MarcHarris
New member
2003 Kawasaki ZX-6R 636
This bike belongs to one of my old friends, and after cleaning up his girlfriend's RX-8 (wheels, wash, spot clay, exhaust, plastic trim treated), he was interested in having me do a little work on his bike. Seeing that he went to a school for motorcycle mechanics, he knows his stuff, loves his bike, and takes overall good care of it. Naturally though, the bike had some signs of wear. This was the first bike I've ever done and it was a lot of fun. I was pretty excited to start it, so I documented everything with pics as best I could.
The bike was painted less than a year ago to all black. To make things easier, he removed all the panels prior to any cleaning which allows a thorough job to be done on all surfaces. The owner wasn't looking for true paint perfection, just a nice clean-up + light polish, but was still surprised at the end results
We started on an ugly 48 degree rainy day, as with beautiful 70's and sunny weather only a couple days away, it allowed for the bike to completed during a time it wouldn't be ridden anyways. By the time the 636 was ready to go, we got the best weather so far of this year.
Products / Tools used:
Gilmore Foam Gun
P21S Wheel Cleaner Gel
various wheel brushes
meg's slide lock brushes
diluted Simple Green
diluted CG Grime Reaper
diluted Zep Citrus Degreaser
Meg's Super Soap
#0000 Steel Wool
P21S Finish Restorer metal polish
LC White and black buffing pads
Menzerna 106+85
Meg's NXT2.0
Pinnacle Souveran
lots and lots of microfiber towels
Mother's Back-to-Black
Meg's Aggressive Clay
CG Luber
First thing is first, and a good cleaning was in store for the black rims...which really looked brown. Car, truck, or bike, I've never cleaned rims that were this dirty before. P21S wheel cleaner gel was sprayed all over the front and back wheels and then agitated with a wheel brush.
dwelling wheel cleaner working its magic:
after the wheels received a thorough cleaning, it was time for the rest of the bike. With the ECU/battery already covered with a plastic bag to protect them, the bike was foamed using diluted citrus degreaser + joy dish soap + car wash soap a couple times over, making sure all nooks and crannies got hit.
everything was thoroughly rinsed after being agitated with a Meg's slide-lock brush. The owner pointed out his chrome exhaust tip was in pretty rough shape with a patch of rush and rust specs all over. P21S finish restorer and #0000 steel wool was used, and it cleaned right up, minus a part where rust ate through the chrome plating.
tip before:
Once the tip was done, the body panels were sprayed with diluted simple green (1 part to 10 parts water), with the bad areas received a hearty spray of CG Grime Reaper (one part to 7 parts water). Each panel was then washed by hand using meg's Super Soap and a microfiber towel by the owner, who then passed me the freshly washed piece to clay. Meg's aggressive clay + CG Luber was used with very favorable results. (so no pics of this time
)
With the bike clean and the panels clean and clayed, we loaded the panels into my truck and i took them home to work on them.
poor bike sitting in the garage skinless, but clean:
I put the body panels on my pool table and busted out the PC, menzerna 106 and 85, a few pads, nxt2.0, souveran, and some good microfibers.
paint...needed....love...
big swirls, water etching, scratches, etc
I figured PC+106+white lc should be a mild enough combo to try out....WOW...wrong... paint was as soft (if not softer) than my S2000's!
lots of micro-marring and pad marks, so i went black LC + 106, and it finished down much nicer. I'd say about 70-80% correction. Once polished, and because they still weren't close to 100%, I opted for a base coat of NXT2.0
The owner then rode the naked bike over to take a look at the work so far, and so I could do the front end + the gas tank that were still on the bike. His brother then stopped by to pick up all the finished body parts.
Nate was happy with the bike so far, and once I waited two or three hours for the NXT to cure, I applied a nice thin layer of souveran. While waiting on the souveran to set, I finished the front end, and gas tank. All hoses / plastic pieces, etc were dressed with a foam applicator and Back-to-Black which really set off all the small details insuring it wasn't only going to be the paint looking nice.
With about everything done.... the bike needed an oil change and the body to be put back on. So the following morning, Nate brought her back over so I could get a couple final pics of how she cleaned up.
New bike again! (and why yes....that is some of the 11yards of mulch I was moving...)
the wind-screen will either be polished out to clear, or replaced with a black one - waiting to see which the owner wants, but at least the headlights now look good!
thanx for looking!
This bike belongs to one of my old friends, and after cleaning up his girlfriend's RX-8 (wheels, wash, spot clay, exhaust, plastic trim treated), he was interested in having me do a little work on his bike. Seeing that he went to a school for motorcycle mechanics, he knows his stuff, loves his bike, and takes overall good care of it. Naturally though, the bike had some signs of wear. This was the first bike I've ever done and it was a lot of fun. I was pretty excited to start it, so I documented everything with pics as best I could.
The bike was painted less than a year ago to all black. To make things easier, he removed all the panels prior to any cleaning which allows a thorough job to be done on all surfaces. The owner wasn't looking for true paint perfection, just a nice clean-up + light polish, but was still surprised at the end results
We started on an ugly 48 degree rainy day, as with beautiful 70's and sunny weather only a couple days away, it allowed for the bike to completed during a time it wouldn't be ridden anyways. By the time the 636 was ready to go, we got the best weather so far of this year.
Products / Tools used:
Gilmore Foam Gun
P21S Wheel Cleaner Gel
various wheel brushes
meg's slide lock brushes
diluted Simple Green
diluted CG Grime Reaper
diluted Zep Citrus Degreaser
Meg's Super Soap
#0000 Steel Wool
P21S Finish Restorer metal polish
LC White and black buffing pads
Menzerna 106+85
Meg's NXT2.0
Pinnacle Souveran
lots and lots of microfiber towels
Mother's Back-to-Black
Meg's Aggressive Clay
CG Luber
First thing is first, and a good cleaning was in store for the black rims...which really looked brown. Car, truck, or bike, I've never cleaned rims that were this dirty before. P21S wheel cleaner gel was sprayed all over the front and back wheels and then agitated with a wheel brush.
dwelling wheel cleaner working its magic:
after the wheels received a thorough cleaning, it was time for the rest of the bike. With the ECU/battery already covered with a plastic bag to protect them, the bike was foamed using diluted citrus degreaser + joy dish soap + car wash soap a couple times over, making sure all nooks and crannies got hit.
everything was thoroughly rinsed after being agitated with a Meg's slide-lock brush. The owner pointed out his chrome exhaust tip was in pretty rough shape with a patch of rush and rust specs all over. P21S finish restorer and #0000 steel wool was used, and it cleaned right up, minus a part where rust ate through the chrome plating.
tip before:
Once the tip was done, the body panels were sprayed with diluted simple green (1 part to 10 parts water), with the bad areas received a hearty spray of CG Grime Reaper (one part to 7 parts water). Each panel was then washed by hand using meg's Super Soap and a microfiber towel by the owner, who then passed me the freshly washed piece to clay. Meg's aggressive clay + CG Luber was used with very favorable results. (so no pics of this time
)With the bike clean and the panels clean and clayed, we loaded the panels into my truck and i took them home to work on them.
poor bike sitting in the garage skinless, but clean:
I put the body panels on my pool table and busted out the PC, menzerna 106 and 85, a few pads, nxt2.0, souveran, and some good microfibers.
paint...needed....love...
big swirls, water etching, scratches, etc
I figured PC+106+white lc should be a mild enough combo to try out....WOW...wrong... paint was as soft (if not softer) than my S2000's!
lots of micro-marring and pad marks, so i went black LC + 106, and it finished down much nicer. I'd say about 70-80% correction. Once polished, and because they still weren't close to 100%, I opted for a base coat of NXT2.0
The owner then rode the naked bike over to take a look at the work so far, and so I could do the front end + the gas tank that were still on the bike. His brother then stopped by to pick up all the finished body parts.
Nate was happy with the bike so far, and once I waited two or three hours for the NXT to cure, I applied a nice thin layer of souveran. While waiting on the souveran to set, I finished the front end, and gas tank. All hoses / plastic pieces, etc were dressed with a foam applicator and Back-to-Black which really set off all the small details insuring it wasn't only going to be the paint looking nice.
With about everything done.... the bike needed an oil change and the body to be put back on. So the following morning, Nate brought her back over so I could get a couple final pics of how she cleaned up.
New bike again! (and why yes....that is some of the 11yards of mulch I was moving...)
the wind-screen will either be polished out to clear, or replaced with a black one - waiting to see which the owner wants, but at least the headlights now look good!
thanx for looking!