I bought an apparantly brand new, unused, front mudguard from eBay. The seller said it was removed from a brand new bike and left kicking around his garage for the past 25 odd years. New front guards are unavailable, although a guy in Australia has made a few pattern ones, but they are just over £100 inc p&p, so, I'll have a go with this one.
It was indeed, in good condition, with no major faults, but had suffered numerous scratches (some quite deep) over the years. The metal brace underneath was in very good, but tarnished condition. This will go to be re-zinc'ed in due course.
But, today's job in the garage, was to try and remove the scratches from the plastic. A job I've not been looking forward to!
So, out with the wet 'n dry, and onwards. This is the mudguard as I started with it:
First job was to drill out the 2 pop rivets to remove the brace. Easy job, and set aside for later zinc coating.
Then, starting with 80 grit Wet 'n Dry, used VERY wet to avoid melting the plastic, I made a start. I progressed through 160, 240 & 300 grit, and 4 hours later, ended up with this:
By this time, all traces of the scratches are gone, and I'm well on my way to a smooth finish. But, I'd had enough. I've a few more grades of paper to go through, right down to a 2000 grit. But, I'll come back to that. Does anyone recommend a product for final polishing, after the Wet 'n Dry??
Here's the guard loosely mounted in forks.
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