So I did a part swap on my previous bike for this 1984 BMW K100RT.





This is the worst part of the bike.



The bike got dropped by the loading company when the 2nd owner bought it.  You will note paint coming loose below headlight, paint scrapped off mirror and just below the mirror you can see the fairing is cracked slightly.  With the drop the inner right forward storage box is cracked.  Panniers are a bit rough, with the top latch on one of them bust.  Also with the scrapes I can see she was what appears to be burgundy before this.

The history on the bike is such, that the 2nd owner had it for 6 months, reason for selling is that he is a big guy and when his wife partners up with him, she ends up sitting on the edge of the sit, which is uncomfortable for her.  During the six months he would ride it to an Anthracite mine that he worked at which is 350kms one way, leaving Monday coming back Friday.  So mechanically she is in absolutely fine form, from what I can see, barring some cosmetics.  Odometer broke during this time, which means the current reading of 75000 km by the 1st owner is understated by about 4000km.

It was purely by chance that I came across this technique often used on modern day car headlights to get rid of oxidation.  It involved toothpaste, a toothbrush, paper towel and then some car polish.


From the first picture of my RT you might see that the windshield looks a bit cloudy. Well, after applying some toothpaste with a tooth brush to the entire windshield on both sides, until hazy, then followed by a wipe down, application of car polish and then polishing that up.  The first picture shows me part way with the process, the uppermost being what it looked like before, the bottom section showing what it looked like after removing the toothpaste.



The next picture is of the windscreen after car polish application and removal.



Looks like new.  Hope that is useful for someone.  Am going to try this technique on the buttons of my headlight switches etc, and see how that pans out.

Tomorrow I will share my technique for brightening up the black of the inner fairings. That's if it worked last night.

I am not positive of this, but I suspect that windshields and headlights are clear coated with the same stuff they put on clear coat paint finishes.  That stuff is a bugger to buff when it is fully cured.  I also suspect that it can be recoated by your friendly local collision shop with a shot of clear. I have heard of clearcoating old headlights.  I think there might even be videos on you tube of the process.

I have been tempted to take some polycarbonate and acrylic sheet to have them shot to see what it looks like.  If it works, a wet sanding with 600 followed by 1200 and 2000 is all you need do to restore back to like new with the reapplication of clear.

JayceLane,
I've just been experimenting with improving the 'blackness' of my fairing inner parts and came up with the idea to use black shoe polish, it's worked rather well.



Paul.

Paul I can see where you got that idea since you have more than an interest in steam traction engines. I see the guys over here using shoe polish to blacken the bits that are supposed to be black......http://www.isvrally.com/ 

Follow that link Paul, it might get you over to meet a few Eccentrics and the venue is about an hour from this http://www.eaglepointcamping.ie/ 

Unfortunately its on the June weekend as in 31 May/1 June which is when 88KE and myself will be in France but there will be enough Eccentrics left to welcome you. Its on the same weekend every year. So maybe another year. After the event last June I was sitting outside on the patio and could hear the steam whistles. Was thinking odd at fist, no railway near me. Then I heard the trundling sound of a few of them being driven home in a convoy.

The photo below is a well known one, generated by a traction engine driver racing the Muskerry tram whose tracks ran alongside the road from Cork to the Anglers Rest. They don't steer well at speed...........Hardly anyone around now who would remember it but when I came to Cork there were quite a few. No fatalities but some injured pride and memory loss.



The following is on the exact same road.....same place

Danny Keany set a record in 1978 of 204mph on a 750cc motorbike beating Rosemary Smith,Mel Nolan beat that again I think.I'm not sure who holds the records now but in this months classic bike mag there's a photo of a supercharged OEC-Jap that set a world record of 152.48mph on the Carrigrohane road Cork in November 1930.The mans name was Joe Wright.It's a mad looking bike with no brakes that I can see

92KK 84WW Olaf wrote:Paul I can see where you got that idea since you have more than an interest in steam traction engines. I see the guys over here using shoe polish to blacken the bits that are supposed to be black......http://www.isvrally.com/

We used to use Zebrite to blacken our cannon barrels. It would also blacken anything else in sight and I bet it would work really well on plastic.

Thanks Paul for your example.  I must admit that black polish crossed my mind. My blackening technique seems to have paid dividends though.



This one in a way is purely by accident.  So I proceeded with Wynn's back to black, which I know does not last, so I thought I would follow up with car polish.  Held my breath a bit here, because from previous experiences all your left with is polish stuck in all the little crevices and your back to where to you started.  After some elbow grease with little progress, I then I went to the laundry and picked up a micro fibre rag, which I now realise is the one that we use to put wood oil onto our furniture.  So without thinking I started to polish and she really brightened up, after realising that this was because of the wood oil, I thought oh no..... sticky smudgey finish here I come. However, leaving it over night, the wood oil appears to have pulled into the polish.  I now have a glass like touch to the plastic without leaving fingerprints when touched.  Just a note on the rag, the wood oil was residual. I did not douse it at all with the stuff.

About the Zebrite.  I have used a black Sharpie pen(U.S. equivalent) to darken the wear on the bead on my seat.  Looks nice...

...for a couple hours.

I like the idea of darkening and possibly protecting the black bits, but I would be careful about putting petrochemical stuff on weathered plastic.  Might be sacrificing long term durability for short term cosmetics.  Specifically, the solvents in the coatings may react with the plasticizers in the plastic bits and with UV exposure may weaken and make them brittle and prone to future crazing or cracking.

There was a well known "protectant"  a while back that when used over a period of time actually caused plastic dashboards and interior parts to crack and split.

Point-Seven-five wrote:....
There was a well known "protectant"  a while back that when used over a period of time actually caused plastic dashboards and interior parts to crack and split.

Down Unda we have a product called ArmourAll that is supposed to be a protectant. It makes your plastics look great for a few days to a week and then they look shite, especially when exposed to sun.... Silicon damages plastics. It gets into the cracked surface of the plastic and expands as it dries causing further damage.
I've had good success on my plastic fairing inners with Turtle Wax™ Black Wax specially made for black trim and duco. It contains canauba wax. Need to apply several coats as its very runny like water. Let it dry in between and polish off. I'm pretty sure other brands have similar black trim polish.

I have heard that the best thing for crazed acrylic shields is Aerospace 303

Dai wrote:We used to use Zebrite to blacken our cannon barrels. It would also blacken anything else in sight and I bet it would work really well on plastic.

That takes me back, I used to use Zebrite mixed with paraffin to blacken the cylinder on my '20s Sunbeam.
 

Ahh, memories. :bball:
Paul

So I took my bike in for a roadworthy test on Friday, which she promptly failed due to the reflect cap in the headlight lying in the bottom of the light and the right indicator button sticking.  Luckily the latter was easily sorted with a lubricating spray.

The headlight removal on a K100Rt was a slightly more involved process.  During disassembly and reassembly, I noticed a few things or a lack of a few things.

Attached is a picture of the left faring vs the right.  I really cant see how the lower left fairing is supposed to be supported, like the right hand lower fairing.  It must have been like this for ages, because the engine cover has some wear from the left lower fairing rubbing against it.






If any happy snapper would like to show me their proficiency at photo taking of what it should look like, I would be most appreciative.

Cheers for now.