TimeMachine
SeventyEighte
And, hey Brassneck, being a PNW guy, a fyi I've noticed a very nice 79 Special II w/ those nice Alum rims & drum advertised in Ptld Craigslist.. Im out but anybody interested ? Id investigate..
-
Enjoy XS650.com? Consider making a donation to help support the site.
XS650.com receives a small share of sales from some links on this page, but direct donations have a much greater impact on keeping this site going.
On the road again at 40.............the bike that is..........PART DEUX
- Thread starter robinc
- Start date
Hey Pete,
Running great! I had it out an "aboot" the last few weeks with our decent weather. So fun. How is your project coming along??
Thanks TimeMachine! You should post the link. I'm not looking for another one, but someone probably is.
....hmmmmmm....grumble, grumble grumble.....no real progress to date except that I now have the carbs cleaned and sorted out (I think) and I have assembled all of the necessary parts. The big issue has been the flow of consulting work coming in - challenging and interesting - but it is slowing me down on anything that looks like fun.
dammit.
Oh well, the bills must be paid I guess.
Cheers,
Pete
dammit.
Oh well, the bills must be paid I guess.
Cheers,
Pete
ron bayless
XS650 Addict
I can hardly believe the before and after of your chrome.I have never seen autosol.I am going to look for steel wool tomorrow.Your bike is exactly what i want mine to be.Your pictures also show me where a lot of my parts are supposed to be and look like.Mine is way far from running.
Hey Ron, been enjoying reading of your adventures. You've got quite the project there but you'll get er done.
You dove in and the amazing guys here will keep you afloat. This is a pretty awesome place as I'm sure you are discovering and no shortage of helpful advice.
With regard to the chrome, it is amazing what a little elbow grease can accomplish.
Steel wool is available at most hardware stores. You can normally buy an assorted bag of course to fine, 0, 00, 000, 0000 or 4 ought is the finest and is used in furniture finishing to achieve a fine polish without scratching. Start with the finest then work your way up to courser grades if required. The courser grades will scratch more. Scratches can be removed from aluminum but not from chrome. Use some dish detergent / water mix or Mothers chrome polish as a lubricant and this will help reduce scratching. In the case of the chrome clean up here, the Autosol is really just providing a protective coating, but I did apply a few times and hand buffed.
Autosol is available at Auto centers or bike shops. There are other polishes, Blue Magic I think is another popular one here, but I can't find it in Canada.
Autosol is also great for polishing aluminum parts and with some effort you can achieve a mirror finish on aluminum with it alone. Fine wet dry sandpaper will move the process along quicker and power buffers, wheels etc. with buffing compounds will get quicker results on aluminum as well.
Glad to hear the pics have helped some.
Will look forward to following your journey. Hang in and you'll get there. You have already been given a lot of solid advice, forge on.
Take care.
You dove in and the amazing guys here will keep you afloat. This is a pretty awesome place as I'm sure you are discovering and no shortage of helpful advice.
With regard to the chrome, it is amazing what a little elbow grease can accomplish.
Steel wool is available at most hardware stores. You can normally buy an assorted bag of course to fine, 0, 00, 000, 0000 or 4 ought is the finest and is used in furniture finishing to achieve a fine polish without scratching. Start with the finest then work your way up to courser grades if required. The courser grades will scratch more. Scratches can be removed from aluminum but not from chrome. Use some dish detergent / water mix or Mothers chrome polish as a lubricant and this will help reduce scratching. In the case of the chrome clean up here, the Autosol is really just providing a protective coating, but I did apply a few times and hand buffed.
Autosol is available at Auto centers or bike shops. There are other polishes, Blue Magic I think is another popular one here, but I can't find it in Canada.
Autosol is also great for polishing aluminum parts and with some effort you can achieve a mirror finish on aluminum with it alone. Fine wet dry sandpaper will move the process along quicker and power buffers, wheels etc. with buffing compounds will get quicker results on aluminum as well.
Glad to hear the pics have helped some.
Will look forward to following your journey. Hang in and you'll get there. You have already been given a lot of solid advice, forge on.
Take care.
ron bayless
XS650 Addict
This site is one of probably 10 I have been on over the last 20 years.It is totally what a do it yourselfer like myself needs. It is fantastic for me. Plus no one here corrects my grammar,spelling, and punctuation. On the GSR guys there do it constantly.Plus they even criticize my picture posting, say I do it wrong. The picture is either visible or it isnt.What other rules needed. Ithink ur all grate.
Your mufflers seem to have come out real nice using steel wool. However, from everything I read on the subject, steel wool is reported to slightly dull the shine of chrome, permanently. Some have used bronze wool, as it is softer. I've used aluminum plus water or WD40 successfully, with no dulling. It requires changing the foil frequently, as the brown oxide particles being cleaned off can scratch the chrome.
Hey Yamadude, thank you and ya I have found too much pressure and not enough lubricant with steel wool can scratch and dull the chrome for sure and there's no coming back from that. And even being careful, you're probably right that there is a degree of lessening the shine.
Haven't heard of bronze wool, will look for that for sure.
I have read on here about the aluminum foil trick and found it scratched the chrome badly/quickly. Maybe the amount of rust I was removing was too much for the foil and 'clogged' it quickly with oxide particles as you say, like a piece of sandpaper will get clogged with wood particles. Or maybe it was my technique that was improper and I wasn't using enough lubricant. I will give it a go again in the future.
Haven't heard of bronze wool, will look for that for sure.
I have read on here about the aluminum foil trick and found it scratched the chrome badly/quickly. Maybe the amount of rust I was removing was too much for the foil and 'clogged' it quickly with oxide particles as you say, like a piece of sandpaper will get clogged with wood particles. Or maybe it was my technique that was improper and I wasn't using enough lubricant. I will give it a go again in the future.
I think Yamadude has it right. You are liberating the iron oxide with any of these techniques and you want to flush it away. Don't be frugal with your cleaning medium; aluminum, steel wool, brass wool. Or your solvent; water, Windex, WD40 etc.
Autosol is interesting stuff. It's sort of like toothpaste - but for metal. I have been told that I t was developed in Germany in the 1930s to shine up all those big open-top M-Bs limos that the "former management" used to ride around in.
TimeMachine
SeventyEighte
Whatever happened to "Naval jelly " that pink slime ate rust pretty nicely as I remember ?
Rust?? Sh!t....I used to use it in my belly button!!!!
.....hmmmmm....perhaps that was not the "navel" for which it was intended. H
.....hmmmmm....perhaps that was not the "navel" for which it was intended. H
TimeMachine
SeventyEighte
oh no....
For some quick and dirty cleaning of a non prize part, I have used the orange hand cleaner that Cndn Tire and other stores have, cleans it up, dulls it a bit, but saves them from the bin. (not that I throw anything out)
Hi robinc,
my late father-in-law used to say terrible things to recalcitrant vehicles but he used his native Welsh so I didn't understand what he said.
One time he and I were underneath his Hillman Minx pulling it's transmission when it unexpectedly came loose and fell onto his hand.
"What did you call it, Bill?
"MOCHYN DDU. it's about the vilest term in the Welsh language. It's literal translation is, Black Pig."
Nice name for a bike, eh?
ron bayless
XS650 Addict
anything that ends with do do is nasty.
Gordon in nc
XS650 Junkie
Looking forward to more
of this.Gordon in NC
Ha,ha,ha Fred, that's too funny.
Well, here's hoping I don't resort to calling her that as we get better aquainted. Lol.
Simichrome is another good paste polish for chrome and aluminum.
