Jim's 1980 SG Miss September

[Jim]

I'm in Love With a Stripper!
No.... no not that kind of stripper..... silly

This kind of stripper...

This stuff is awesome!! I put some on the fork lowers to get rid of the yellowed clear coat. It took about a min. to apply it top to bottom. When I went back to the top to apply a second coat, the brush literally started brushin' the paint off....

it really worked that fast. I got it from Ace Hardware and I think it only cost 'bout 6 bucks a qt. I bought it to remove the carbon from the valves, pistons and such and really wasn't that impressed. The clear coat however is a different story... it blew me away. I haven't tried it on heat baked engine stuff yet, but it was well worth the cost for the lowers.


Removed all the casting marks and road rash from the lowers and went to buffin'....

One down.... one to go...

Oh...... and this is what you look like after standin' in front of my buffer for 30 min. It doesn't have a guard around the wheel.....

Right now my shop looks even worse than I do. Better get to cleanin'...

 

[Downeaster]

How'd ya stay so clean? I know folks that could rebuild a bike from the ground up wearing white coveralls and not have a mark on them.

Me? I could walk through a sterile operating room and come out looking like I'd been doing the backstroke in a grease pit.

Nice job on the lowers! I admire folks with the ambition to do that in the first place, much less set them selves up for the never-ending task of KEEPING it looking that good.

 

[5twins]

Yes, buffing is a dirty job, lol. I wear an old hard hat with a flip-up full plastic face shield. I also do most of my buffing outside now. I built a little portable table on wheels for my buffers .....

 

[Jim]

How'd ya stay so clean?

Heh... the poor lighting hear in the shop didn't do it justice. When I went in and looked in the mirror it looked like I painted my face black.

 

[Jim]

I built a little portable table on wheels for my buffers .....

I just added that to my "to do" list.

 

[gggGary]

Pretty! the parts, not your mug.
You've been in maint so you KNOW! Get the damned mask on, microscopic cotton fibers mixed with wax and abrasive particles is not on the approved inhalants list. Yes a flip shield and at least a paper mask.
MEK calls for open doors, eye, and skin covering. The tiniest dot of that stuff stings like the dickens.
The crap we do to get a pretty ride...........

 

[5twins]

For a final touch of "bling", swap out the (probably) ratty looking Phillips drain screws for stainless Allens (M4 x 8) .....

 

[Jim]

You're right Gary. When I was teachin' I used to preach safety. Time for a dose of my own medicine

MEK calls for open doors, eye, and skin covering. The tiniest dot of that stuff stings like the dickens.

Before they found out it destroys your liver, it was the weapon of choice for washin' grease off your hands, arms... whatever. Works great for pinpointing the source of blood

 

[gggGary]

You wouldn't be thinking of Carbon tet would you? The old man kept a bottle for wash up, he died of pancreatic cancer at 68.

 

[Jim]

You wouldn't be thinking of Carbon tet would you?

We used MEK.... and Carbon Tet, and Tolulene, and Mastinox, and on and on.... if it kills your liver or causes cancer, aircraft engineers can't help themselves. They gotta require it's use in the manual.

 

[robinc]

MAN! That fork tube looks amazing Jim!
Nice job!

 

[Jim]

Thanks Robin.

 

[Mailman]

Jim the fork legs look great, that last photo had me cackling! I know what you mean that crap flys everywhere!
I am not as organized as having a dedicated buffing set up, but I have a little folding table that I take outdoor and then clamp my buffer to it. And yeah, I'm all about protection, mask, face sheild gloves, the whole shebang!

Gary, I think so many of us , our generation, that worked in industrial environments when we were young, were exposed to SO much! In my past, welding, working for copper mines, fleet garages, I know I was exposed to so many chemicals. But what really keeps me up at night with worry is my exposure to asbestos. Yikes!

PS Jim, just let me know when your ready for MY fork legs!

 

[Jim]

Thanks Bob.

But what really keeps me up at night with worry is my exposure to asbestos. Yikes!

Yeah, me too. When I first started workin' on airplanes (late 60's), you couldn't throw a wrench inside an engine bay without hittin' some asbestos. Yikes indeed.

 

[Downeaster]

For the first half of my Navy career, a big chunk of my job involved cleaning, maintaining and adjusting humungous reel-to-reel tape recorders. We're talking bigger than a refrigerator, 14" reels and 1" wide tape.

The manual-specified solution for cleaning record and reproduce heads was Trichlor - Triclorotrifluoroethane. I don't know that it's ever been listed as a carcinogen, but I do know it will suck all the oils out of your skin in short order and I damn near bathed in the stuff 8 times per shift, 6 shifts a week for 8 years.

 

[Jim]

Trichlor - Triclorotrifluoroethane.

We just called it "Trike." Would even make red hydraulic fluid disappear from a white shirt. Our ultrasonic cleaners were filled with it. It was banned 'cause it destroys the Ozone. I don't know if it was a carcinogen either....

 

[Mailman]

Now that's an Avatar! Haha! I think I'm keeping mine.

 

[gggGary]

One time I sawed a 4x8 sheet of 1/8" asbestos in half with a circle saw, but I held my breath.........
A lot of the schools I attended had steam heat, all the pipes were covered in asbestos insulation. Kids were always picking and pulling on it.
I torched and scraped all the paint off one side of a 1900 victorian. Kinda lost interest doing the rest of the house that way.
Imron painted a car in a small garage in winter. Have used gallons of acetone and toweling cleaning off old varnish and paint. Fortunately only spent a year as welder.

 

[Jim]

Now that's an Avatar! Haha! I think I'm keeping mine.

Was just seeing how it looked. I didn't like it

 

[Jim]

Imron painted a car in a small garage in winter.

Used Imron for years... got some real horror stories.
Boeing used to use Mastinox grease in it's landing gear struts. It's one of the most carcinogenic substances known to man. We used to call it "cancer in a tube."