just took a couple of pictures in the garage - the flash is making them look a bit better than the are




going to do another soak and scrub next weekend

they look much better mate

Try to remove the hub parts from the wheels cos the bleach can knacker metal parts.  

--Last edited by ciaoflyer on 2008-10-06 17:23:14 --

cheers for the generous feedback 1977    still got alot of scrubbing to do

removed the front axle, bearings etc. before dunking, but wasn't confident enough to try mucking around with the rear hub ciaoflyer - i was under the impression that the sturmey hub is in there forever   for there next soaking gonna try smothering grease over all the metal bits

finished mag bleaching at the weekend, here's some pics:





they haven't turned out too bad - but (as usual) they look much better in these pics. the front one ended up better than the rear mainly becuase of the rusty hub liquid escaping and staining    

before soaking, i tried to "seal" the hub parts with a plastic bag on the first effort - predictably, the bags got holes in and the plan of using grease was not overly successful.  if anyone knows of a way of getting the hub out (and indeed getting it back in!) that would be brilliant

conclusions: bleaching did give pretty good results compared to all the other cleaning methods i tried, where you can get a good bit of scrubbing done the results are pretty fantastic, but there are many awkward parts on the wheel needing small fingers or ingenious tools () to get the scrubbing power needed.  the main concern with soaking would be damage to the sturmey hub.  i'll probably give the back wheel another go sometime in the future, could have done better but ran out of patience a bit and got sick and tired of scrubbing!  

We've got Sodium Hypochlorite at work which we clean stonework with. Its pretty dodgy stuff and you have to wear eye protection and gaunlet gloves etc, it eats clothes for a pastime! so I thought i'd give it a whirl on my grimey mini mags  

Before



After



I didnt leave it soaking just wiped on, left for 10 mins and washed off, came out pretty good, needs doing again, may soak them in an upside down plastic dustbin lid
 

--Last edited by 1977grifter on 2008-10-16 14:01:32 --

steal your neighbours dustbin for a couple of days (they will even thank you for making it smell nice and fresh!!!)  

whoa! pretty dramatic results there 1977    - and a lot quicker than mucking around with soaking/bleaching, looks like that stuff does the trick good'n'proper!