Topic: Re-spoking my wheels...A question about hubs, and cleaning them...

[toycollector10]

When I get my spokes off the rims I will be able to polish my hubs.

1. Did the insides of the hubs have a clear coat on them ex factory? Will I have to remove this, if it's there, with paint stripper?

2. My hubs look pretty good at the moment despite being 38 years old. I'm just going to use Autosol Chrome Polish and elbow grease to clean them up. Do I need to spray on a clear coat once I'm happy with the result.

Do you guys have any tips or hints. I looked through FAQ's but couldn't find much on this.

Thanks.

[Jonesy]

I remember 736cc giving tips in a thread about the ways to get the factory-correct finish, but I have no idea what the subject was... Hopefully he'll post here.

[Lumbee]

...the rims were chrome, so I don't think there was any type of clear coat on them.  After they are polished up, you could go with a sealer.  Zoop, and I think Mothers makes some also.  Not cheap though!!!

http://www.zoops.com/zoopseal.asp

[736cc]

OEM factory hubs are clear-lacquered over virgin UNPOLISHED aluminum. If you already have a very nice looking hub, clean and wax it w/ a non-abrasive car polish then re-spoke it. If you want it pristine, vapor-blast it (as opposed to bead blast) then clearcoat it.
Another way I've used is to zip-strip it chemically (paint strip goop),  wash w/ hydroflouric acid (Mothers Chrome Wire Wheel Cleaner) then polish the heck out of it w/ 000 then 0000 steel wool combined w/ penetrol (DO NOT USE ANY ALUMINUM POLISH!), trying to keep the steel wool rubbing parrallel (as opposed to random patterns), then clearcoat.
Eastwood makes a good rattle can metal clearcoat.
NICE WHEELS CAN"T BE BEAT AND WORTH ALL THE TROUBLE AND EXPENSE!!

[rhinoracer]

I advise against using any kind of steel abrasives on aluminum, I'm sure you've heard that before but I had to learn the hard way.

After scraping the side covers with a steel wire brush I started the polishing with a steel wire wheel then with progressively finer sandpaper. I couldn't bring the covers to a shine because orange rust spots kept bubbling out to the surface of the aluminum. I left the covers outdoor a couple of months so all the steel could rust away then started again with 100 grit sandpaper.

[736cc]

..never had a problem w/ steel wool contamination after 40 some-od CB750 restos; maybe because i always wash the parts after w/ S-100

[bgfootball67]

By the time I re spoked my rims, the hubs had most of the clear off them.  Just polished the crap out of them. 

[toycollector10]

Thanks for the advice guys. I have just spent the last 6 hours today and about the same amount of time yesterday shining away.

My rear rim has the brass or bronze showing through but I'm not re-plating. It's just patina of age. I'm even going to leave the "cats piss" on the front forks. If I get one part of the bike looking too shiny and new then it's going to take the great look of age away from that area and make the machine look "not right". If that makes sense. This isn't a restoration, its a freshening up.

My new new spokes are zinc and I'm getting the nipples coated in yellow zinc. The picture on the CMSNL website showed the nipples to be yellow but when they arrived they were just regular silver zinc. No worries, only $15 NZ to get that fixed. There was no way I was going to put stainless steel spokes on. I would rather the zinc oxidise and mellow down than have two big bright shiny sets of spokes, I don't think it would look right.

So I will take all the fixin's down to lacing guy later this week. I'm not game to try it myself and besides, it won't cost a hell of a lot to pay the expert to get it 100 % right.

Pictures to come.........

[Jonesy]

C'mon... lacing wheels isn't that hard...