I took these images around Thanksgiving and debated in my mind whether to post.
Not everyone in brickdom is in the same place experientially, so perhaps my lifetime of detailing my toys will inform someone out there remote of Chee.
This Dawn Power dissolver is made for tough kitchen grease. I soak my model aircraft nitromethane powered engine in it..they get caked with a brown goo from burned oil that builds up on the muffler and case with every run. after a while a silver case is brown.
My parts bike muffler is cherry and my driver looks like its been up and down the Alcan a few times- so now that its clean and detailed, I'm prepping a swap.
Exhaust residue is difficult to scrub off the stock K75 muffler if left unchecked. the welds are pretty, but any irregularity hides a hunk of brown junk where corrosion starts.. here's my method to make em shine...
I start with a spray bottle with a 50/50 of Dawn dish soap liquid and water for general cleaning. then I use a towel rag that has some thickness to it and work the welds between sprays of dawn.
Now with 98% of the goo gone, I break out my dremel tool with a soft wire tip to gently buff the corners and joints to lift the dirt and goo out of these tight places.
Lots of polishes work on stainless, I tried several on hand for the chrome silencer and decided Turtle Wax chrome polish worked better than other stainless steel cleaners.
a tooth brush should never hit the garbage can in a bikers home. great for detailing these items. Harbor Freight sells brass brushes that don't scratch chrome. I prefer the tooth brush's nylon head.
Have you tried these white nylon wall anchors that self taps into sheetrock and hold up pictures etc? The self-tapping point is nylon and very durable as a pick for tight spots on this project. I wrapped it with tape so the deep thread wouldn't dig so into my fingers. The point is you can press away and not scratch the mufflers pretty finish. I guess I use this before the Dremel brush and back and forth a bit.
Its winter...in the North anyway, clean the underside of your brick.
On the subject of maintaining the muffler: the topic of the fiber washer seal between the exhaust pipes and silencer came up recently here: These are fragile and made of what I jokingly term "unobtainium"
Feldpro 3009 is a sheet stock used for cutting gaskets that meets the specs for that sealing ring. I haven't done that part of the job yet but it looks to be a suitable replacement for the OEM part no longer sold. taking off the muffler is fairly easy if you don't have to dread damaging this fragile sealing ring.