Restoring aluminum on radiator and oil cooler?

[MAXdB]

I've been living in San Francisco for a few years and the monster has taken a beating from the salt air and fog.  Other than the rust here and there, the aluminum on the radiator and oil cooler are showing a great deal of wear.  It looks almost like the top layer of the aluminum has been stripped off.     What is a solution for this?  I'm hoping to get the bike looking brand new again now that I have a little more time. 

[garryc]

I haven't tried it with aluminium and maybe worth getting a strip to try.
Amazing results with soaking steel in molasses.
Google it to see some results.
My batch was made up with 1 part molasses and 20 parts water.
Soak for a couple of weeks
pm me your email addy and i will forqward a couple of images of my results.
I cannot access photobucket etc from work

[DucHead]

What bike do you have?

I have a spare S4R (desmoquattro) radiator for sale.

[MAXdB]

I haven't tried it with aluminium and maybe worth getting a strip to try.
Amazing results with soaking steel in molasses.
Google it to see some results.
My batch was made up with 1 part molasses and 20 parts water.
Soak for a couple of weeks
pm me your email addy and i will forqward a couple of images of my results.
I cannot access photobucket etc from work

wow.. what does the molasses mix do--strip the top layer of aluminum off?

What bike do you have?

I have a spare S4R (desmoquattro) radiator for sale.

unfortunately, I've got the testa motor '07 s4rs.

[brad black]

generally they're painted silver.

[dufukincati]

Get an oil cooler/ radiator guard and cover it up, while also gaining some protection.

[MAXdB]

Get an oil cooler/ radiator guard and cover it up, while also gaining some protection.

I had the same idea and have covers on them now, but I'd prefer getting the radiator and cooler looking like they used to some 20k miles ago

After looking at garryc's before and after picture, I think I may look into using molasses with the aluminum (provided further research doesn't indicate it would harm anything).  Thanks garry!

[cayman s]

A trip to your local car wash that has a self-service wand will surely clean them up faster and with considerably less time and effort.

[SpikeC]

 I would be very cautious about using something acidic on an ally radiator, and that is what molasses would be as it contains citric acid. I have seem WD40 used to remove aluminum oxide.

[oldndumb]

I have worked with aluminum for quite a long time now and agree with Spike. The acidic properties of molasses would be detrimental to Al. There are acid treatments and/or brighteners for Al but, once used, corrosion immediately resumes unless the material is treated
and protective coated.

If it were me, and I was that concerned with it, I would just use one of the commercially available Al treatments. I would immediately follow that with an Alodine rinse, and then prime and paint it as Brad suggested.

BTW, I have seen this subject discussed in other bike and car forums and eventually someone suggests steel wool. Steel wool is one of the worst things you could do to Al. It sets up literally thousands of dissimilar corrosion pockets. Just a bit of forewarning.

[Howie]

generally they're painted silver.

Every Monster cooler I've seen is painted.

[dbran1949]

Agreed, you are seeing the silver paint peeling off. One very labor intensive option would be to remove the rest of the paint and then keep the aluminum polished with Nevr-Dull

Back when I was in the Navy I stripped all the paint off my 305 honda engine cases and polished them  by hand using the Nevr-Dull wadding