Unsolicited bike care product endorsement. I took this bike apart recently. It was the only one of my few frames I hadn't treated with Frame Saver since I moved here to the relatively humid northeast. Never worried much about it out in the dry Great Basin.
Anyway, after the treatment I decided I'd better clean the frame before putting all the parts back on it. It occurred to me while doing it that it had probably been since I acquired this bike in the mid 80's that I last waxed it. I'm pretty sure I would have used the same stuff back then. I've been a fan of Meguiar's Mirror Glaze products since then and used their products on my car. The paint on that car looked like the day I bought it when I sold it 15 years later. I mean, this bike looked pretty damned good but I was amazed at how this stuff really brought out the shine in the 40 year old paint. I can't recommend this stuff highly enough. Mirror Glaze #6 Cleaner wax. It's Good Chit!







Got any Good Chit to recommend?

I do, any car wax will do, as well as pledge, WD40 etc, looks good though.

Beauty! What is the frame?

Motobecane Champion Team. On which, or on any of my bikes, would I ever put WD-40. Or Pledge.

That does look good.

You do mean NEVER?

Thanks for the tip! I'll pick some up today for a frame I'm selling. Eventually I'll get to my bikes.

I've never been big on "detailing" myself, but I find I'm considering waxing. (My bike, thank you very much.) This looks like a good product. I assume you just use it on the frame, not the chrome, right? (I know there are other things specifically for chrome...) And it's OK with decals?

Also, if anyone would like to chime in on the pro/cons of waxing (even polishing in general) I'm listening.

Yes. Neither of those is good, long term protection as far as I'm concerned. And personally, I worry about what's in Pledge, and that WD-40 might just attract dust. Neither of them is designed for paint, so I stick with what is.

What's nice about this stuff is that it removes the very top layer of grime that can attach itself to paint. And no, I didn't see any evidence at all of any orange paint coming off on the rag. It's not that aggressive. But it does remove the oxidation and age grime. I leave the Scratch X for tougher spots. But this stuff works wonders on lightly dulled paint, IMO.

It's not cheap, and I used to have to find this stuff at the auto body supply houses. But it's available online now. Maybe even Auto Zone.

I can think of only one possible con to waxing, Jethin. If the bike is ever destined to be painted, or even touched up, wax can be a bit tricky to remove. On this bike, since the chrome was already pretty clean and polished, I did rub the chrome socks on the fork with it but just to add a thin layer of wax. really didn't need it.

One other thing. Many bikes have clear coats. Vintage ones too. For some reason, this one wasn't, while my 75 Le Champion was. I found this stuff worked very well on that too, to remove a bit of the top, yellowing haze in the clear coat.

When I was riding my Harley RoadGlide that was the wax of choice. The Harley was painted Diamond Ice and had an arseload of chrome. Meguiars would add a depth to the paint and protected the chrome very nicely. It would also ensure that I would find clouds of gnats each time I rode it after polishing and also create torrential rain storms when none were predicted. It also made cleaning clouds of gnats and road film from torrential rain easier to clean off it so i could do it all over again. I don't miss that chore at all.

It's rootboy...you had to ask?

I'm against Pledge cause it contains silicone. That may be fine for paint (or maybe not, but it IS controversial and I have chosen my side) but it IS a headache for refinishing. It's an easy thing to avoid silicone, JUST SAY NO.
WD-40 I have no problem with: the solvents and oil are so weak and mild they have not attacked anything or left any "lubricant" that did any harm (or did any real lubrication, either!).
Wax has never been that difficult for me to remove, most of the time the solvents in new wax will clean off any old stuff when you re-apply (to a CLEAN surface) so it's kind of a self-renewing process. The "cleaners" in cleaning wax are abrasives and will vary from brand so you really have to use the stuff to see how aggressive one might be in your hands and on your paint....trial and error. If you shop hard for it, you can find automotive wax that has NO "cleaner". Mothers makes one.

The paint on that Moto looks fantastic!

Yep, Meguire's makes good stuff. I'll definitely keep this in mind. They make a plastic polish/scratch remover, that works really well on old turntable dust covers, so I imagine it'd be great for headlight lenses & such. That reminds me, I lost my red blinky light yesterday, from bumpy terrain.

The Meguiar's Pro line of products are great! Have been using them for years to detail cars, motorcycles and bicycles. You can usually find at NAPA stores on the shelf or they may have in the back. NAPA will also bring product not in the store, into the store from their local distribution warehouse.

As for painting after using Meguiar's, several of their products state right on the bottle, suitable for painting. If you have really poor paint, you can try the Fine, Medium and Full Cut Cleaners. These are more refined versions of Rubbing Compound.

You can't go wrong with using car products on most all bicycle paint and chrome, as the biker makers use the same paints as car companies. Just take care and start in an inconspicuous place to see how the paint reacts.

Here is the line I use when detailing, https://www.meguiars.com/en/professional/products/
Again most all this should be available through your local NAPA.

Waxing and polishing are two different things. Polish is a mild abrasive that removes dirt, oxidized paint and small scratches; the shine and smooth finish comes from the polish. Wax protects the paint and can add "depth" to the paints appearance. It can contain UV blockers and other things to minimize environmental damage to the paint.

The Mequiars Cleaner Wax is wax that has a mild polish mixed in. It saves time and effort from a separate polishing followed by waxing routine. Although I generally do the separate steps (habit from years of car care) for a bike used in anything but the harshest of conditions, the cleaner waxes work great. And I agree with rootboy, Mequiars make a quality product!

My understanding is that silicone is hell for adherance of any paint or coating. So much so that certain auto manufacturers absolutely PROHIBIT their suppliers from having even trace amounts of silicone in their products or processes.

[edit] as clarification, I'm referring to adherence of new paint/coating applied on a surface with trace amounts of silicone. Silicone is not a problem for existing paint.

I've never waxed any of my bikes, I've only wiped them down with a damp cloth. I always stay away from the decals as well. Thanks for the recommendation, it looks like it does a fanstic job, it sure did on that orange bike. :-) On a similar note, does anyone have any recommendations on what to use to remove scuff marks? Thanks!

Flash

The Mequiars Cleaner Wax should remove the scuff marks with a little work.

Pledge! WD40!

Meguiars products are amazing. I'm certain there are other paint care products that work as well, but when one is found to work way beyond your expectations, why switch? 10 plus years now I've used Meguiars on frame restorations and have never been disappointed.

Yes, I've found it does. But it is awfully mild stuff. For tougher scuffs, I use a bit of their ScratchX, which seems to have a bit more aggressive compound in it.

I used some of their #17 and 10 on my head lights last month , on a foam head for my buffer. Removed the haze and shined them up very well.

I'm a real Meguiar's fan.

ScratchX would be faster but I'm always inclined to try the least aggressive product first and then get more aggressive if it doesn't work.

Me too.