I just got a pair of vintage cranksets with some deep scratches some light scratches. Otherwise in good condition. I want to have em’ bling bling, are there any good ways to polish the cranksets up?
Need som good advices from people with experiences.
Cheers!!!
You want bling? Get yourself a bench grinder and add polishing wheels. Otherwise its all by hand with autosol. Refer to other threads on how to prepare parts to polish them.
Read this tutorial which was on Prolly. Its a good place to start, if you have no clue.
http://prollyisnotprobably.com/2009/10/tutorial_polishing_bicycle_par.php
Thx Gypsy, I read Prolly’s tutorial already, but isn’t that only for aluminum?
If I do it by hand, should I remove all the scratches first with file and sandpaper then move to autosol?
Cheers
This is a really good tutorial if your doing it by hand.
http://www.bikeforums.net/showpost.php?p=3677840&postcount=38
If your serious about it and plan on doing a number of parts get yourself a bench grinder and some polishing wheels. Here’s a photo of my cranks i polshed with a bench grinder.
Stuff doind it by hand, take them into a metal polishers they have all the gear and probably only take them 10mins, don’t think it would cost much…
yeah it would take a while by hand, but nothing is more rewarding than bringing a surface to a deep lustre. as other stated, a bench grind + required compounds/wheels makes it a lot easier.
if you decide to go to a polisher, make sure you shop around as there is a huge difference in what they will charge you.
Short version: I agree with the d00ds. If you don’t have a bench grinder I’d say don’t bother doing it yourself.
Long version: I was in exactly the same position a couple of years ago with a stem and cranks. They were pretty scratched so I started with coarse grade sand paper (I can’t remeber exactly what grade, maybe 100?) and then worked my way up through the grades to 1600, followed by steel wool and lastly silvo. The result was great but still not as good as J.K.L.Ps in the pic, and it took me all bloody weekend and handling the sandpaper removed a lot of skin! I’ll never do it again. If you do it this way - I found it best to sand in the same direction all the time.
Since then I’ve bought a little cutting and polishing kit from bunnings which attaches to my drill, which is good for getting scratches out but no good for polishing a whole item. Now I just got to a metal polisher who does it on the spot for about $10. Much easier and the result is better. If I had a bench grinder I might try to do it myself.
Sanding same direction can possibly give you gouges and an uneven surface. I would always do in a circular motion. flat surfaces on some vintage cranks might want to use a sanding block behind paper to keep it flat and even.
Thx a lot guys! I’m trying out on my stem first. It is pantographed with black paint in there. In the preparatory process of polishing, if I use the Easy-Off to remove the outer surface of the stem, will it have effect on the black ink in the pantographed? As I do not want to have to paint it back again when I finished polishing it up.
Cheers!
if your in Melburn Andy can help you out
when using the bench grinder, you still need to do full prep with sand paper right
A couple of pairs of vintage cranksets, hey? Hope you’re not supporting the local blackmarket. 
I just used draino, a quick sand with wet n’ dry and then polish with autosol when
I did my anodized bars and they came out very bling.
Post up some before and after pics, nothing like some vintage crank porn.
a pair of vintage cranksets
Yes the anodising still needs to be removed along with the deep scratches, but you can get away with only rubbing the part down with 600 grit paper because the buffing wheel will polish it out no problems.
A bench polisher can do a lot of damage to a set of cranks if used without care. Polishing in the same place or heavily can readily remove a lot of metal and give you an uneven finish.
The best result is by taking care to polish lightly and constantly moving over a wide area.
I sand rough areas first, usually using 800 or finer, then going to 1200 - 1500. Then a polish at the end. I sand flat areas like front of vintage cranks by placing the sandpaper on my workbench, and rubbing the crank arm on top of it. It gives the most even finish.
Dont go overboard trying to remove deep gouges.
Cheers
Roger
Thanks for the tutorials, I will try that on my old crankset/stem/seatpost.
will see how it goes.
Will be interesting to see the before and after photos of everyone’s polishing process.
You don’t happen to know anyone good in sydney do you?!
I didn’t know the name of the place so I went passed yesterday - I couldn’t find it though, maybe he’s shut up shop, maybe I was in the wrong place, but it was in Botany Road, Mascot. There are several in the area.
Anyway…
I’ve spoken to Kensey Metalcraft in Botany, but never had anything done there. Over the phone he sounded quite receptive to doing one off pieces. It was on my way to Kensey that I stumbled across the other guy - they are (were?) both on Botany Road. Any professional metal polishing/metal finishing shop will do a great job.
Deus will polish parts too.
Try google or yellow pages, here is a list of some.
Cheers, thanks very much for that