Spoke Refinishing

P.Martinez · Post by **P.Martinez** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:05 am

I am in the process of restoring a '67 CL77 (never restored a motorcycle, a lot of experience w/cars). Got an estimate from a local plater for rechrome on the wheel rims @ $380 each (polish & "show" chrome), and $30 each for the spokes. Yikes!!! Wheel cost is as expected, but don't want to go for my lungs on the spokes! Thinking of getting a Caswell kit to zinc plate the spokes myself. I have all the equip. to polish the spokes but no plating equip. yet. Any comments on what would be the best way to proceed?

mike in idaho · Post by **mike in idaho** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:47 am

You don't want to chrome plate the spokes unless you want them to break. Look up the words"hydrogen embritallment" to see what I mean. Zinc plating is the closest to the original finish.

rpr851r · Post by **rpr851r** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 12:42 pm

Hi Martinez,

Do yourself a favor and gather up all the parts from the bike that should be zinc plated (every last bolt, screw, nut, washer, bracket, sprocket, spokes, ect.) and get them done in either zinc or cadmium. It’s cheap if you can find someone who has a drum operation. I got all the parts for my CL77 done for about $100. I ran a wire wheel over the parts before sending them off and made sure they were reasonable clean.

Good Luck,
Rich

Kigsby · Post by **Kigsby** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 4:06 pm

Why not just buy new spokes? There are some reasonably priced ones on ebay....

P.Martinez · Post by **P.Martinez** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:48 pm

Never heard of a drum operation for plating - will need to check into that. Thanks to all who responded to the post.
Phil M.

Snakeoil · Post by **Snakeoil** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:36 pm

If you have the time, you can replate them yourself with vinegar, epsom salts, sugar, a source of pure zinc, like roofing strips and a small power supply. I did my spokes myself in my basement.

Search for zinc plating here and you will find a thread with all the info you need on the topic. I actually stumbled across the thread 2 years ago and ended up replating every part that was zinc plated originally on my CL77. I even plated a few chrome pieces where the chrome was missing and then buffed it and it matched the remaining chrome pretty well.

I've told a lot of other riders on other sites about that thread and many of them are doing their own plating using the same process with great success.

As for the H2 embrittlement, this exists for zinc plating as well. You just need to bake your spokes at 300 deg F for 30 minutes after you have plated them to release any H2. If you have a plater do you work, you need to ask him about baking them when they are done. If he does not give you confidence that he knows what you are talking about, find another plater.

regards,
Rob

Hahnda · Post by **Hahnda** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 12:22 am

The spokes on eBay look to be of smaller gauge. Maybe that is not the case but it looks that way in the picture.

I just get them replated. I have a set of spokes and most of the hardware for a CL headed my way back from the plater early next week. I can get some pics. I also sent some parts out for chrome. I sent out the wheels and they are doing both CL wheels for under $200. I'll have to see what the quality is like.