wonderslicer

Rad, thanks Wil. I'm taking my time with it now, and you're right, I was scouring the surface. All it needed was the slower speed and a more fine polishing compound. Mmmmm, sweet '98 vintage mountain bikes...

to continue this polishing thread, i'm planning on polishing the rear triangle of an old dual suspension of mine (I'm a moonlighting mtb'er,) and I was wondering a little about the polishing. Wil, do you clean the surface junk off the aluminum before putting it to the wheel? I'm finding with my little dremel tool that either gunk on the aluminum is getting into the polishing wheel, or the polished off alu bits are sticking into compound. I can get a good finish, til a point, then a few larger scratches then are warranted for that level of compound start working their way into the surface. Do you think I should reapply compound to the wheel more often? Or maybe clean the surface of the used compound more often? It probably is much more clear to me than to read, so let me know if these questions jive. Otherwise, my new little toy is working out fine! I would recommend a dremel to wrencheads, they're sweet for the fine details!

hmm, that's good idea. i wonder if i can get a powder coat done to look like an anodized finish (similar to Santa Cruz' mountain bikes) and wil, no need to yell :yeehaw:

Here's an original on Ebay, http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIt...7106812099&rd=1 I must say I like the refurbish more. ^_^

Yeah, nice work! What made you decide to go with the paint style? Very original, anyway. In keeping with the request, a tip for those of us who don't have access to a grinder for burnishing, I heartily reccomend something called "Nevr-Dull." It's a metal cleanup compound soaked in cotton or something, but works great to remove thick layers of crud on old aluminum. If the alu was in good shape prior to crudding, you can get quite a shine with just elbow grease. (I'm sure you all know it already, but I am new around here.)

Like a stack of dimes from a very small country, very noice!

seatpost bulge!

fuzzy chainstays!

Been ahwile with school, sorry for the late response. I took some other pics, with what looked like house paint all over this little guy (the frame,) but those have been lost to the world. The four pics here are of the wierd widening seat tube, a fuzzy pic of the back of the tear drop chainstays, the very sweet welds on the head tube, and the front of the head tube. After cleaning off the paint and taking the picture, the shape of a Kuwahara 'K' is apparent in the headbadge spot, which I guess solves some of the mystery. I measured the clearance for the chainstays, and it looks like there's room for a 24" wheel, so I guess this is a cruiser model. When I took the paint off, I found, amongst the ugly rust damage (grr), patches where the chrome had been ground down and looked like alu underneath. But other places where I've taken down the rust I've gotten the same, and I think it's whatever goes under the chrome. At least, I've never heard of alu being welded to steel. Anyhoo, this frame's light, in my opinion, and due to the qaulity of the workmanship and the thickness of the chrome (damn thick! takes a file to get anywhere on it!), I think it will make a nice little cruiser. Are the older Kuwa's worth working on, I wonder? Any thoughts would be nice, as well as any oohs and ahs. Also, what's the general rule on painting over chrome (tricks?) (PS: pics in a sec, a have to restart the old comp first)

yes, i know what a suppository is anyhoo, I've done a search of the forums looking for what I thought would be the most asked question, 'this is my first post, but please use all your years of hard-earned knowledge to identify my painted over frame/bar/random-piece-metal-that-may-be-from-a-bike?!?' Did not find much, suprisingly. So the gist is, does anyone have a process of elimination they use to identify frames/parts, and do you find it is even worth it for a mystery bike that got a coat of housepaint sometime in the eighties? I tried Googling the serial number (comlete and portions of it) of such a frame that fell into my hands, to no avail. It has interesting construction (or I wouldn't have bothered,) the seat tube tapers in a step-down style from the BB, tapered top tube, and slightly teardrop shaped chainstays. There is also rivet holes from a head tube badge, whoch makes me think it might be a little older. The welds are clean, even, and big, though the tubing diameter seems alittle small for a full size (maybe kids bike- hopefully not!) Oh, and three holes in the dropout plate, small to large. Any tips would be appreciated, though I plan to enjoy this frame even if it is a mystery :smthup:

Yeah yeah replying to my own thread, but here we are: http://www.bayviewcycle.com/NewFiles/Web_Clearance.html looks like some taiwanese factory has kept pumping these babies out. Good thing I'm in Canada, eh?

those cobra grips are right close to what i want. they totally stand out, anyway! good looking willinois! in response, i was kind leaning towards the one's with a guard piece on the front (similar to a guard on a saber-type sword.) but i9'm always open to suggestions. again, i'm really surprised by the rarity of this type of grip. maybe they might have come only on kid's bikes to give them a 'motocross' look (?), but i would have thought there'd be old stock of this type lying around everywhere. shows what i know. oh yeah, looking for red (to go with the chrome and red anodized theme) :smthup: thanks again!

Thanks for the greeting guys. Yeah, the moto ones, bang on my grommets! But fifteen years? Dang! I was hoping that wouldn't be the case. Showing my age I guess. At least they'll be unique when I find 'em. (Drag 'em off some poor kids bars maybe, hopefully not your cousin.) Kudos boys, but what are some good links beyond ebay for selection of OS parts? this site's links don't really work.

Hey, first post here. Just scanned through the short wrenching section, this looks like a good community. After mountain biking for years, I'm loving the OS Norco BMX (crappy, i know) i picked up (for 20$) as much as my dual susp! (plus, i can deck it out schweet for about 1/10 the price!) Anyway, greetings and a quick question, seeing as thats all the newbs do is ask 'em, does anyone know what the old wrap-around style grips were called? Since I'm in a child-like renaissance with this bike, i want to reproduce what i had in days gone past. I've found lots of high flange and Toadstool type NOS for sale, but haven't the ones with the hand "guards" yet. The quick desc of the bike, BTW, chrome frame 'Spitfire-Turbo' with weird oval down tube (chrome's decent), red ano Araya rims front and rear, and red hubs of some kind, with cheapy red ano brakes and levers. Also, are reversed F+R levers common on BMX's? (shows how much i know)