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That GB500 brake unit has some nice lines to it. Good job on the polishing too. 8)
I have ofeten thought about picking up an electric die grinder, my pneumatic one is an air hog and even though I have a decent sized compressor it can't keep up... Find myself having to wait for the PSI to build back up so each job takes longer than it should.
Plus with a electric one I could use it in the house where it is nice and cozy.
Hows the carbs comin?
Yea HD, the electric is def the way to go for polishing... only catch is you have to use a variable speed controller to get the RPMs down... and at the relatively low RPMs need for polishing my HF die grinder had almost no torque... I could easily stall it out.
Carbs have a date with an industrial ultrasonic cleaner today! im stoked to see how nice they come out.
Heres some after pics (not the same exact carb as above, but it tells the same story)... all the carbs went through 6-8 wash cycles with 4 minutes of sonics and 2 seperate rinses... Im super happy with them... probably the cleanest these carbs have been in 30 years ;D
Got some work done on the rear wheel last weekend... mainly striping and polishing the rear hoop
1st step is removing the clear anodize... I did some poking around the interwebs and it turns out that Greased Lightning degreaser (weak) and Easy Off Heavy Duty Oven Cleaner (strong) removes anodize fairly quickly with minimal work.
Wife let me strip it in the sink again... love that girl haha... the greased lightning worked, but took forever so I only got the anodize off in a few spots (you can see the tarnished (black) spots in this pic where it made it all the way through the anodize coating)... I followed it up with the Easy Off, which took off all the anodize in about a minute... it was damn impressive.
Polished up one of the spots that the greased lighning took it down to bare aluminum... just so I could see what I was working with. Anodize vs Polished aluminum, no contest.
Changed over to Easy Off... damn this stuff is quick! You could spray it on and just stand there watching it do its work... as soon as you see the aluminum start to tarnish or turn grey/black, rinse it off... if you walk away, beware, the easy off will attack the aluminum... here it is post easy off and a good scrub and rinse... if I had to do it again, I would only use easy off and I would make sure I sprayed the entire wheel at once... I sprayed it in sections and the overlaps tarnished prety bad... it polished out fine but it was a pain in the overlaps.
Again, took some brown tipoli to the freshly easy off'ed wheel to see what I would be able to get... I saw some ridges, radial lines that I didnt love so I decided to wet sand the whole thing anyways.
had to grind down the welds on the sides of the head tube down by the steering stops so they didnt rub... and I still have to modify the stops a bit more so the bars dont hit the tank... thats all that really needed changing.
Thats looking good, some serious elbow grease gone into that polishing. I haven't done much polishing myself but I believe Vienna Lime powder gets rid of the polishing residue. Could be wrong though!
Thanks for the comments guys... with spring coming, and this bike so far away it seems rediculous to be spending this much time just on the rear wheel... but if I dont take the time to do it right now i will never have time to do it again... I sound convinced, right? haha.
As for the polishing residue, I was able to get it off pretty easily with a polyester swab and rubbing alcohol... the alcohol was strong enogh to take off the polish but doesnt hurt the aluminum... seems obvious now.
I hear you, ive been internally debating whether to sprint to the finish line and try to finish by June-ish, or slow the pace to a next year deadline........
As long as the sequester doesnt eliminate my contract position with a naval hospital, im going full speed for June.
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