Restoring Cook Bros CBR Cranks - Final Update

[South Bound]

The 'Before' shot

A pic of the Cook Bros Cranks before I do anything to them.

Depending on the frame and what I do to it, these are likely to be stripped and polished or stripped and anodised. We shall see what happens.

Quite exciting really as these are the first bits for my new project - just need a bike to put them on!

 

[South Bound]

Getting medieval on the cranks...

Hmmm, any ideas how long Nitromors should take to make any sort of impression on paint? These were coated for 45 minutes and it did not lift a flake. If Nitromors does not work, any other suggestions?

 

[cchris2lou]

these cranks are anodised , not painted . Nitromor wont do anything to them .

see Stevet1 thread about his cook cranks , but caustic acid is the way to go .

 

[JeRkY]

be very carefull with caustic soda, it burns your skin/eyes/lungs/house town etc.

 

[stew-b]

be very careful :!:

 

[South Bound]

That is me being dense then, I thought anodising was shiney and sparkly and a bit translucent. I know I left them in a bath of muc-off to clean them up a bit as someone suggested and it did nothing to the finish at all.

Caustic soda, here I come, phzzz, phzzz.

Any tips on where to get some?

 

[kaiser]

This might help for starters


http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2394&highlight=caustic+soda


few other threads if you search for caustic soda.

 

[South Bound]

K, you have the nicest way of saying 'use the bloody search, you lazy git!'

Cheers mate!

 

[Max P]

Anodizing - remove with cuastic soda. (As above just be careful, use eye protection, a weak cold mix to start and add powder to water, been doing this since the 80's when many BMX parts did not come in silver)

Normal paint - remove with Nitromors.

Powder Coating - take to Powder coating firm and ask them to dip them.

Been doing some Jeff Jones style cranks lately. First set I stripped the powder myself - took 3 or 4 hours of pain in the @@@@ graft.

Dropped second lot at PC'ers yesterday and £10 later picked them up spotless. Will polish then this weekend and they will they end up like this:

 

[South Bound]

lol, that makes my next pic seem a bit sad!

Just phzzz'd them in caustic soda (not in Tesco anymore, had to go to DIY). Took quite a few goes and not perfect. Few stubborn spots and spider did not want to come clean at all and has finished with the greeny affect that you can see.

Next step is lots of love with wet and dry before lots and lots of polishing! Don't think they will look as good as the others above though, no matter how much polishing. Still, there is no rush and I can take my time over these, be interesting to see just how well they will come up.