So, I was wondering if anyone has had any luck or mastered the art of converting solid anodized hoops to Shine side?

I understand the concept is pretty obvious but I'm worried that the inner edge where the shine side ends and the anodize would start will be difficult to control and keep looking fresh and consistent.

I don't want to botch the job basically.

The only reason I'm thinking about venturing down this path is the inability to locate and purchase a pair of Gold shine side 24" hoops. I recently purchased a pair of solid gold anodized Araya's on Ebay.

How do they execute them at the factory? on a jig and machine them? Is there sanding and polishing involved?

Also, If your a Pro and take commissioned projects I'd rather drop some cash then screw them up. Any takers?

Any insight or offers would be Helpful!

Thank you,

Mike

Get some painters masking tape, some appliance spray paint, and a razer blade. Take your time for the masking. Give the paint plenty of time to dry. Like weeks. And they will come out great. The factory shines weren't perfection defined anyways. The hardest part will be the decals.

Yeah,
It's definitely going to be a careful endeavor. The thing is the rims are already colored. I just need to remove the anodize on the side wall and that's what I'm worried about, keeping a clean edge.

Oh you want to keep the ano. Same process. Basically paint all that you want to keep anodized in the end. After the paint has dried( again a few weeks of warm weather) use lye to remove the exposed ano. It will only take the ano off of the area that was not covered by paint. Then polish your side walls then with aircraft paint remover take the paint off of your gold ano and viola. Good luck.

in some experimentation the paint isn't completely unaffected by the lye. it does get altered. might have to really watch your reaction.

I'll be interested how this turns out. If it works well I've got some araya's with brake rub that could use a shine side effect.

But in this instance the paint is only there to protect the underlying ano. You strip it in the end.

Did some years ago. Just took my DA and sanded the sides, came out good took about 15 minutes. Just take your time.

to clarify what I meant above. the paint is corrupted enough that the lye could penetrate underneath.
i like the light sanding idea just presented.

and think of the edge of the painted surface like an ice cream sandwich, the lye has room to affect the ano from the edge of the paint.

Guess it depends on the paint and the amount of lye. The appliance paint is pretty tough stuff one its dry. Use a light mixture of lye at first or use easy off rather than straight lye. If you want to wait, I have a set of ukai blues that I want to turn into black painted shine sides. I'd do a pictorial experiment and use my used rims rather than you experiment with your nos golds. I wanted to do them anyway. Problem is I'm out of lye. I should be able to get to it in the next few weeks. As far as sanding the sides off, I had apair of gt power series cranks I was trying to refinish. I was sanding them by hand. What a pain in the [please review the site FAQs] till i thought hmm these might be clear ano. They were. Once it was off the cleaned up fast. You might end up with the same problem in sanding the gold off your rims. Try it on the inside of the rim.

I did that when I was a kid... I just took the tires off and mounted the rims back in the bike... the bike being upside down. I then made a nice sanding block and started spinning the rim... it was a nice and true rim... I actually placed the sanding block against the fork and back triangle for a guide. Step you paper down and then do the same thing with mothers... looked like chrome.

It worked like a charm BITD... I thought it was a kick [please review the site FAQs] job but maybe not up to somebody's museum standards around here:-)

Good Luck

Yeah, I might be missing something here, but seems to me Torqd is right.

It ought to be the same 'process' as brake rub. Spin those wheels and
sand off the anno. I can see how good clean edges would be sort of
daunting. Take your time and start with a fine grit to see how well
it's working.

That's how I always imagined trying to turn rubbed up sides into
'shine-sides' You know, following up with he polish and such.

If you are doing it by hand start off 80 grit course cut anno then polish with fine 240 grit. Have polished up many parts,cranks stems etc. some beat up bad Sand then buff.

I took a look at my ukai shine side wheels last night, they were NOS before building.
and it definitely looks like ano edge was sanded.

I did the same process to try to improve my braking surface and it worked great! ... almost like turning the brake rotors on a car. I used 400 grit paper and spun the wheel and sanded the surface lightly and the brake squealing went away and I had better stopping power. It also got rid of that annoying skipping where the rim seam was...

I've restored used rim sidewalls by using maroon Scotchbrite pads and rubbing in a radial motion the same diameter of the rim. Scotchbrite pads give that nice brushed look, which can be controlled by the different colors and coursenesses of pads.

Maybe try plastic electrical tape to create a sharp edge, and the tape should survive the scuffs of the Scotchbrite.

Not sure if this is way too late or not.

But I would create a boarder.

Using a sharp firm blade of choice, back scrape the corner where the shine side will end. Create a crisp, clean line of silver bare aluminum. Spinning the wheel (if possible, laced) would be the easiest while scraping. But unlaced in your lap is controllable with a good blade. Then you can carefully sand the rest off the sides, and you'll have a crisp clean edge where you scraped the corner. Then you can polish the sides to taste, or give them a scotch brite finish, or whatever.

Post em up.....!

Essentially it's the same technique to polish existing shine sides, as they are colorless anodized on the sides, so that has to come off first too.

The shine sides are clear anodized, and then only dyed in the center. They coat (mask) the sides with something (I haven't learned exactly what it is yet, but it's on my list, lol) which blocks the dye from taking on the sides (probably just a tape or latex rubber rolled on) . They don't remove the anodizing after they put it on, just to remove the color, they merely avoid letting the dye take on the sides.

But to do it now, that is how you have to do it.

Ted Carl, The same Ted Carl that gated next to me at the 1981 Jag World Championship trophy dash??

Actually, as I recall, gate 3 was empty..... and Richie was in gate 1, but if you are referring to my neighbor 2 doors down on that gate, then......wow, that must mean Jeff Foshag is in the house!

A vary talented rider from ....Michigan if I am not mistaken!?

We'll never forget that gate! ....Nuff said for now, we'll have to pick this one up in a more apt thread soon! As I'm sure we both have plenty of the good stuff to spread around on that topic!!!!

Wow, talk about a hijack of a thread, and a huge surprise!

Great to see you here Jeff!

T