Restoring hardware on an old kit

Duck Tape

Platinum Member
Wasn't sure what section to put this in.

Anyway I discovered how good autosol (German made metal polish) is and I've been rubbing away on my sonor rims and lugs to get rid of the rust. I thought I should prob do some research. I'm just doing a little each night.

A few questions if anyone knows:

*Can you leave tension rods in some sort of overnight solution to clean them up or do I have to just polish at the threads with autosol?

*does autosol affect laquer to the extent that I should remove all the lugs from the drum before attempting to polish thèm?

*if I've polished hard and still have rust spots what's the next step? Or should I just be happy that they're mostly shiny with a few brown flecks and call it a day?

Thanks for any help!
 
If really serious about lugs, I'd remove them all. Easier to manipulate while polishing.
Tension rods - have held them in a vice and got one of those soft metal brushes on a drill going to polish the rust off, but it never gets them completely clean. Easiest for them is to buy completely new ones, but maybe thats not possible for an old Sonor.
 
I used to use some type of acid automotive detail places use to clean wire wheels (old style 80's hubcaps). I had a Harley sportster and had lots of chrome on it (chesp Chinese type I presume)and when I sprayed thst stuff on there , the rust disappeared !!! It came back though but maybe using something else after thst would seal it ??
 
Remove the hardware from the drums before cleaning and polishing.
You will never be able to create a new finish unless you have the hardware re-plated. Once the plating is pitted, corrosion will always return because the base metal is exposed to oxidation.
 
Autosol is fantastic stuff. I've used it on old cars for years. Does a great job on chrome, and also polishes up aluminium (spell it right, dagnabbit!) very well indeed.
 
It's been mentioned here before (and I have used this method successfully), and that is to use aluminium foil and water to polish chrome. Works wonders!

Dutch
 
For tension rods, I leave them to soak overnight in Simple Green. Get a big bottle, and pour enough of it in a foil baking pan to completely submerge them. Next day rinse them under the tap while scrubbing with a toothbrush in the direction of the thread grooves. Gets them spotlessly clean. Finally just put a thin coat of lube on them (I use plain old lithium wheel bearing grease) and reinstall.

I would definitely take the hardware off the shells before cleaning. Disassemble the lugs into casing, nut and spring, and soak them all in the Simple Green too. After rinsing all the parts, use a can of compressed air to blow all the moisture out of the casings, and blow all the old gunky grease out of the nuts. Might as well go to a little more work and have the insides on the lugs clean as well. THEN polish the casings and reassemble.

If the rust has eaten a big spot through the chrome you're basically screwed. But if it's a small speck, put a single-sided razor blade parallel to the casing surface to clip off the spot of rust.

In the past I've always had good polishing results just using a plain old auto chrome polish. But on my last restoring job I tried the foil and water method, and lemme tell ya it kicks ass!
 
Soak them in cola. The acid in the cola eats the rust. Even better is to use citric acid. Won't hurt the chrome. Then polish with aluminium foil and water.
I did this when refurbishing my Acrolite. Worked a treat.
 
I fully rebuilt my old Sonors.

I removed all the hardware and ran the lugs through the dishwasher with a good squirt of car polishing compound.

Then I wiped everything down with car chrome polish and a coat of car sealant.

Old pitted chrome came clean without any scrubbing.

A few lugs were worse than others, but everything came back to almost pristine. This is old triple chrome that was done in house at Sonor. Its very good quality and cleans up well.

I put the tension rods in a hydrosonic cleaning machine with dish soap and then brushed them with a toothbrush. They came out very clean.

Don't use any acids or alkaline cleaners.

Shells got a quick wipe down with wood cleaner and a light buff of tung oil and now they look superb.

I bought a couple extra lugs in case the screws stripped when disassembling. It's probably a good idea if the drums are older.

Lug gaskets got a heavy coat of Ballistol to bring back the black.


The aluminum foil and water works well also.


*edit~ I just looked up Autosol. It looks like good stuff.
 
Thanks for all the help.

Coke is easy to find so I'll take that over the green goo/cleaning machine.

I'm a bit nervous about unscrewing the lugs in case they don't don't mate up perfectly when they're back in.

I don't know what sort of tool to unscrew them with either, it looks like a star pattern.
 
I have been cleaning up some old lugs from the late 70's/early 80's with dish soap and water with a toothbrush, then 0000 steel wool, then chrome polish. Overall they are coming out pretty good. Some pitting and discoloration within the chrome just can't be removed. Out of the +/- 75 lugs I have been cleaning up, there are only a few that aren't that great. Its mostly due to rim rash more than pitting. The rash is permanent so I'm going to buy a few more lugs to replace those bad ones.

I am going to try the "soak it in Coke" method to clean up the tension nuts and the rods/washers. Hopefully that takes some of the pain of having to clean and polish every one of those.

Its tedious work, but looks really nice in the end.
 
Just to add my 2p worth, when i built my daughters kit, I took all of the lugs and mounting hardware off of the drums and soaked them overnight in initially hot water with 2 dishwasher tabs disolved in it. Helped with the grease and dirt removal and then cleaned with a chrome cleaner. Autosol is good, but I wouldn't use it on lugs that are still on the drum, as it can be fairly abrasive.
 
The tension rods spent the night submerged in coke...

They definitely came up a bit shinier.

Now I was wondering if I should just screw them back in or if they need some sort of grease/lubricant?
 
I'd use some form of lubricant for sure before putting them back.

Also, that star pattern you refer to is to a torx key.
 
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