Day 8

 

  4 Responses to “Day 8”

  1. Hi Colin, If you have time to answer my wee question that would be amazing…considering the amount of work you have to do!!
    well here’s the thing…..did you take the lacquer off the cylinders and then polish or what? I only ask ’cause both mine are beginning to mark like yours but not so bad…yet. I thought while I’m knee deep in snow I might have a go at tarting them up a bit, I tried just polishing/autosol-ing but that didn’t make much difference.
    would appreciate any advice.

    regards Suzanne……girlie Valk rider.

  2. Hi Suzanne, no problem helping out a fellow owner. The rocker covers are replacements that I bought second hand as the originals were corroded underneath the bubbled chrome. Once I cleaned some of the bubbling off I found that they needed significant work prior to re-chroming and so i took the easy way out.

    The parts that I have re-polished were all aluminium without any chrome coating. On the master cylinders and the triple trees I used special lacquer stripper on that was OK to use on aluminium (not all is). I then started with 240 wet and dry paper went to 400, 600,800,1000,1200, 1500 using them all wet. This is a very dirty job. I then have three grades of polishing compound bars (all progressively finer) that I used on three different polishing wheels to then get rid of the small scratches caused by the paper. Finally I waxed the parts with Renaissance wax which is a micro crystalline artificial was used for the preservation of fine arts. It is extremely hard and copes with handling without leaving marks.

    Coming back to your question about the rocker covers if Autosol isn’t touching them then you probably need something a little harsher so try some T Cut or some cutting compound. Try it on the underneath where it doesn’t show, don’t rub too hard or you may go through the chrome (although my rocker covers did seem to have a good thick coating) and then the Autosol and then wax them. Other than that it may be a trip to the chromers.

    Hope this helps
    Colin.

  3. thanks Colin,
    my enquiry was for about the master cylinders….so many thanks for the solution, sounds like I’d best get started sounds a long messy job.
    Fortunately I’ve managed to keep the rest of the bike in excellent condition….I’ve had it since new so no probs yet with the rocker covers.
    I dont know why the master cylinders have become so marked…. It looks like moisture has got under the lacquer somehow …….but sadly they do need attention.
    Good luck with the restoration I look forward to seeing the finished bike.
    thanks,
    Suzanne

  4. Suzanne, the water in mine seemed to have got behind the lacquer at the top joint with the cover and then worked its way down. Sorry I misunderstood what you were talking about when you said cylinders. Be very careful using the stripper on the cylinders as you don’t want it getting on the rubber parts (just in case it affects them) or get re-build kits replace the rubbers at the same time. The problem with the cylinders is all the curves and that they are small parts. It probably took me 1.5 to 2 hours to do each one. Hope it goes well for you.