Polish till you drop

[Justin Fox]

http://www.velosolo.co.uk/pictures/jjc6.jpg
BEFORE

http://www.velosolo.co.uk/pictures/jjc1.jpg
AFTER!

Visit: http://www.velosolo.co.uk/jjcrank.html

Makes me want to whip out my polishing machine :)

[Jarod]

Thats insane!

[singletrack]

so you can polish a turd!!

alot of work there......looks splendid....i love chrome stuff!!!

[Lorday]

Such nice shape, those cranks deserve to be polished like that. +1 for polished cranks rocking!

[Nutty]

man you read my mind!
I was thinking of the exact thing for the 'horse project.. they look great!

[ukalipt]

can you please not whip out your polishing machine.
thanks

cranks look good

[jlam]

That crank sure looks good now

[Jing]

i have those same cranks!

[crank]

They look a million dollars polished up like that. :)

[ruskie]

Absolutely awesome! They certainly do look schmick!

*Looks at spare Truvativ cranks*

[benxxx]

I reckon it looks better in black... good work though

[kraftycuts]

will it rust ?

[crank]

No, aluminium doesn't rust. I doubt it would show any signs of corrosion in the near future, and if someone wanted it that highly polished they'd probably polish it a bit themsleves every now and then. Hopefully.

[Jarod]

As far as I know, aluminium oxides in the atmosphere and will slightly tarnish over time. If they really wanted to keep it shiny, they'd be chuck a clear lacquer over the top which'd seal it nicely.

[Flyin']

One thing I don't understand is, why has he drilled holes in the actually crank spider?
Surely he could have done what he did without drilling the holes, unless this is for some sort of weight saving.

[keromx]

thats not the same crank IMO, have a look at the corners of the where the spider bolts on to the chain ring, one is rounded and one is square... also as pointed out, there are holes in on one of the spiders... i smell a rat.

[Davf]

If you guys read through the link under the pics, it shows that it's the same crankset. Holes are drilled and the arms are ground to a round shape to try and look like an XTR crankset ;)

[keromx]

ok i will shutup now... thanks for pointing that out *lesson learnt*

[Sven]

my girlfriends lowrider has gotten real rusty since she got it brand new, i want to try and clean it up and polish it. Any tips on the best way around this? i think the 'chrome' on the rims is flaking off too!

[Lorday]

For a general polish, sand down though differnt wet/dry paper grits (low to high), until its freaking smooth. Autosol (or similiar product) and rag. Polish like a mad man.

[munga]

these babies are 1978 vintage. they were grey when i got them:
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii106/munga1337/Bicycles/100_1308.jpg

[a.davis12]

very nice!
i have a bike sitting that i might polish. it might be little small for me though:(

[steel-is-real]

Munga:- these babies are 1978 vintage. they were grey when i got them

It's great to bring these old hubs back to life. I recently reconditioned an old set of Zeus 'Gigante' Large Flange hubs (1974 Vintage) that had been attached to a bike that had been hanging it a tree for more than a decade.
I stripped down the hubs and hit the hub bodies with steel wool to get all the grit and stuff off them. Then had them polished and naturally anodised - they have come up like new. The bearing races and cones were in mint condition as well, don't made them like they used too.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2605/3906298162_47f6c1d5bc.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3511/3954994436_a4f9bde4eb.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2686/4101565957_2b6f2e20f1.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2519/4102320614_58e77ec041.jpg

[steel-is-real]

This Cinelli stem was on the same bike as the Zeus hubs above, something must be said for the quality of the chrome plating back then.

Condition when I received it:-
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2571/3906298728_8e6f04db49.jpg

After 24 hours soaking in my new find "Evapo-Rust", awesome stuff for removing rust - no elbow grease!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2660/3911429750_fe6655e00c.jpg

Final product after stripping old chrome, polishing and re-chroming. The stem travelled a return trip of 1,200km to get a descent layer of chrome, but worth it! It's hard to find chrome-plater that does a job to this standard locally.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3465/3989441220_3dce94a962.jpg

[crank]

Wow those parts have come up brilliantly.

[Tomas]

Reckon. Steel, you put some proper effort in to your builds - certainly to be commended for it as well.