They look AWESOME! Great job.Damn, those things are screaming to be played.I'll send you some pics of my '70. Looks alot like yours minus the 13". I think yours has a little more sparkle left in them.What did you use to clean the wrap?
Please post, I'd like to see your pics.
Based on recommendations I read on this forum, for the initial cleanup I used a car wash cleaner - I don't even remember exactly what brand it was, just something I had laying around that had carnuba wax as an ingredient. I didn't want to get too sloppy/drippy and have water getting into the wood edges, so I used not-quite soaking wet terry cloth and put a few drops of the concentrated cleaner on it at a time (as opposed to a bucket of water with the cleaner mixed into it), then rinsed off the cleaner with a clean damp rag. I had to go over some areas more than once, but this got most of the surface dirt off and shined them up a bit. I didn't disassemble them all the way down to naked shells - I left the lugs on - and this cleaning also helped get a lot of the gunk/dried grease off the lugs.
There was still some tar/glue/unidentified gunk of some spots of the wrap after the initial cleaning. I first attempted to get this off with Goo Gone, a citrus-based cleaner that I figued would be safe on the wrap. It helped, and probably would have done a fine job if I'd taken a little more time with it, but I grew impatient, so I moved up to a more powerful petroleum-based solvent, Goof Off. I was a little worried that it might damage the wrap, so I tried it on an inconspicuous spot first, and since there didn't seem to be any ill effect, I used it as a spot cleaner on the areas that needed it, and it did the trick.
Then - once again based on a recommendation on this forum - I used some Meguiar's polish I had laying around. Rub it in, let it dry, and polish it off, and it helped even out the finish and make some of the scratches (and there are plenty of them) less noticeable.
All of this work didn't get any of the yellowing out of the wrap, as you can really see in the close up of the new inlay of the front BD hoop next to the wrap on the BD. But it looks a LOT better than when I started. There are still a few problem areas where there are deep scratches that are kind of darkened, and also a few of areas where it looks like some kind of chemical reaction took place that ate into the surface of the wrap, making some rough, darker yellow patches that don't polish out - it seems like some some sort of adhesive or chemical may have been involved. I may post some picks of the problem areas later to see if anyone has any suggestions.
On the chrome parts, at first I tried Nevr-Dull (it comes as wads of cotton impregnated with some petroleum based cleaner) because I had some on hand already. It works good and cleaned off most of the tarnish and I imagine also adds some protection. But I saw Blue Magic polish recommended here, and decided to try that on some chrome as well. It really does a great job, and leaves the chrome with a better shine than the Neve-Dull, so I went over all the lugs and rims with it, and was very pleased with the results.
Anyway, I'm VERY pleased with the way this all turned out. Thanks again to everyone who contributed advice, supplied parts, etc.!
Scott
