trek97 said:Rachel spent the summer riding.
This morning it happened.
Not planning any mods, just a good clean up.
Hurco550 said:solid old bike she is. looking forward to it!
WhyNot said:dayyyyum, that thing exploded..........
Sonreir said:That looks like acceptable fuel for the given task.
irk miller said:That's awesome. How's the air compressor keeping up? You seem to be getting plenty done.
Maritime said:Coming along great.
Sonreir said:Nice progress.
trek97 said:Rach just said "Xylene is a really strong solvent, and she cant imagine it NOT melting rubber." So maybe I should check every 3 hours???
echo said:I was reading this thread for the 1st time. My 1st bike was a 750 hondamatic and my second was a cm400t so this is neat.
I do want to weigh in on that xylene discussion since I am a chemist. It's not going to dissolve your parts, but I would not use it and here is why: xylene is a very strong extracting solvent and will extract and remove plastcizers out of the rubber and polymer parts. Those are chemicals that make them pliable. It's going to penetrate into the material and make it temporarily pliable but its also volatile so it will gradually evaporate away, leaving behind a part that is less pliable and maybe even a bit shrunk. Interestingly if it shrinks at all that could be temporarily a good thing on say some carb boots that got a little stretched out and were not sealing well. But I think it's going to end up cracking and disintegrating sooner. Plus it's bad bad shit to inhale, I think it caused blood cancers and we don't touch it in the lab except in the fume hood. I like to soak hard rubber in armor all because it replaces and builds up plasticizers.
Sonreir said:Interestingly enough, a combination of Xylene and Wintergreen oil works quite well for restoring old rubber parts. The oil possibly filling the gaps as the Xylene evaporates?
Maritime said:She'll look better than when she left the Honda factory when you are done