WELL well well!!! I have just spent over a month investigating the possibility of making my comstars look good!!!! The brief with my F2 build was to ( as far as viably possible) use as many of the stock items as possible!! I have a set of spoked wheels, but NO, NO i thought to myself, (like a Tw**) lets see if with hard work, determination and loads of effort, tears and torn fingernails , I can make a set of comstars look good, nay even magnificent!! ( may as well go for broke I thought) lets see if it is possible I thought..........and so the work began, and on and on and on and on it went, night after night after day after day.........There is no doubt about it ( I counseled myself), no doubt about it, Honda TESTED these wheels to destruction before letting them loose on a public that it knew would question them, AND question and deride them they did, AND STILL do.....BUT, honda never put a wheel under as much testing as this one.....I comforted myself with this thought as my fingernails exploded inbetween the comstar "spokes"
Worse was to come....BUT, once started I will not give up,no not even in the warm-glow of sheer stupidity.......This is how it went.......Remember for ever action mentioned here times it by two (once for each wheel)
I thought I would start by cleaning the road grease off to "see what i had got",normally an easy task, but OH NO not with comstars, a couple of days with a toothbrush or three and a piece of rag wrapped round a piece of bent wire to "get into the inside of said spokes" nasty, real nasty...
Then I had to manufacture another tool bent in three ways with a rag wrapped around it to get to the hub........nightmares beset my normal sleep patterns now, and I felt depressed every morning when i woke up.
The "tool" i had made fell apart, more time was wasted constructing a new one, but finally the hub was polished with solvol and looked good......BUT, the inside of those spokes was still letting things down.......Then I noticed something...........................Using a magnifying glass i looked real close ( you cant NOT do that with a magnifying glass of course) at the "hard chromed steel spokes" OH DEARY , oh deary me...what were all those tiny black dots that you can just see, yep, thats rust coming through..NOW what, take off the tyre and get the whole lot rechromed?
well that will be cheap wont it? choices: use rust eater and polish after ( that wont stop it coming back again) OR flat it back and paint? NO, paint will look #$%*e I thought.......so, I hatched a plan, a diabolical plan that was to hurt me real bad, allthough I knew it not just yet!
A few days of gentle flatting with 1000's grade wet and dry (used wet) and then t-cut brought the spokes presentable, but I knew as soon as the wheels hit the road in the wet, back would come the rust, not good and not wanted......So, I masked everything up except the spokes and misted on a "tack coat" of two-pack laquer. ( repeat "misted-on" and a "a tack-coat") THEN, after ten minuites,a couple of "double header main coats" Then the next day, flatted down with 1000's (again) and a couple more coats of laquer went on... should you try this way, remember the tack coat, if you try and put a layer of paint on bare metal, it WILL run, if you dont tack coat it first!!
Not a run in sight, and wheels protected against our horrid weather, I will post some pics see what you reckon........THEN came the bad thing, the real bad thing..................
It felt like I had splinters in my hands.......sort of everywhere.....I have never had any metal allergy or intolerence ever before in my life....UP UNTILL NOW.......flatting the "hard chrome" spokes that would have a layer of nickel underneath when manufactured but now years kater it aint underneath any more.....oops, then my fingers came out in horrible lumps that itched like #$%*e... lasted a few days,; (like a week or so).......Dont clean these spokes without gloves on, I wont ever again!!!! BUT , I reckon I achieved "comstar concourseness" BUT will not do it again, not for any money, I hate comstars, they wasted two months of my life, gave me nightmares in my bed at night, gave me nightmares in the day, worried me, made my paws go mange ridden,cut my fingers up real bad and tore my fingernails, and how f*****ing long will they look good for i ask myself daily? and how will i clean them when they are on my f2? was it worth it ?NO. I will ditch them in the future when they look crap again and swap for spoked, just like i should have done before i went insane, the nurses here are cruel to me as well.
kaceyf2
