Nylite Wheels/ Airheart Brakes

[Don Tomich]

Can anybody please help me with the following:

My early 70's 5" Nylite wheels appear to have quite a few surface hairline cracks in them - is this likely to be a problem? Also how wide a spacer can be successfully used on rear nylites.

I have a set of 150 Airheart brakes which are covered in what appears to be corrosion and general grime - any clues on how to clean them up?

[VirgLove]

Completely disassemble them. Clean them as best you can with parts cleaner. Soak them overnight in Berryman's Carburator Cleaner. Emerse them in hot water to remove the Berrymans. Blow dry with compressed air. Place them in a vibrating tumbler with corn cob media and "Flitz" polishing compound for 12 to 15 hours. They come out looking better then new. If you use the tumbler on the brass compression fittings they come out looking like they came from a jewlery shop. Tom Davis clued me in on this and it works really well. Ring me up if you need more details. 402-690-0696 Cell

[Tom Davis]

Well there went the market on used brass compression fittings!!!!

[Don Tomich]

Thanks Virg for the great info. Any idea what type of business would use a vibrating tumbler?

[ted johnson]

Don, if there's a rock shop in town, they use tumblers for polishing rocks. I bought a cheapie fron Harbor Freight. Runs fine. You can even use it to mix mica dust into your powdercoat powder for metallics, or even to mix two different color powders! Just let it run several hours.
Hey - Tom! You let the cat out of the bag - I've been using polished compression unions for earrings for years! Ted

[Jeff Campbell]

Personally, I have glass bead blasted the airheart calipers and master cylinders, they clean up real nice, it's a quick and dirty way to go. The glass beads leave a dull white'ish finish, looks good from a distance, but it is not the shinny polished look of the original parts.

Jeff