TOPIC:

No rust that can be seen when installed, good threads please.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

I checked my stock and found none.  I must have thrown them all out.  I seem to recall someone saying new spokes were the way to go.

I will be attempting to take apart a few original spoked wheels soon so I will see what I can come up with.

I just pulled apart front and rear 1977 A1 rims in nice shape. Saved the spokes for some random reason, like I need more used inventory. I’ll dig them up this afternoon noon. Should have 79 to pick the best of. Stand by!

hardrockminer wrote:

I checked my stock and found none.  I must have thrown them all out.  I seem to recall someone saying new spokes were the way to go.
 

As a rule we'd absolutely agree.  These are destined for one of our unrestored original '74 Z1-A's.  Trying to retain reasonablly-matching patina to the rest of the bike.  Shiny new spokes on the front wheel would stick out like a sore thumb.  Thanks for checking.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

Here’s what got. I guess I remember them better then they are. 
 

Mikaw wrote:

Here’s what got. I guess I remember them better then they are. 
 

 

The ones adjacent to the spokes in the third pic are likely to clean up fairly well in a vapor blast.  Difficult to tell about the others; the background color might be biasing the images of those nipples.
  With the PM system being down we'd like to continue the conversation via email if you're willing to turn loose of them. 
Please contact us at <slmjim at hotmail dot com> The editing necessary to make that email work is obvious.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

ebay.com/itm/301762226906

Email sent

Slmjim, PO was closed by the time I got them boxed up. I’ll drop off Monday morning. 

No rush.

Thank You!

Good Ridin '
slmjim & Z1BEBE 

Mikaw came through for us.  Thanks!

The nipples cleaned up very nicely.  There were a few that were out of round/deformed, likely from the force needed to break them loose;  We tossed those.  Four had spokes broken off in them; they were guinea pigs (more on those shortly).

Before cleaning.  Top right are examples of best & worst.  Rust had eroded a few of the heads too much to be used.  They were discarded.


After buffing the heads on a fine wire wheel, and a session in the vapor blast cabinet at 60 psi. (low pressure) to preserve the thin zinc chromate plating:


The three standing on-end at the bottom right of the pile are examples of the results on the heads.  The rusty heads that weren't seriously eroded are quite serviceable. The four alone at the bottom center are the guinea pigs.  Out of sheer curiosity we wanted to know how Metal Rescue would affect the zinc chromate.  We tested rust  by soaking in Metal Rescue heated to 100 deg. F.  Checked at 2 hrs., 4 hrs., 12 hrs. and, ultimately, 24 hrs. The results are seen here.  Rust removal was very poor, but the zinc chromate plating turned seriously white overnight.

 We were able to find a set of 3 NOS loose spokes on fleaBay.  We'll test dulling the finish on one of those a little in the vapor blast cabinet so the new spokes don't stand out too much compared to the old ones

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE