The front and rear wheels were dirty from their age, but after showing the bike to my friend, he recommended that I just take some Mag Aluminum Polish (The stuff we used back in college to finish all our metals projects) and it would clean up quite nicely.
You can see from the Photograph above that the polish had a positive impact on all the dirt and grime, but it didn't do much for the spokes. I decided to give the polish a rest and use some #0000 steel wool and went spoke by spoke to remove the "green patina" that was on the spokes which revealed the silvery metal below.
The level of rust on the exhaust pipes was major, but luckily all the rust was only surface rust and was easy to scrub off with some steel wool.
Polished good as new with some course steel wool, followed by #0000 steel wool, then applying some Mag Aluminum & Chrome Polish. I have a feeling that all the chrome on this bike will be a constant battle to keep clean, and rust free because they really should just be re-chromed.
I am thankful that Lucky, my family's Cocker Spaniel/Schnauzer mix, was enjoying being cool under the tree in the front yard while I worked on polishing the BMW. She was so cute, most of the time her nose was buried in the plants and all you could see of her face were her long eyebrows moving back and forth as they scanned the street for other dogs.
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