Many Thanks Blurredman and Puffs.
Regarding my "Trade Secrets".... All aluminium alloy was cleaned by me. Over the years I have found several ways of getting aluminium clean. Generally I use Phosphoric Acid at some point and if it is very corroded I resort to using a rotary Nylon wire brush. They are red coloured and have abrasive impregnated in them. They are ideal for the wheel hubs as all you have to do is let the brush rotate the hubs until they are polish bright metal. There is no need to paint the the alloy hubs as they stay clean and mostly uncorroded. Nothing is more unsightly than black paint peeling off aluminium. However I did spray the inner faces,including disc hub centre , after acid etching, with a baked on black silk paint as I like this look. All the levers and speedo brackets were similarly abrasively cleaned etched and baked on at about 150 C. Crankcases were acid cleaned and eventually I used wire wool (Brillo Pads) to burnish the outside areas. The head and Barrel were cleaned with a KARCHER sand blaster. It took 2x sacks of "kiln dried" sand but much cheaper than aqua blasting. I wish the sand was touch more grittier though. The worst part is cleaning up the lawn afterwards and getting every single grain of sand out of the parts...
Carbs and stub were done similarly : acid/ stainless soft wire brush/Ultrasonic bath and finished with wire wool. I also clean the steel internal parts with the rotary brush and finish with an acid dip. The phosphoric acid produces a very good anti-rust layer and as far as I know it is the first part of any car body anti-rust pre primer treatment. I will show you the evidence on a seat pan that has not rusted even though it has been damp on and off for 2x years (photo coming soon) All zinc plated parts that were rusty I used a steel rotary wire brush, acid etched and I used a Silver "Hammerite" paint. this hardens off quite well over time...OK it is not as good as re- zinc plating but with some bikes I have actually got them re-plated...it depends on how I think they will wear in use. All bright aluminium I use a 1HP rotary polishing mops and have become pretty good at knowing how to do it but it is a filthy job and I have often started doing it at the spur of the moment and covered clean clothes with black greasy dust, not to mention my entire exposed skin including face (which sometimes makes me think about the melanoma
..who knows) The rims were polished this way before rebuilding them...it took ages.
Final preparation is the tank which was rusted extremely badly inside (over 20 years left outside empty) I used hydrochloric and phosphoric acids and coated inside with TAPOX.
I now have to spray the side boxes so they will be hand sanded and etched with acid then 2K spray paint.
And yes...I tried to undo the 5x screws (I think there were five) so I'll tell you...they are the screws that hold the air box together and I realised afterwards that the box is GLUED together so pointless in getting them out. The inside is perfectly clean and bright anyway....well something had to be clean somewhere...
Les