Soda blasted hubs. Not happy with results. Does yours look any better

Title kinda says it.

I soda blasted the middle of my hubs. The front is acceptable. But it doesn't look really good like I was hoping for. You know. Like new.

The back looks like I didn't touch it. When I was blasting it I kept checking my blaster to make sure there was soda coming out. I couldn't see it doing much of anything.

And yes I did use aircraft paint stripper first.

The front is a 73 TX750 hub. I could see the clear coat peal off of that. The back is a 72 XS2 hub. I seen no peeling with that. Did they not clear the backs.

I'm getting ready to sand blast all my other black paintable parts. I though about redoing the hubs. Will glass beads work for both the hubs and the black parts such as triple trees.

Here's what I have available locally.
http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/black-bulltrade%3B-no-80-grit-abrasive-glass-beads

Or is these hubs as good as they are going to get. Does yours look any better. Pics would be great. Especially of the back hub.

Yes, glass beads will do a much better job. They're more aggressive than soda but no where near as much as actual sand. They also do a wonderful job renovating brake drums and both brake shoes and pads. In fact, this is the method 3M from Vintage Brake recommends .....





I use soda blasting mostly for cleaning carbs. I don't find it aggressive enough for cleaning most of the other alloy parts unless they are pretty nice to begin with (no corrosion, just dirty).

1. With the glass beads would I need to mask off the rest of the hub. Seems like I would.

2. Are there different grits. Will the 80 in my link be ok.

3. Do you happen to have a pic of the center of a rear hub.

4. Thanks.

Cal did you try a Dico wheel yet?

gggGary said:

Cal did you try a Dico wheel yet?

Click to expand...

\Seems like from what I remember the 4" would not go all the way down on the front hub. I'll have to dig it out and recheck.

You will have some polishing to do after the bead blasting if you want "like new", or just start polishing now.

All you need mask off are the bearing bores or bearings if installed (glass beads and bearings don't mix well, lol) and block off any bolt holes like for the sprocket or disc mount. I stick old bolts in them. The 80 grit should be fine, I think that's what I have. I got it at HF when I bought my blasting cabinet there but it appears they don't carry the glass beads anymore. It's nice to see I can get them at Tractor Supply. They have a store much closer to me than the nearest HF and their price looks better too. I think the beads cost me about $35 at HF.

This is a wheel I pulled out of my dealer's boneyard, it was pretty rough. Yes, that's mold on the center flange, lol ......



It was bad all over, both inside and out. 10+ years outside in a boneyard will do that, lol. But it's my own fault, I put it there. Back then, I didn't think I'd need it .....





Through the power of blasting, Roloc discs, and buffing, it cleaned up quite nicely .....





As I mentioned in another thread, I don't go for a super polish on my hub centers, just nice and clean, leaving the original texture. The glass beads should remove all those black specs from your hub centers, which I assume is what you're after.

You'll get that because soda just cleans. It doesn't abrade.

Well, I think I went from not good enough to too good.

I used the 80 grit black bull stuff. Thank God I didn't use the 30-70 grit stuff that I bought in my other thread.

I think this might be too rough. Definitely rougher looking than 5twins pics.

Does the pic's look like they're too rough. Or do they look OK. If it's too rough, do I dare try to go ahead and buff them and say screw it. Let them do what they will. Or even clear coat I guess.

Opinions please.

BTW. I can see I missed a couple little spots I need to hit again.

Yeah, that's a bit rough.
But, it'll help the rear drum to stay cool.

.....And dirty...

I did my TX 750 hub today with 80 then 240 Dico wheels. I'm ok with the results I guess, even with the swirlies, compared to the crusty originals.

But removing the grime uncovered a cavity in the hub lip (pic). I am relacing with new spokes etc. - is this cavity an issue do you think?