donvito]

Thanks. I do like the aluminum look so I will try to restore that first and, if that proves to be too difficult or I don't like the finished product, will paint them. I knew it was gonna be a PITA but they come off easily so I'll just work on one at a time when I can.

[djh3]

I had a 90 Mustang GT that had the "turbo" mags on it. The clear was comming off and wheels were pitted much like your floorboards. I got some "etching type" mag wheel cleaner from autozone and it did a nice job of cleaning them up. You may want to look into some never-dull polishing cloth also. It comes in a can and is a cotton sort of swab looking stuff with chemicals infused in the cloth.

[easternrider]

Thanks. I do like the aluminum look so I will try to restore that first and, if that proves to be too difficult or I don't like the finished product, will paint them. I knew it was gonna be a PITA but they come off easily so I'll just work on one at a time when I can.

 

 

 

I don't know how much work you want to do, or what kind of look you want, but if you just want to clean it up and get a bit more shine, use 0000 steel wool. Maybe go as far as to clear coat it then.

[dysfunctional33]

If you have a local truck wash nearby you anywhere they usually have an acid bath you could do to help take off all the tarnish and pitting. You will have to take your time polishing them back up but it is definitely worth it. Before I moved to where I am now I used to take my bikes and have an acid bath every spring.

[Donvito]

If you have a local truck wash nearby you anywhere they usually have an acid bath you could do to help take off all the tarnish and pitting. You will have to take your time polishing them back up but it is definitely worth it. Before I moved to where I am now I used to take my bikes and have an acid bath every spring.

 

Unfortunately, I don't have a truck stop nearby. Do you know what type of acid they use? I assume it is diluted but to what percentage? I have some muriatic acid for my pool, I wonder what that would do?

[Donvito]

Thanks to everyone for the advice. I used a combination of techniques. Special thanks to Steve Crossley who is the master of aluminum polishing. If you haven't seen his bike, check it out: http://www.venturerider.org/forum/vbpicgallery.php?do=big&p=6174

 

And thanks to Mbrood for his nubbin insertion tool without which I probably would have cut them off and glued them in.