How to get melted fabric off of exhaust header?

[mstevens]

My wife's Dainese pants melted onto her exhaust header when her leg touched it. I'm not really sure what the material is, but the rapid melting makes me suspect nylon.

She's now got a lovely layer of rough black goo that smells nice when things heat up.

What's the best way to get this stuff off with minimal damage to the header? Obviously, I'd prefer to be able to get it looking the way it used to. Failing that, I'd like to get as much of the melted plastic off as possible without spreading it any further.

Any hints?

[ScottRNelson]

This worked pretty good to get some stuff off of my exhaust pipes when I was cleaning up my ST2 yesterday:
http://www.mrclean.com/en_US/magic-eraser.do

[Artful]

My advice is start it up and go riding. The nylon will smell like a bag of smashed assholes, but it will eventually turn into a powder and be easy to scrape off. After the pipes cool down take a stiff plastic bristle brush to it, then a bit of gasoline.

I don't know of any way to get it instantly better, the mark will be there for a while without some sort of abrasive, which might polish the header a bit. Might try some #000 steel wool, just don't rub too aggressively or you might end up with an unwanted shiny spot.

[stopintime]

Someone once mentioned an old school razor blade. No FHE though.

[WTSDS]

Plenty FHE here, had a placcy bag or something similar wrap itself around some non-Monster chromed headers. Use very sharp blade, be gentle and take your time, aim at the interface b/w plastic and metal, i.e. try not to scratch the metal.

[64duc]

Someone once mentioned an old school razor blade. No FHE though.

 Hardware stores carry single edge. Harder to cut your finger off. They also make a scraper handle for said blade.
 Still a pain because straight blade + round pipe = small point of contact.

[Ducnial]

Go after it with Scotchbrite

[mstevens]

My advice is start it up and go riding. The nylon will smell like a bag of smashed assholes, but it will eventually turn into a powder and be easy to scrape off.

It's been several rides totaling a couple of hundred miles, and no signs of turning into a powder yet.

I think I'll start with a hard plastic scraper with the pipe cold and go from there.

[mstevens]

Go after it with Scotchbrite

What type? That stuff can be pretty abrasive.

[ducpainter]

It's been several rides totaling a couple of hundred miles, and no signs of turning into a powder yet.

I think I'll start with a hard plastic scraper with the pipe cold and go from there.

Don't think that will touch it...

Go after it with Scotchbrite

You're braver than I am.

[ScottRNelson]

Go after it with Scotchbrite

Scotchbrite will leave permanent marks.  The Mr. Clean stuff that I recommended will not.

[mstevens]

I don't expect a plastic scraper will do very much, which at this point is fine with me. It might chip off a bit of the melted plastic, but it's not very likely at all to scratch the header. Following that, probably some careful work with a single-edged razor blade. I may try one of those Mr. Clean "Magic Erasers" once the lesion is de-bulked. Since solvents aren't going to hurt the header, I may experiment with various ones to see if anything dissolves the bits I chip off.

[Howie]

Oven cleaner should work if it is burnt on, caution is needed though.  It can remove lots of other stuff from your bike.

[Javamoose]

If it is Nylon, Nitric Acid and Formic Acid will dissolve it.  But I really wouldn't recommend using either or those unless you've worked in a lab and know how to handle nasty acids.  

[mstevens]

If it is Nylon, Nitric Acid and Formic Acid will dissolve it.  But I really wouldn't recommend using either or those unless you've worked in a lab and know how to handle nasty acids. 

I've worked with nitric acid (and my wife's worked with way nastier stuff) and have little desire to mess around with it out in the barn. I'm not even sure where I'd get any at this point.

However, if I did get any I have plenty of cotton to use as an applicator... Nitrocellulose can be fun, if my hazy recollections of long weekends in the lab without adult supervision (when I was in med school) are correct.

I don't recall having run into formic acid, but I assume it smells wonderful. We do have plenty of ants around here, so maybe I could distill a colony to make some.