R1150RT rusty bolt heads

So I finally had a free day to give my RT a little TLC. I noticed many of the bolt heads, especially brake fasteners, have started rusting while stored during the winter. The bike was stored inside a non-heated garage, but it's pretty dry.
Any ideas on how I can clean this up and prevent it in the future?

Thanks

No “easy” fix, H used naval jelly on her 1100R with some success. I have removed, lightly steel wooled, painted some. The fasteners are plated... cadmium maybe? Wire wheeling will clean, but remove any coatings from my experience.

Your dry storage still appears to let bike sweat... any pool chemicals like chlorine in there?

About 7 years ago I bought a product called MotoJacket to store my new to my 2004 R1150RT over the winterr. Basically a large zippered up bag that you place the bike in for long term storage. You also put desiccant bags in before zipping it up. I do this every winter as I too have an unheated garage and live in Ohio. Every year the bike comes out looking like the day I put it in. I have been very happy with the product. Even used one designed for a car and stored in a unheated self storage unit over a winter. Same results, even the brake disk had zero evidence of any rust or corrosion starting. Here is a link.
https://www.carbag.com/motojacket/

Something is amiss. Voni's R1100RS at 28 years old with 414,000 miles does not have rust like that. My 2003 R1150R with 189,000 miles on it when I sold it a year ago had no sign of such rust on those very same bolts. Steve's (Henzilla) question about chemicals is a good one. Something about the storage conditions are conducive to corrosion. Any fertilizer stored nearby?

The other possibility is that somebody at some time used an abrasive or wire brush to polish the fastener heads which removed the protective plating and allowed the corrosion.

karnic said:

The bike was stored inside a non-heated garage, but it's pretty dry.

Click to expand...

I'm willing to bet you have some pretty significant temperature fluctuations in that garage. Below freezing to above freezing will have your bike sweating (and rusting).

As far as a solution is concerned, replace the bolts you can. Clean or paint the bolts you can't replace.

All of the above

The answer may be all of the above.
It's a detached garage. Here in NJ it's 50F one week, 20F the next. So there are significant temperature swings.
I have just about every type of fertilizer/lawn product available that I've bought over the past 20 years stored in there. I'm sure that's not helping.
I checked the other fasteners on the bike, as well as several garden machines that are stored in the garage, none of them are rusting as badly. This leads me to believe the PO may have polished the front wheel and removed coating on these fasteners.

I'll remove the rusted bolts one at a time and clean and either paint or spray some clear coat on them.

Thanks for the replies...

BMW's lawyers love the use of loctite... heat will help getting the bolts out. Especially on the rotor bolts.

I use Fluid Film to spray on shock tubes and other weather sensitive areas.

LPS Rust Inhibitor is a little thicker and lasts a little longer.

I also use a Sta-Lube Water Resistant Marine Grease at gear shift pivots and linkages and brake pedal pivots. I also use this as assembly lube for various exposed assemblies as well.

I do not use blue locktite anywhere. The torque values for those assemblies is sufficient in my mind. Never had an issue.