Well put TIM.

Tim, that's twice you've taken a general statement I've made as if I were personally attacking you.

It's not that personal my man.

Ted, all points well taken, but part of our game here is nostalgia, and some of us prefer to have things the way we remember them. The other component is that if all the reedy pedals and 57 chevys are modified, there is a huge loss in historic data.
That's what is at stake here.

Ted, nearly all used aluminum parts can easily be restored to their original patina. your tuf neck stem included.

i've done it a hundred times.

honest? your polished to a mirror stuff does nothing for me. nothing at all. it looks overdone and bling bling to me. it doesn't look like vintage bmx. sorry!

ever think that maybe there'd BE some nice original 57 Chevys out there to enjoy if everyone and their mothers didn't chop, modify, and "improve" them over the last 50 years?

nothing sickened me more than watching Boyd Coddington take a cherry original 62 Belaiire (?) and tear it apart to make a Boydster. even his shop guys were saddened to do it.

better than original? why? i enjoy collecting a time and place in history - lots of times and places in fact. new stuff, better than original stuff - no interest.

[ March 23, 2007, 06:01 PM: Message edited by: TIM ]

Those spindles are original chrome and were bought like that. The cages are repop's i bought. The original cages were road cages. They do nothing for me and would rather have beartrap any day of the week.

I used to work in a bike shop, and like it was said in an earlier post, polishing was the style of the day for those that chose it. I remember dads buying their kids bikes for mega bucks (at the time) that we had to completely polish every anno part they bought (that didn't come chrome or polished from the factory), especially on Hutches! Maybe polishing does nothing for someone, but others love it, and to say polishing was not part of VBMX or doesn't represent VBMX, is just ignorance, because it was, like it or not.

to clarify just a littel bit...

its the rounding everything out and ruining the nice sharp lines of the original piece that appalls me. if you can polish with style without destroying original material, that's one thing. but nearly no one does/can.

and as an aside.. i've been running bikes and parts through my house for 7 years now... and have not a single time run across a survivor with aluminum parts polished to a high gloss. i don't doubt some people had it done, but it certainly wasn't widespread or mainstream.

At risk of upsetting everyone:

Old school BMX bikes are super fun!!! I love them and I have so much fun playing with them. I hope that everyone here is here because old BMX bikes bring them joy and not because old BMX bikes make them want to fight.

Now who's having fun on this thread? If you are then it seems to me that your brand of fun is tainted with either masochism or sadism.

I don't care what anyone does with their old BMX stuff, it's theirs, but I do hope they have fun doing whatever that is. And I hope you guys can stop trying to take each other's fun away and enjoy life a bit more.

Cheers,
Frazer

i like old bmx bikes.

what i like better than old bmx bikes is racing new bmx bikes.

yes i'll be 40 in August. 56 hrs per week at work minimum. i own a house with green mowed grass, and have a wife and kid.

you guys sure complain about the most petty stuff.

you should come to the racer side and start making history (or more history) IF you raced before.

just a thought. it's not as hard as it looks. you only go as fast as you pedal. and the bikes have brakes.

sorry for the rant. but sometimes you guys drive me nuts.

"Different strokes for different folks." "One man's trash is another man's treasure."... and these are the days of our lives.

Ted I couldn't agree with ya more.
Many parts that have been heavily polished had major damage.
I don't think there was anything that did not get polished or repainted when I was a kid.
Many people would have thrown out those pedals Ted those were a nice save. You could easlily anodize those at anytime.
Before someone puts down parts refinishing they might want to know the story of how they ended up that way.
"have not a single time run across a survivor with aluminum parts polished to a high gloss." Aluminum parts don't usually stay polished for 20-25 years or more. I see many dull aluminum parts on survivor bikes they tarnish up just sitting there.

everybody else has so .... my opinion

those Reedys --- look like hell
those DXs --- don't even resemble DXs
that Tuf Neck --- i wouldn't even give a second glance

but thats my opinion

Every single part in these pics was salavged from rubbish TIP. There are hours and hours of filing, sanding, polishing and blasting to get them ready for re-annoing. NO, they are NOT NOS, but the sure look nicer than a coke can they were destined to become. After sanding and filing parts that have had years of missuse and more divots than a golf ball from those damn hammers kids just had to use. I polish parts lightly then sand in a single direction to get the original "machined grain" back on the part. Once again, NO its not NOS, but its very respectable looking bmx parts once again.





FYI. the blue parts are going back in the next run as they are way off in color

[ March 23, 2007, 08:07 PM: Message edited by: waza007 ]

Hey Ted - your stuff looks like junk - lol

j/k - very cool.

BITD people used to polish up silver stuff and re-paint things.
It's nothing new.

I powdered my Kuwahara KZ1 frame and fork and SE Power Wing bars white in 1984.

Does that make it different than doing it today?

Damn Waza nice!

Ted have the neighbor kid who cuts your grass come in and belt sand the shine off of that tuffneck, then have it
re-anno'ed, for the nos look.

Seriously though I can appreciate both looks.
Have fun arguing.
Dan

Its horses for courses some parts NEED to be polished to bring them back. And I really do think that some parts look better polished.

Not everyone is going to "fall into line" on this one and its purely a matter of opinion.

TIM, can i ask a question? When find a old bike that you have been chasing and it got a Tuffneck that had more hits than "ABBA" on it? What do you do with it? I mean you personally, not hypothetically. This is not a leading question or a something to try and provoke anyone. Its a genuine question and im looking for a straght forward answer.

I do agree with both yourself and Ted that over-polishing/incorrect polishing can destroy parts. In "some" cases, polishing a part is cheaper for someone on a budget than chrome plating that part. Its awesome to have NOS untouched parts and i like to look at the workmanship and/or the lack of workmanship, as it is our past we are looking at. The welding and production techinques some of which have changed, while others have yet to be duplicated. Yep its a common thing for people outside of the scene to say "why dont you just get a new bike?" or "do you sell them?" or even "you cant ride all of them". To which i say things like "they dont make them like they used to" or "i like old stuff" Its even been said to me when people i know see what i paid for a NOS rare part. "I know someone who could get that made in china for $2" to which i reply "NOPE, Its not the same!"

Thats why i love restoring parts salavged from the recycler. Am i destoying the parts or keeping the parts from cokeacola's melting pot?

I have to side with Tim on this but I come from a 70's mentality, I'm pretty much over the polished look an alot of parts. Maybe the older guys like things alittle more original looking and younger guys like that shiney bling look, maybe I'm wrong.

[ March 23, 2007, 09:28 PM: Message edited by: spike ]

waza.. since you asked.

i like very much what you do with old aluminum parts. they're thrashed, you get them back to life. you take great effort to replicate the part's original finish.

i don't see you polishing away at the poor thing until every semblence of its original contours is gone.

and swinging back up the thread to whoever said you can't tell a 25 yr old polished part... yeah you can. #1, if it is still annodized, even faded to hell, you know the kid didn't polish that part. #2, if a silver part had been polished in the past, the stamped areas (tiger heads, dura ace logo, etc) would look muddy, not crisp and fresh. polishing leaves a fingerprint.

Thanks Tim. As i learnt and also read from Ted's polishing tutorial, its all about filing back all the original contours and yet removing enough metal to remove the hammer marks. Thus preserving the lines that used to be there. So i can see your original post was started cos you got annoyed with people rounding parts when polishing them. Which i and Ted both understand fully.

I recently saw a custom car being modified. They had 70's body with 80's taillights welded on. It looked rubbish mainly cos ther was no lines kept or contouring of the sheet metal at all. This guy spent over $50k on it and it was horrible. I wish i had a pic!!!

Point is things can be, if done properly, can look spot on. It might not be your cup of tea but you apppreciate the workmanship anyway. My opinion was why did he ruin a perfectly good 70"s body!!

Polished parts have their place but in moderation otherwise some builds look like "bling bling" gansta rappers!

Oh Ted, that Stem rocks!!!

[ March 23, 2007, 09:30 PM: Message edited by: waza007 ]

nice bunch of stuff there Wazza, I believe that's what "restoring" is, good work.

like with cars and the earlier mentioned 57 chev, I used to have a 58 and a '60 (much nicer than 57 )

The '58 was restored concourse where the '60 was daily driver with different paint etc and although it was a clean but crap resto it was never gonna be a show car of any sort. Oh for the Aussies I also had an HT Monaro mint original. That '60 chev made alot of people smile as I drove it daily and when I pulled up at lights people often smiled or waved. I did love that car.

in cars there are concourse, original, restored, modified, "better than new??". The same thing will probably happen in this hobby. People like different things and don't like different things, all well and good. People butting heads happens when people who like or disslike something think their "right", there is no such thing as a "right" opinion. everyone reading this has one of three reactions, I agree, I dissagree or I dont care. Me personally, I agree, I dont like things that dont look original for my bikes. ( but who cares it's only my OPINION and I respect differing ones).

so lets keep playing with bikes and enjoy other peoples work, or not

Not trying to rob this thread but have a set of pedals like the top ones with ti shafts bought them new in 85 told demcos are they reedys what are the differance????

Timbo you just lost yourself a hell of a lot of credability & face by laying down your "law" to all.

You seem to enjoy & possibly pride yourself by restoring your bikes back to being "stockers"
Some of your bikes _almost_ look like the bikes that I'd sell at the bikeshop I worked in after school in the early 1980's , except they are missing all the mandatory safety equipment that we were required by law to fit on the bikes in order to legally sell them out of the shop.

So how about fitting the era correct federal or state law required safety equipment to your restored bikes to complete them ?

The early 1980's production bikes I sold had reflectors in the wheels , pedals , & one at the back somewhere between the brakes & the seat etc. I also had to fit a bell to all the BMX bike's & test it.

Australian Design Rules also dictated that the rear wheel hand brake had to be operated by the left hand lever so that the bike rider could give right handed signals & still brake safely if required.
The US may have had a similar (but reverse) law for production bikes fitted with handbrakes.

If you really want to do the thorough restorations you pride yourself on , I suggest that you make sure all your bells , reflectors etc are fitted in the era correct manner to all your bikes.

Until then a lot of your "stock standard" bikes are going to be incomplete restorations.

I may be completely wrong here & you can explain that you live in a glass house & don't throw any rocks.


JB

its a fine line between -- resto, polish and over polish --- i would consider the examples shown earlier to fall into the latter bracket

i have stripped and resto'd equipment and left the raw brush or polish finish according to how they were offered og

and after all that sidebarring, in the end i still think overpolished aluminum parts look like crap. it's my opinion...

...and colored tires are the ghey.

but that's another issue.

How about mirror polished colored tires?

Hey man - I agree with Tim - if it ain't OG, it ain't crap! And while we're at it - did I mention how dumb fake knockers look too? And colored hair? Just goofy... /sarcasm off

Seriously - some of us need to spend less time worrying about what others are doing to THEIR stuff...

Boone

..but opinions are like a**holes, everyone's got one.

do whatcha like, screw what everyone else thinks.

yea, that's right, I said it.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y187/stev...rke/pasco17.jpg

come get some.
you can't kill rock n roll i'm here to stay.

Boone-ster!

When comes right down to it, polishing aluminum makes for tasty buggers....

Make your own analogy.

I have done some polishing of stems and such but only when said piece has bitten the dust already.

touched a nerve there, did I, Ted? LOL!

oddly enough, i never mentioned your name, your name never crossed my mind when starting this thread, i super rarely venture into the restoration section of vmbx, i have never read your "how to polish" thread.. oh yeah, i never mentioned polishing NOS parts either.

what did i posit?

1. i posted a pic of waaaaay overpolished pedals, and posted a pic of an NOS set of pedals to show what they looked like in their original condition.

2. that grinding/polishing aluminum parts till they look like a shiny lump of who's knows what is unappealing.

God forbid we have a little spirited discussion on topics that are pertinent to large numbers around here. we all have workbenchs. we all scratch our heads about what to do with new stuff. i guess we should all just be quiet and read page 94 of the Red Baron thread, page 143 of the Johnny Johnson thread, and page 110 of the Legends BBQ thread and be happy.

everything else is too controversial.

lastly... it is stupifying that the notion of preserving the originality of vintage parts would be met with vitriol and scorn by so many. must be the disposable world we live in today.

go figure.

[ March 24, 2007, 12:12 AM: Message edited by: TIM ]

Yeah, colored tires ALWAYS looked lame to me. I like things a little cobby looking when it comes to my bikes, maybe it comes from the MX bikes I used to see in magazines in the mid-70's, mainly Maico's and CZ's, very little color and alotta raw alum, mag and titanium but MAN did they look cool. For me, raw looks cooler than polished most of the time.

[ March 24, 2007, 12:43 AM: Message edited by: spike ]