Hitchcocks Forum

I am in the process of restoring a 1959 Constellation which had good rims and spokes. However the spokes are dull, although the nipples are still shiny! Is it okay to remove the spokes, buff, nickel plate and re-use?

I'm just doing the same with my Ducati. I've painted the spokes with silver epoxy paint. I did it before with my old bullet and it worked out rather well. I'm still waiting for my rims to come back from the chrome Platers and the wait is driving me nuts!

Percy, I have successfully revived the dull galvanised finish on spokes by using the fairly mild acid cleaner sold for cleaning brick work and patios. It used to be available in hardware stores but given modern chemical regs you may need to go to a proper builders merchants these days. My supply is nearly run out so I'll find out soon! You cannot currently buy the correct butted spokes for Enfields in a galvanised finish, only stainless which is too bling for me. I've recently rebuilt 2 wheels for a Series 2 Interceptor with s/s spokes as they were the only thing available but I beadblasted one set and roughed the other with emery after mounting them in a cordless drill chuck. The emery roughened ones actually came out best and were much quicker to do!
REgards, Mark

Mark, you are an animal! 😉

Interesting spoke developments which I decided to add to this existing thread. I trust you don't mind Percyboy but it is on topic (sort of). The 860GT wheels that I am rebuilding (and am still waiting for the Raedelli rims to return from the chrome platers!) were going to have the existing spokes from the front wheel painted in Rustkill silver epoxy which have turned out very nicely. However the back wheel had the original butted spokes 8/9 gauge but they were in a pretty terrible state so I didn't think I want to reuse them on a back wheel of a 60+ bhp machine. I can get the blank zinc spokes from a local provider but nowhere can I find a tread roller for 8 or 9 gauge spokes with an imperial thread on. There is a chap from the Ukraine on Ebay that sells a 4mm spoke roller but the thread is obviously some Eastern Block standard as opposed to the British standard that the rest of the world including the Yanks have adopted. You can buy a $5000 workshop machine but no longer a simple roller die for anything bigger the 15 gauge (bicycle spokes). Fortunately my genius mate has managed to get his Coventry Die head with a 40 tpi Whitworth set of chasers to cut a beautiful 9 gauge thread on an 8 gauge spoke. Obviously as it isn't a rolled thread you have to get the threaded length pretty precise and it will require some rust preventative where the die has taken off the zinc plate but the fit is superb and it means I can have a new set of 8 gauge spokes for the Ducati in zinc plate with 9 gauge nipples. They are going to look very fetching and in order to keep continuity the front set that I so lovingly renovated and painted can go in the 'close but not quite' box and I'll put new spokes on both wheels.