Britbike forum Forums British Motorcycle specific Brands Bsa bulletin board Request advice on exhaust header cleaning.

Well forum, Sign me up for the Dumbass Award, I have committed an ID-10-T error and would appreciate your advice.

Do y'all have any words of wisdom for removing melted polyester shirt from chrome exhaust header? I failed to pay attention to the material when I grabbed a soft rag to wipe down the bike while it was warming up. The tail of the old shirt I was using was happily flopping around, until it stuck to the left header.

Scraping it off isn't going to work. That's for sure.

I'm thinking acetone. Will acetone damage the chrome?

Surely I'm not alone in making this hideous error.

This time last week we were below 0, today should be upper 60's. Sounds to me like nature's invitation to ride? Do I ride it hard and burn the plasticized material off?

Help!!!

You could reheat the pipes with a torch or the motor and when it gets soft wipe it away with a leather cloth.

Get the engine hot again and then take a Stanley knife blade in a holder and scrape the now soft plastic off.

just finishing another B441 VS. The original exhaust pipe had 52 years of baked on carbonized crud. Had nothing to lose so set to with some 0000 grade wire wool, took a bit of effort but darn thing came up like new!
So from that, I would ride it and carbonize the stuff then clean off the residue. but then I would hate to enumerate the times I have heard real experts say "You did WHAT????!!!"

Thanks to everyone for the advice. You pointed me in the right direction.

I was concerned adding heat would make matters worse.

I used a propane torch and pocket knife to remove as much as I could. I was low on leather but heated small areas and used brown packing paper to wipe more. Then I switched to torch and wadded up aluminum foil to scrub away the film.

This was a bit of a pain in the backside. I believe that, in the future, I shall refrain from wiping down the bike while the engine is hot.

But now, it is 72 and sunny. Time to saddle up and ride.

Woo Hoo