I bought some elbow grease yesterday....

.... and used it on my wheels

I’m getting some new tyres so thought I’d take the opportunity to take them off a day early and give them a spruce up. They were bad, been neglected for five years, so I gave them a good scrub to get them as clean as possible first and then went at it with a scotchbrite pad all around, then around twice with some 600 grit wet and dry and then with some polish.

There is still pitting and stuff on them and I’m not a fan of mirror polished stuff but they look loads better, I actually wanted to get the swingarm off and give that a scrub tonight but it’s held on with a castellated nut and I don’t have the socket for it, and I don’t really want to use a drift to get it undone so I’ll leave it.

But happy with how they have come up, they look there age now instead of looking like I bought them from Davy Jones’s Locker sale

The rear before






The rear after






The front before





The front after

Nice job!

Now, where do you get this 'elbow grease' from? The wife keeps telling me to use it... amongst other things!

greencat wrote:Now, where do you get this 'elbow grease' from?

Out of the pound shop Chris, it's great stuff works really well....

Davie......................

Really nice job.

Regards

Mike

look nice

Nice job
However make sure you get some sort of coating on them (paint, Hamerite, varnish) or they will quickly corrode like an 80s Leyland.

How much are you selling that grease for stretchie?

Being single, I usually use up my supplies of elbow grease at least twice a day.

They came up a treat though..

I have to admit that my wheels are in an equally if not worse condition than yours, after all, bikes are for riding not cleaning, right? I've still got a full bottle of "Wonder Wheels" cleaner under the kitchen sink waiting to be opened.

Maybe I'll treat the bike to a good clean this summer, then again, maybe I won't.

Anyway, you did a good job on yours.

Cheers guys, bloody hard work doing all that I tell you, but then it has been a long time in the coming I suppose, I rival Rosco in that department.

There is no laquer on them, I have a mate on the SV site who is a serial polisher but she likes a mirror finish and has said for years that the laquer is false economy, unless you can do a proper laquer like the factory then there is no point, once it starts going it makes it look terrible. I'm not too bothered, I'll just give them a rub over and a brief polish once a month from now on.

Unfortunately the grease has all been used up and the sellers tell me it takes several years to make just a 500ml pot of 'Elbow Grease', I suppose that'll be my next clean then

The wheels are at the tyre place now, getting some Storm 3's on today, got 4,250 out of the set of Storm 2 Ultra's that are being taken off, the rear was on the limit marker and the front had just under 1mm left to the marker.

I am really tempted to do the swing arm and cans too

Wooster wrote:Being single, I usually use up my supplies of elbow grease at least twice a day.

They came up a treat though..

Very nice job! I'm feeling inspired!! ...taking bits off the bike tomorrow and Saturday so may well do some deep cleaning

mrfrance wrote:may well do some deep cleaning

Go easy, you know what happened the last time you did that.

SteveCat wrote:

mrfrance wrote:may well do some deep cleaning

Go easy, you know what happened the last time you did that.

haha yes thanks for reminding me Steve... I believe there is a picture somewhere of about 4 of us at BC4 trying figure out why I had no brake lights

That's all part of of your subscription here Paul

Now it feels like my arms are going to drop off. Got the swing arm off and spent two days rubbing it (oo-er)

Started like this



Then cleaned it with an ongoing barrage of oil, baby oil (don’t ask) then hot soapy water to find that it was completely covered with pitting and scratches and deep gouges so spend hours with a sanding drill attachment of 80 grit to remove a lot of that then finished it off with a few more hours by hand with a few passes of 180 grit, 400 grit and 600 grit to get this



Then against my better judgement hit it with some polish to get this, not sure I like it, a bit too shiny for me but deffo better than it was in the first place, still lots of pitting and deep scratches but didn’t want to sand too much off, if you want a mirror finish some autosol and a not too heavy hand with some wire wool and/or scotchbrite pad would get that. Plus, if I wanted a mirror finish I'd buy a Harley and some assless chaps (or a Gixxer   )



Just waiting for some pressies in the post, new swingarm bearings, replacement/refurbed rear shock, new set of brake pads all round, new (to me) carbs and some filters so I can service it. Hopefully it’ll be back together this week

i will love to learn how to do it. :(

It's all written in there matey, just using sandpaper of different roughness, start with a rough one then a smoother one and keep going smoother until you get the desired finish, if I did carried on with an 800 grit, 1200 grit then 1600 grit it'd probably look like a mirror, or if I just used some autosol and some wirewool and/or scotchbrite pad it would be very shiney

i am to scared when i take arm off i will never be able to put it back on

Ha haa, just sand up it as far as you can go then