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tips and tricks to a good restoration => tips and tricks => Topic started by: yd328 on February 27, 2015, 06:35:41 AM
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I am going to replace the ignition wire with a new one. I am looking for suggestions on cleaning and restoring the braided copper shield to the clean copper state. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks Gary
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What I did with mine was I blasted them lightly. Just enough to get clean using very fine media. Silica sand is pretty aggressive on copper and solder. I used a blasting booth with what I think was aluminum oxide? it was very fine, almost like a powder. Then I Brushed them with a stainless steel or brass bristle wire brush, the brass brush gives the nicest finish when done. That smoothed out any roughness from the blasting. They look like new. Of you don't have access to a blaster try just the brushes. Stainless to clean and brass to polish. Good luck.
Henry
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Gary a good media for blasting non-ferrous metal is glass beads. It won't damage the metal or leave the roughness that Silca sand does. You just need to replace your media more often. I use that on my electrical switches and pieces like that.
Don G.
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i did the same thing with my blaster and aluminum oxide grit on low pressure
they turn out great but you should then spray them with clear matte finish. rustolium at homedepo
i didn't do that the first time and after a year or so the copper corrodes or does whatever copper does and doesn't look as good.
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My shielded cables were very tarnished and all I did was use a metal polish, ( brasso ) to bring them back to new looking cables. It is a little time consuming but the results are pretty good and there is no chance of damage. You could also try ultrasonic cleaning which I have seen does clean up things very well.
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Thanks for the tips, they will get me moving on those.
Gary
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When I used to work on radial aircraft engines, I made a tube out of 2" ABS pipe with a cap glued on one end. The braided lead was submerged in the tube filled with Tarnex or similar and after a short soak, a small stainless wire brush shined 'em up like new. Rinse good and let them dry then apply the aforementioned clear lacquer and they were good to go.