How to Polish Wheel Hub Bakelite?

[Wausau 911]

What's the best way to bring back luster to the Bakelite?
thx for all replies.

 

[Keoke]

??????????

 

[TimK]

https://www.classicrotaryphones.com...35b57b14ba651478e102efcf44414b65&topic=1259.0
Try this bakelite discussion, or do your own google search.

 

[Wausau 911]

Thank you Tim, Brasso seems to be the consensus on the web page you provided.

 

[Keith_M]

I used black shoe polish; worked great.

 

[BigGreen]

I have two original steering wheels. One is very bad and the hub had something like black paint on it



I sanded the hub and used a mild polish for carpaint.

The word is that the hub is bakelite, but mine is pitted ...



Polish enters these little holes, so you need a degreaser
Wax will enter the holes also, a sealent will be easier

Not used the machine yet, maybe I will go for the shoepolish

 

[John Turney]

I painted mine with a semi-gloss spar varnish, diluted about 20% with thinner.

 

[Editor_Reid]

.
Here's an article by Curt Arndt, chairman of the concours committee, that I published several years ago:

Refinishing "Bakelite"

Curt Arndt
Carlsbad, California

The original "trafficator" – the round, black crown in the center of the steering wheel found in all big Healeys – sometimes needs a little rejuvenation to keep it looking new. I've restored a dozen or more of these items over the years and I learned from an elderly gentleman who restored old radios (the knobs and assorted pieces on many old radios were made of the same material) how to bring back the “Bakelite” without removing its unique look and patina.

Bakelite is one of the first plastics (Dr. Leo Baekeland, 1908, father of the plastics industry) and is made from a formaldehyde formula and some sort of filler, which was in many cases wood (sawdust). It tends to dry out over the years and needs to be re-moisturized to keep it from becoming more brittle than it already is, and you will see that there are a number of ways to accomplish this.

Usually I clean the pieces first with warm soapy water and a toothbrush to get the years of dirt, grime, grease and miscellaneous crud off. If the surface is rough at all, which it will be if it has spent any amount of time exposed to the elements, the surface will need to be smoothed out. I will usually start with #0000 steel wool (equal to 600-grit sandpaper) and then work through 1000- then 1500-grit wet sandpaper. I then polish the piece carefully on a special soft-string wheel with plastic polish on my buffer. WARNING: If you use a buffer, be extremely careful to hold onto the piece tightly because if you lose your grip and the piece flies out of your hand and hits the floor, it's history!

You may now notice that the piece has a speckled brown/golden tinge to it, and no, I'm not talking about brown Bakelite, that's different. What you see are the filler specks (sawdust pieces) that have bleached out over the years from exposure. Depending on the degree of discoloration, the piece can be dyed with black India ink.

The next step is to re-moisturize the piece. I normally use plain black Kiwi brand shoe polish and then hand buff until there is no residue left. Other folks that I know have used "Neatsfoot" oil, mink oil or clear mineral oil, none of which I have tried but from seeing some of their finished work, it looks very good. Finally, I will apply a good carnuba wax to finish the piece. The results can be spectacular and far superior to just painting the piece, which may be your only option if the piece is broken and you have to repair it with filler.

 

[BigGreen]

Reid, Thank you very much

.... You may now notice that the piece has a speckled brown/golden tinge to it, ...

That is what iI noticed ;



Hans

 

[steveg]

I also used Curt Arndt's extremely useful instructions, but with one modification: in place of the india ink, used Angelus black leather dye. The bottle has a felt applicator and the dye is solvent based and is a very concentrated black - it's like flowmaster or Sharpie ink. Did several coats before applying the Kiwi shoe polish. The shoe polish by itself is not sufficient because it contains very little dye.
Work was done 7 or 8 years ago.

 

[pkmh]

Obviously, this is not the wheel hub but the other major bakelite piece which I restored by first rubbing with a very fine compound, then wax (of course, being careful not to rub away any of the letters which in my case were damaged to start with so I restored the letters by hand afterwards).

When I do my wheel, I intend to use an orbiter and very fine compound with wax on that too, especially around the wheel's hub at the spokes. Any advice on that?