Vintage Dirt Bike Q & A

I WOULD LIKE TO REUSE THE ORIGINAL SPOKES FROM MY 1980 CR125, AND WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT FINISH THEY HAD ON THEM FROM THE FACTORY. I CAN'T TELL IF IT WAS CHROME, OR MAYBE CAD PLATED. ALSO, ARE THE ORIGINAL STYLE DID RIMS AVAILABLE ANYWHERE? BUCHANAN'S DOES NOT CARRY THEM. MINE HAVE SOME PRETTY DEEP GOUGES IN SOME SPOTS, AND I COULD FILL THEM AND FINISH THEM SAME AS ON A ALUMINUM BODY CAR ETC, BUT I HAVEN'T FOUND AN ALUMINUM PAINT COLOR THAT I'M HAPPY WITH. HAS ANYONE HAD SUCCESS RESTORING ALUMINUM RIMS BACK TO ORIGINAL APPEARANCE? THANKS, MARK

The spokes were originally clear Cadmium plated.

Your damaged rims can be restored by TIG welding the cracks and gouges then grinding the repairs
smooth. Follow that with polishing to a luster then a low gloss clear anodization. That will duplicate
the OE satin finish. Accurate reproductions (using original material and tooling), of the OE DID rims can
be purchased from Holley Equip (listed in the resource section).

Before Holley had DID "reissue" the OE DIDs, I used to restore all of my rims using this procedure. Now that
I can get a brand new original for a couple hundred bucks, it's not worth the time and effort.

dogger

_________________
1973 CR250M
1979 CR250R
1993 CR250R
2008 CR500R
2009 CR250R

Eastwood makes clear zinc, or silver cadmium. Which would be more of an accurate color? Thank you for the valuable info. Mark

Could you give me any info on how to access the resource section? Mark

You're talking about the two rattle can colors Eastwood sells that replicates plating, right?
I haven't tried either one, but if you want to go that route instead of actually having the spokes
plated, I would go with the silver cadmium. If you are interested in having the spokes cad
plated, let me know and I can send you the name of a shop I use that does very good work
for a fair price. Whatever you decide, I recommend you shy away from zinc plating. It looks
good initially, but the shine and protection drops off quickly.

To access the resources section on this site, just click on the recource icon at the top of the
page when you first log in and before you click on the vintage forums icon. Here is a link to
Holly's site: http://www.hollyequip.com/SHOP/526656/list.html

I was going to show you some before and after pictures of the spoke and rim restoration, but
this site has a self imposed pixel limit that makes that too much of a chore. If you would like
more info and to see some pictures, PM me and I'll forward that to you.

dogger

_________________
1973 CR250M
1979 CR250R
1993 CR250R
2008 CR500R
2009 CR250R

I got into the Holley site, but what comes up is a picture of the rim, and then just a sequence of numbers which I can't make any sense out of. Is there another way to access the site. I would be interested in the name of the plater you recommend, as well as the pictures if possible. My e-mail is daddy19581955@yahoo.com. Thanks, Mark