At the moment of facing a restoration, a priori we do not think if the carburettor will work, the brake circuit will be well bled or the alternator will charge the battery. We may not even know at that moment how to differentiate between the coil and the spark plug, but there will always be something that cannot escape our sight: the rust and dirt that covers each and every part of our motorcycle. We explain how to make a scouring pad to clean our motorcycle.
At that moment you will enter Google and type ” how to remove rust from a motorcycle ” or ” best method to clean a motorcycle ” and you will discover that there are thousands of miraculous products, each one better and with more followers, that magically will eliminate everything mud and rust off your bike and leave it looking brand new and ready for a show. From the “universal rust remover” Coca-Cola, through vinegar, caustic soda or oxalic acid, not forgetting the foul-smelling liquids of bright colors, there are thousands of products that can remove rust from metal.
These miraculous products, which are indeed miraculous and I won’t be the one to say otherwise (well… except for Coca-Cola, which you’d better drink while you try the rest of the products), have two problems, which you should consider before using. using them:
- They are extremely toxic: always use a mask, gloves and eye protection.
- They systematically remove all protection from the metal, so if you don’t apply additional protection later, the metal will rust again in a matter of days. I leave you a photo so you can see it .
For these reasons, at Donkey Motorbikes we prefer to use traditional products and we are going to explain how to create your own homemade scourer disc.
The best thing about this method is that it is infinitely cheap, easily found under the sink in any house and very effective.
We already talked in the entry ” How to remove rust from a motorcycle ” that the best method to remove rust from a metal is to use 000 steel wool , along with some lubricant. We remain convinced of this and we highly recommend this method, its results are simply spectacular.
The only problem with this method is that we will leave our skin and hands rubbing each piece, and it will be difficult for us to access pieces with many nooks and crannies. Being a job that we will do “by hand” it will take a long time to deoxidize each piece.
When what we want is to carry out a “less fine” job, with larger pieces or with many irregularities, our triple scourer disc is a very good solution.
There are many types of scourers, more or less abrasive, so it is mandatory to test the material before using the disc , to check that the scourer does not scratch the piece. We, for example, do not use a scouring pad with aluminum parts or exhaust pipes, unless we intend to polish them later. However, it is the best method for cleaning spokes or engine blades, or parts that we intend to polish later.
The best thing about this method is that it is infinitely cheap, easily found under the sink in any house and very effective. Go for it!
1. We buy a package of three sponges in any supermarket. We bought the cheapest ones out there.
2. In our case, we are going to use the discs both flat, with the velcro tool for drilling , and with the drill, in order to access all the pieces.
3. We draw with a marker the outline of the disc. We have used our velcro disk as a template.
5. We will need a long screw, two washers and two screws. The second screw is very important, as it has to act as a locknut to prevent it from loosening with the movement of the disc.
6. We press well and we already have our low cost scourer disc.
We leave you a video-tutorial so you can see how it works.
In summary, there are many methods to clean rust and dirt, they all have their positive and negative aspects. We, the scouring pad, seem to be a magnificent method due to its low cost, the ease of achieving it and its good results . Good luck with the cleaning!
