early 80's style cb1100f signal conversion...hard?

[misterprofessionality]

for the pipes or for the signals? honestly the pipes are easy when you get used to it. scotchbrite pads and mothers. the hardest work was sawing all the aluminum for the brackets. i did a lot of drilling, cutting, and shaping on a little home-made workbench, but i don't have a saw, so all the cuts were done by hacksaw. that'll really burn you out.

[Cormanus]

Pipes: how much did the Optiglanz help?

Mirrors: Good the originals were round. One saving. Tick.

[misterprofessionality]

Pipes: how much did the Optiglanz help?

Mirrors: Good the originals were round. One saving. Tick.

Basically, the the original uncleaned pipes were brown, with dark black splotches up near the top of the headers. you've all seen this, I don't need to post pictures. All our headers end up like that. When you apply the optiglanz (just spray on to cover completely, and let it run off for a couple of minutes, then flush with clean water until completely rinsed) in basically washes away all the dark brown discoloration, returning the pipes to a "silver" color, but it doesn't do anything to the dark splotches, and it doesn not return the pipes original shine. That's where the Mothers comes in.

If you use mothers or other steel polish without the optiglanz, it just doesn't get that factory silver-steel finish in the end, and if you just use a product like optiglanz, you don't get rid of the splotches. it really does work best if you use both.

[the Ferret]

I think a paint job alone would get you the image you are looking for. Might have to remove the gaiters.

[suhawk305]

I recall from a prior thread that when applying OptiGlanz to your pipes, you need to mask-off the engine and all painted surfaces. Was that your experience? If so, any suggestions?

[misterprofessionality]

Ferret: i think you're right. the paint job puts it over the edge, but i can't help but feel like without the appropriate side covers, the paint job just looks funny. I was thinking of using a pair of the 2014 DLX covers, since they're more square on the bottom, but i'm not yet sure that will press all the right buttons. besides, the paint job will cost a pretty pretty penny, so i've got a long way before I need to be worried about it. As for the Gaiters, the bike was never going to be a "perfect" representation. even my new signals are slightly wrong, in that the front signals are *supposed* to be mounted on the forks, not on the headlight stay. i'm not going to sweat little things like that. the way I see it, somebody could have put gaiters on a cb750 in 1982. I like that it helps black out more of the excess chrome too. Nemo's bike can be credited for inspiration on that.

edit: speaking of that, a sportier black front fender should probably go on my list.

Suhawk: Optiglanz is REALLY volatile stuff, no doubt about it. anything that you can spray on steel and watch the color run off like water is seriously hazardous. at first i was masking off and covering the engine behind the pipes, but after a couple of applications I realized that I wasn't really getting any Optiglanz on the cardobard as long as I didn't spray full blast all willy-nilly. i usually apply careful little squirts up and down the pipes so as not to waste the optiglanz, and this has the added benefit of not getting excess spray on my engine parts/front fender. you don't have to worry about it when flushing with water. fresh water neutralizes the stuff instantly.

[suhawk305]

Thank you MP. I will try your method, maybe in the warm weather this spring.