happiness ... polish it!
 

happiness is ...

finding a dull, colorless, scratched, 30-year old campy n.record front hub in the mail and later admiring your two-hour polishing session by snapping its photo in front of the glow of the tv.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7179/6...9a3a1ba18c.jpg

so ... i removed nine bearings out of each side. is this uh one short?

Nine bearings sounds correct. I serviced a pair of high flange Mallard hubs over the weekend and they had nine on each side as well.

Beautiful hub. You did a very nice job.

A number of years ago I worked on these three sets of hubs at the same time. The Campagnolo hub produced the best final results.

L-R: Schwinn Approved Mallard 1970s - Normandy 1962 - Campagnolo 1966
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...FFrontHubs.jpg

9 per side is correct. Smaller up front on Record.

9 - 7/32"

I was getting very nice results polishing up some aluminum parts with Turtle Wax Polishing Compound (a standard automotive buffing compound) the other day. Easy to work and wasn't taking off anodizing as far as I can tell.

Handlebars and rims looked great and most of the rim spots dissappeared.

What do you guys use?

David

here, i used 400/600/1000/2000 3m sandpaper under a barely dripping faucet and then finished up with blue magic metal polish cream that i once used on my car wheels back when i cared what my car wheels looked like. it would be a lot easier to use a buffing wheel, but i should probably get a garage first.

oh ... another repacking question ... i have a tube of multi-purpose silicone lubricant i use for headsets and the like ... would this be fine to use in the hub as well, or might it not be thick enough? my book says to use 'medium weight' in hubs, but that's not entirely helpful.

I would use specific bicycle grease, but thats just me.

Appearently any old stuff youve got lying around the house is plenty good for half the guys here. dish soap maybe?

Blue Magic is where its at too

Yeah, dish soap should keep the bearings clean!

I had a tube of nice White Lithium grease that I always preferred, but now that it has run out I've got a tub of auto parts store "wheel bearing grease". Not as pretty as the White Lithium, but I'm sure it works fine. It is a little more viscous.

I'm pretty sure the various grades of grease have more to do with heat rating and breakdown than what device the bearing might end up in. Bikes would be totally non-critical on that scale.

David

@OP:
so. what method did you use to polish? wet sand + mom's? blue? hand polish? or any rotary tool?
desperately curious... :)
thanks

orangeology, i mentioned the process in the fourth message above your own. it took two hours, but half that was spent taking the dust cp off and washing my hands later.
pastor bob, with thine trifecta of hubs, thou hast upstaged me!

Glad you are so happy with the hub! You have taken if much further then I would have!

Had the same experience today! I got a box from Santa (thanks elguicho!) containing my Superbe Pro derailleurs, which will eventually find a home on my Behringer. It is only the first pass, but even a cursory sand and polish yields some pretty good results.

Before:
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r...o/IMG_1169.jpg

and after:

http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_0683.jpg

You will see the real polished job when it is on the bike.

i always like to see the before-and-after.

i had waited for one of these n.record, 32-hole hubs on ebay for weeks. finally found one. waited several more days until that final, crucial auction minute, when i lost my wifi connection. no time to switch to the phone._ it was like i had dropped the game winning pass in the end zone. so ... thanks again, dave for sending it.

No. Mobil 1 marine.

They all look alike to me. Does that make me a bad person?