Originally Posted by
Amesja
Mother's is the stuff. It works great on chrome but on bare steel, zinc, and aluminum parts I usually polish with rubbing compound first and then put mothers on last as a final polish and also to seal it up against moisture & corrosion. This works great on aluminum parts that have lost their lustre and no longer have any lacquer on them to protect them from turning a dull gray from oxidation.
I just did a pair of Weinmann's yesterday stamped 5th month of '78 and I daresay they look better now than they did when they were new.
The only way to get them shinier would be to use a buffing wheel and clear-coat them to keep them from surface oxidizing again.
I'm guessing this is the process:
Remove brake from bike
pop the springs out
pull off the plastic cap
undo the nuts
remove all the pieces from the shaft
degrease the parts
wash the parts
polish the arms
grease the shaft
put first arm back on
grease where it connects to second arm
put second arm back on
screw the nut back on until there is no play, but it's not tight
screw on the lock nut and make it tight
pop the plastic cap back on
install fresh shoes
re-install brake.
Yeah I know probably doesn't need fresh shoes, but I am not going to rebuild a brake and put on old brake shoes.... The only problem with rebuilding brakes is that you get used to their lacklustre operation and after they work too well
