Classic & Vintage - cleaning/restore campy record strada cranks

i have a crankset i want to bring back to "new"...or at least, all pretty and shiny.

it appears there is some coating, which, with all the nicks and stuff is worn off in places. at first i thought i could polish out these blemishes, but now it looks as if the polishing makes it worse. it looks as if the subdued/flat greyish finish is the coating.

what is the preferred method of restoring campy strada cranks? i know this may be lacking info, i'd be happy to supply more, if i knew what that should be.

i've used a polishing wheel with an air compressor, as well as mothers mag&aluminum polish, and mothers power something squeezy aluminum polish. the polish didn't turn black on the cranks, but did on the cloth.

http://www.raydobbins.com/polishing/

Read and learn.

http://poopwaddle.com/paramount/stradaDetail.jpg

http://poopwaddle.com/paramount/stradaFull.jpg

http://poopwaddle.com/paramount/stradaDate.jpg

well smell me, old fat guy...that link just earned a place in fav bookmarks.

many thanks, and cheers, good sir

btw, i grew up in mi and am always back home for the holidays. spent a good many years in phx as well, lived off FLW just north of shea, and me grandma lives in 'tukee

I just did this Campy seat post which wasn't in very good shape.
I used an eraser as a block. I used 600, 1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper.
Then I used Mothers aluminum polish.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b400/fj40/DSC02145.jpg

btw, i grew up in mi and am always back home for the holidays. spent a good many years in phx as well, lived off FLW just north of shea, and me grandma lives in 'tukee

Grew up on the mean streets of the East Side, Alter & Mack (cut you and gut you before you hit the ground, even in my senior years...:D), now my time in MI is in A2. In PHX I'm around Cactus and Tatum.

FLW & Shea is too rich for me. I can only afford Italian bikes, not Italian cars ;)

That's a Nuovo Record crankset. Strada just means road.

I polish my parts pretty much the same way Ray Dobbins does except that the really beat up parts get sanded before buffing. I use a quarter sheet Porter Cable sander and then I hand sand up to 400 grit and then I use super fine steel wool. My buffing wheel is mounted on a 16" drill press.

This crank was in really bad shape when I started:

http://inlinethumb58.webshots.com/31993/2736003250068014369S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2736003250068014369MsDalJ)

Don't leave the oven cleaner on too long when you remove the anodizing or it will begin to eat the aluminum. you may have to treat the part more than once to get all of the anodizing off. You'll know all of the anodizing is gone when the part turns uniformly black.

heh, i had an apt, not a house. i know cactus and tatum, lived in PV before the move over to scottsdale. was right by the mall. divided my drinkin dollar between the dubliner and the paradise lounge. i was in those crappy apts off N PVillage Pkwy...had my truck stolen on a friggin sunday afternoon, right from my parking spot. are you in those nice adobe condos?

i'm now in mid tennessee. back home is SW mi, my dad and i are founding members of the Whiners bicycle club...old school ragbrai vets.

thanks DD. the cranks were donated to my project by my pops over thanksgiving.

heh, i had an apt, not a house. i know cactus and tatum, lived in PV before the move over to scottsdale. was right by the mall. divided my drinkin dollar between the dubliner and the paradise lounge. i was in those crappy apts off N PVillage Pkwy...had my truck stolen on a friggin sunday afternoon, right from my parking spot. are you in those nice adobe condos?

i'm now in mid tennessee. back home is SW mi, my dad and i are founding members of the Whiners bicycle club...old school ragbrai vets.

Nope, not in those condos. but just down the block from the Dubliner!

Must have been those apts by Sweetwater Park , just down from REI, where the guy got capped in the parking lot. Tweakers.

I just did this Campy seat post which wasn't in very good shape.
I used an eraser as a block. I used 600, 1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper.
Then I used Mothers aluminum polish.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b400/fj40/DSC02145.jpg



You must've busted your tail getting it to look that good. It looks great!! :D

it appears there is some coating, which, with all the nicks and stuff is worn off in places. at first i thought i could polish out these blemishes, but now it looks as if the polishing makes it worse.
As Ray Dobbins' article will tell you, if you haven't read it already: the crank/spider is clear anodized; where it's been worn off, you can use metal polish to shine the aluminum up, but polish will do very little to the anodized area. Campy's special formula for polishing + anodizing can't be "matched" by cleaning with metal polish. If you want an even finish, you have to remove the anodizing. Then you can shine it up, but it won't ever look like it did in the bike shop/factory; and it will be more susceptible to corrosion. That's not a problem if you take care of your gear and keep it waxed/oiled/clean. Aluminum oxide looks whitish, and that's what you want to keep from forming on your parts.

As Ray Dobbins also tells you, there are a lot of Campy Record components (hubs, for instance) that are not anodized; they're easier to clean up with just polish.

If you're a fetishist and can't leave well enough alone, then you could strip the anodizing, polish (but do not wax) and have the part re-anodized at a finishing shop. It probably will never look like it did originally, though; there's just something about that Campy process that's unique (at least to my eye).

http://inlinethumb58.webshots.com/31993/2736003250068014369S600x600Q85.jpg[/IMG] (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2736003250068014369MsDalJ)

Don't leave the oven cleaner on too long when you remove the anodizing or it will begin to eat the aluminum. you may have to treat the part more than once to get all of the anodizing off. You'll know all of the anodizing is gone when the part turns uniformly black.



Yeah I did pretty much the same thing with these campy 'Athena' aero brakes.

The first pic is how they looked when I got them. NOS straight out of the box.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2122/2096228719_6d6641bb3e.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2314/2096234417_19c2c4a3f6.jpg



~ btw - you done a good job on that crank. :D

That's a Nuovo Record crankset. Strada just means road.

If you really insist on getting all weenie technical about it, they're Record strada cranks with Nuovo Record chainrings.

Yeah I did pretty much the same thing with these campy 'Athena' aero brakes.

~ btw - you done a good job on that crank. :D

Thanks. The brakes look great! I'm just finishing up a set of Super Record calipers. I bought a NR triple from Hilary Stone that he said was polished, but it appears that it was polished and then chrome plated!
Now I have to get the brakes and other parts polished really bright to match it.

Be sure to check that Campy crank for cracks in the usual places. That set looks like it has seen a few miles!

http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/2577/img0052gm9.jpg

Be sure to check that Campy crank for cracks in the usual places. That set looks like it has seen a few miles!



Since the cracking issue was brought up, and not trying to hijack the thread...would anyone have a picture of a crank that has been "stress relieved"? I have an idea on what they should look like. I just want to see what others have done.

Since the cracking issue was brought up, and not trying to hijack the thread...would anyone have a picture of a crank that has been "stress relieved"? I have an idea on what they should look like. I just want to see what others have done.

Anybody?

I'm interested myself now that I've got two of them. One is from 1975 and has been chromed, and I'm sure that doesn't help the situation.

theres a couple threads about this..
here's a (bad) pic of a quick job i did with a rattail file:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/227/460077150_a32583972b_o.jpg

the cranks were cracked as in the previous photo..
about 3000+ miles so far with no problems

here's a photo of one of my sets.. still waiting to be stripped and polished.
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j282/abier622/parts/Record%20Crank%20Filing/177.jpg
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j282/abier622/parts/Record%20Crank%20Filing/177-2.jpg

That's a Nuovo Record crankset. Strada just means road.

I polish my parts pretty much the same way Ray Dobbins does except that the really beat up parts get sanded before buffing. I use a quarter sheet Porter Cable sander and then I hand sand up to 400 grit and then I use super fine steel wool. My buffing wheel is mounted on a 16" drill press.

This crank was in really bad shape when I started:

http://inlinethumb58.webshots.com/31993/2736003250068014369S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2736003250068014369MsDalJ)

Don't leave the oven cleaner on too long when you remove the anodizing or it will begin to eat the aluminum. you may have to treat the part more than once to get all of the anodizing off. You'll know all of the anodizing is gone when the part turns uniformly black.

Hi Dirtdrop,

Nice job - just be careful with the steel wool. One should not use steel wool on aluminum/alloys as microscopic particles of the steel will embed allowing for disimilar metals corrosion to begin. Learned all this from my days as an aviation mechanic. Will try to post a pic of my Campy crank later.

Hi Dirtdrop,

Nice job - just be careful with the steel wool. One should not use steel wool on aluminum/alloys as microscopic particles of the steel will embed allowing for disimilar metals corrosion to begin. Learned all this from my days as an aviation mechanic. Will try to post a pic of my Campy crank later.

That hasn't been a problem, but they get a lot of time on the buffing wheel after the steel wool. Maybe that removes those microscopic particles.

I was about to post a picture of my new triple, but it will have to wait until the camera batteries charge.

As someone who designs a lot of dissimilar metals into buildings, I have to say that I think the whole galvanic corrosion thing is overdone where you're talking about things other than ships. Most of the studies and quantification are done for dissimilar metals in a good electrolyte (seawater).

Steel wool particles will rust however -- nothing to do with their being embedded in aluminum -- and that's unsightly. In building construction projects, it's sometimes a problem that an ornamental metals fabricator who's clueless will finish stainless steel using the same tools used for carbon steel. Then the "stainless" will rust just like carbon steel; it's not a pretty sight! Again, this has nothing to do with the dissimilarity of the metals, just that the (very thin but effective) chromium oxide layer that protects stainless steel is prevented from forming continuously over the surface, by the presence of particles that are carbon steel, without the chromium content that enables the oxide to form.

Slightly off-topic, but how well does Simichrome metal polish work on components (such as cranks) without stripping the clear coat off? I'm not looking for a mirror finish, just a little bit of shine.

I've seen lots of galvanic corrosion on aircraft which are natually subject to dramatic temp changed (take-off and landing from alt) which causes condensation - the electrolyte. I recently bought a 1960 Bianchi Specialissima and the previous owner had used steel wool (back in the 70s). The tell tail signs of disimilar metals corrosion was there. I think that if a lot of buffing does take place after using steel wool much of the foreign material would be removed. Keep in mind that this form of corrosion (from steel wool) takes an electrolyte and plenty of time.

Here's the new triple. The arms have been chrome plated. They won't won't oxidize, and they're more scratch resistant than bare aluminum, but, like with anodized parts, any scratched that do occur can't be repaired. The Super Record rings are probably not correct, but I like the way they look. If I cared about correctness, I wouldn't be putting Campagnolo parts on a PX10.

http://inlinethumb26.webshots.com/28377/2004421090068014369S600x600Q85.jpg (http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2004421090068014369IClTre)

Wow that is beautiful!!! Here is my Gangl crank which is partially polished. I removed the anodizing from certain areas only.

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee237/Pogliaghi/GanglCrank.jpg

Thanks to cyclotoine and coelcanth for the pics. They show me I am on the right track.

i just finished this one. there were a few very small cracks so i got rid of them and then just went ahead and polished them because they were kinda beat...
i didn't round off the pocket quite as much as that one pic but i think they will be ok. the sharp edges are gone as well as the hairline fractures.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2400/2099072901_436b8f1e7c_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2099/2099072893_e7d0704346_o.jpg

I just did this Campy seat post which wasn't in very good shape.
I used an eraser as a block. I used 600, 1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper.
Then I used Mothers aluminum polish.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b400/fj40/DSC02145.jpg


According to http://www.raydobbins.com/polishing/ some Campy seat post should not be anodized. Did you find that to be true? I have what seems to look like the same seat post. It is marked up pretty bad along the rear. Little zig-zag marks from someone pulling it out without properly loosening the clamp. My goal is to remove these marks with a good polish session but I would like to avoid the use of oven cleaner or other lye based products needed to remove anodizing.

Was the seat post anodized? Did you skip the oven-cleaner step?

Thanks

http://inlinethumb26.webshots.com/28377/2004421090068014369S600x600Q85.jpg (http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2004421090068014369IClTre)



I've never seen that pic before. Very well, done. 2 thumbs up!!!

I avoid using steel wool when stripping and polishing parts because of the dissimilar metal issue. Non metallic Scothbrite pads gets me close enough to the point where polishing compond will be the only thing needed for the final mirror finish.
Anodizing is always a tough issue when doing a resto project. You have to determine if what is left on the part is worth saving or just take it all off with polshing, as anodizing does not really improve with just cleaning and surface polishing. You pretty much have what you have with it.
Problem is, not all anodizing is that easy to take off. I've had the experience when the anodising comes of real easy with just a couple of good passes of scotchbrite over the part. I also had experience when I had to use a lot of elbow grease with rough enough grit sand paper to even make a dent on the clear anodizing on the part. Sometimes it looks like I'm all done polishing, and I always discover more anodizing left over (turns up as dull patches on mirror polished surface on the aluminum) to sand and polish out which can turn a whole polishing job on a singe component, a multiple day effort to get it perfect....and I still find some anodiszing left over....arrrghhh!!
Good thing is, you do have the option to re-anodize parts if you want to. Some metal finishing shops now offer the service to do very small lots for reasonable prices. I guess we can thank the custom car and motorcycle crowd for that.

Chombi