Restoring and dyeing Skyways. including finished wheels pics.

Here are a few pics of my Skyways resto. I had an idea that it would be better when dyeing my wheels to keep them in boiling water (The tinlets intructions recommend this). This would enable the dye to remain actively effective for the recommended 20mins dyeing time. So rather than letting it slowly go cold I went about finding a big enough metal container that I could heat. I also decided it would be a more effective process if the wheel could rotate in the dye, enabling the dye to be mixed and alowing uniform coverage. I came up with a simple solution to the rotating idea I used x2 pieces of flat steel that could be slightly bent, I drilled a hole through each and passed an old axle with a bearing nut on it, the contruction was fixed with an axle nut on the bottom. This was placed in a tin tub and the tin tub was placed on top of a camping stove. The wheel could now be dyed in heated water rotating and could be turned over after 10mins.

The Skyways I restored were a bit scratched and knocked about so I rubbed them down with 240, 600, 800, 1500, 2000, 2500.....what a fookin boring life while doing this part. I hated it but it produced surprising results taking out scratches and brake wear, major marks remain (to remove would result in an odd shaped looking wheel). I also decided to eliminate any ugly molding marks. In the final stages i decided to use a plasic polish Xerapol, the results were rubbish. I tried Turtle Wax Scratch remover the results were also lame. Supprisingly I decided to use Autosol which produced a great shine. Not all of you will want such a shiney finish but I though what the hell there are going on a show bike so the blingyer the better. I polished and greased the aluminium bits to keep the dye out of the tiny imperfections. I coverd the wheels with water so just the aluminium hub showed, I used 4 tinlets of Dylon ebony black and a 1lb of salt per wheel.
Here are a few pics of my first atempts at Skyway resto. The results were awesome. Cneck out my 83' Raleigh 'Super Tuff' Burner to see how the wheels look on my resto.

Removing molding marks

....and starting on the brake wear

The wheel spinning thingy

The bath on camping stove.

Full of heated dye (fill container with boiling water from saucepans first). Keep the wheel rotating with a wooden spoon so not to scratch the wheel, turn after 10 mins and spin for another 10 mins.

Then wash em and wd40 em.

Here are the finished wheels.