Cadillac hubcap centers, Porsche wheel center cap, Volvo badge, Porsche 356 luggage strap bracket -- Cleaned

Before cleaning.

Used some light hammers to take some small dents out before cleaning.

Used a soapy steel wool to clean the brass.

Didn't want to overdo it.

Just enough to take the top layer tarnish off the brass.

Turned out pretty good.

Next will clean the larger one on the left.

After cleaning, also came out pretty good.

Last is the one on the right.

They all have four tabs and all of them were bent.

Straightened all the tabs.

These tabs would break off if bent more than a few times.

Tried not to bend them too much.

Some of the tabs are pretty severely bent.

Bent back the folded over tabs.

Was pretty hard to separate the tabs ends to fold back.

After straightening.

Cleaning the top surface (cleaner & light steel wool action).

All done cleaning the three centers.

All are made of sheet brass.

All were painted in part originally.

Porsche road wheel center cap.

Dirty & a bit scratched up.

After cleaning.

Not bad.

Volvo badge.

Also made of sheet brass.

It's pretty bent and dented.

Using some small hammers and punches, straightened out the brass.

It's very thin brass so had to be very gentle.

The punches live in this drawer.

Turned out pretty nice.

Porsche 356 leather luggage strap holder (goes on the package tray).

It's chrome steel with a plastic coating.

The coating is pretty damaged.

removed the loose bits of the plastic coating.

Done for now.

The pieces are ready to be placed somewhere in the flat files.

 

Cleaned the small double sided leather case

This case had some sort of black stuff on the leather.

Particularly bad on this side.

It actually cleaned off ok.

There's one spot where the leather is worn and a bit frayed on the corner.  Will use some rubber cement to glue down the loose pieces.

 

Sunday, March 13, 2022 -- Long Beach Car Swap Meet -- part 2

 

Broken Mavic Ksyrium ES Spoke -- Part 7 - Broke another spoke!

In order to take the wobble out of the wheel, tried to increase the tension on the loose spokes on the non-drive side.

The spokes on this area of the wheel were low in tension, causing the wheel to be out of true.

Tried to increase the tension on the most loose spoke (it happens to be a spoke I replaced a few years ago).

Unfortunately, the spoke was corroded to the nipple.

The nipple would turn on it's threads on the rim but the spoke turned with it, thus twisting the bladed spoke (the spoke is supposed to not rotate when the nipple is turned).

Applied penetrating oil overnight and grasped the spoke with locking pliers & tried to turn the nipple while holding the spoke in place.

Unfortunately, the spoke broke where it goes into the nipple (like the other ones that broke previously).

I had to try and turn it (couldn't leave it alone), sine the wheel was pretty out or true.

On the bright side, the nipple was NOT stuck to the rim.

So, the broken piece in the rim easily came out, just using the special spoke tool.

The remaining portion of the spoke in the nipple is corroded to the nipple & stuck.

The difference in the length of the broken spoke versus other spokes on the wheel (drive side & front wheel).

Ordered another used silver spoke from the same place online (bike shop in Pasadena).

It should come sometime next week.

 

Friday, March 11, 2022 -- Manhattan Beach Pier - Warm Day (around 70 F)

 

Put a new label on the extractor set and the Snap-on vacuum/fuel pressure gauge

Cleaned the metal case first.

Cleaned up pretty nice.

Put the label on the edge since most likely it will end up in a stack of stuff.