Cleaning up

Didn't realise until I went to write this that I had owned the ACS Skatemates since October last year.
As I had some spare time today I thought I'd finally get around to doing some work on them.

Made a few discoveries..

Stripped the wheels off to discover that the ACS 430 hangers have fully threaded axles, interesting, maybe it was a way of using up old stock of unsold hangers.
Might come in handy for another project that I'll probably never finish.

Cleaned them up abit with some engine degreaser and a toothbrush, came up looking good, the quality of the casting leaves something to be desired though, never noticed back in the day, maybe they were this bad but I'm now more conscious of such things.

I then wondered why I was bothering to clean them up if I wasn't going to use the hangers but did all four anyway.

The bushings were actually in good shape and seemed usable after a wash in soapy water.

The front two pivot cups had turned waxy and disintegrated, have replaced them with some I had.

Found a couple of 651 hangers that I have and offered them up, the kingpins stick out far too much, same as on the 430's, after tapping a rear kingpin out I then discovered that my GrindKing kingpins were too short, the baseplate on the rear is very thick. I then also discovered that reversing the kingpin doesn't really make a lot of difference in the height. A real danger of hanging up with these, the older longer GK KP's might be alright, have some somewhere but probably fitted to some trucks.

Bearing are soaking in degreaser for now but will probably be replaced anyway.

Old mates, new mates, Skate Mates

Have been having the urge to get back on some quad skates again for a while.

These popped up on eBay and I had to have them.

ACS Skate Mates

Will swap the 430 hangers out for 651's unless I can get hold of four 580 hangers cheap.

Perfect size for my Sk8-Hi's, need a bit of tidying up and new toe stops and bushings.

Wheels and bearings will probably change too.

Green Kryps? 

Oh and probably fit inverted  Grind King type kingpins. 

Here's an old advert from back in the day. 

Just got to figure out fixing the boots to the plates.

More Big Wood

Well out came the chisels and Captain Woo Hoo and I managed to remove the block of wood only minimal damage.
Will be okay once it's sanded.

Big Wood

Well it's been a while…

Another project, big deck, arrived at work yesterday.

Looks like a normal deck, right?

Dimensions in millimeters, that's about 45" x 9.5"

Top, metre rule for scale.

Bottom, yes, a big lump of ply has been glued to the bottom, apparently was gonna be a camera mount.
Tried removing it with Acetone to dissolve the glue but it's not shifting just yet, might have to break out the sander.

Also notice it's not drilled, been a long time since I've had to drill a deck from scratch. Will probably measure the nose and tail on the Z36 and use those measurements.
It's a similar shape and fairly flat concave.

Let's Be Careful Out There...

Saw this advertised on eBay, glad the seller didn't watermark it ;-)

Which reminds me I need to chase up my engine man...

Flyaway 2

Got another Flyaway off of EvilBay.

Turned up at work whilst I was in France.

Classic colourway, chuffed with this one, it's all a bit wonky mind, check the paintjob with the holes.

Foam was a bit manky...

 So out it came and new 'memory' foam went in, could have done a better job but it can be redone if need be...

Will tart it up at a later date, I reckon I can get the scratches out. 

New Kingpins, Old Trucks

Project Old Board took a few steps closer to being completed this afternoon.

Replaced the old kingpins with some new ones from my trusty bolt man Don at Apex Fasteners.

Went for some slightly longer ones as the thread in the baseplate is a bit worn, got 2.5" ones, a bit too long as they now bottom out on the deck, either gotta get them shortened or fit risers.
Turns out I had two different lengths in there, the one on the back being shorter.
I don't think the fact that the new ones are fully threaded will matter.

Also fitted the new bushings and replaced the bearings with new ones for now, I think the old Nachi ones will clean up okay.

New deck to come I think if I can find something suitable(ly cheap)

Project Old Board

Got some bushings from ebay, advertised as being suitable for ACS trucks etc.
Certainly look the part, 1/2" tall, red.

They are rock hard however, might be okay for the displayers out there but I want my ACS500's to turn. I'll see how they are once they are fitted.

I've spoken to my friendly fastener supplier to see if he can get me some new kingpins.

Hope to get this up and running soon. 

Helmet Project

It's moved a step forward, been a bit busy at work recently so it had taken a bit of a back seat.

Anyway it's coming along now. A few more weeks and I reckon it'll be almost there.

Something Old, Something New

Not Blue or Borrowed though.

Latest acquisition turned up at work in a particularly skateboard shaped package.

Pretty funky griptape pattern.

ACS 500's & Powerflex 5's

Stickers (bottom) ACS, (top) Steve Daniels, Plymouth. Any ideas on the middle one? 

Kingpin crime!!!! Where's my Elephant Wrench?

A friend mentioned on Facebook that they had this a couple of years ago, it's older than him, I told him if he ever wanted to get rid of it I'd have it, so it needs a bit of work. 

I hadn't realised that the deck was a fibreglass one, almost in a Fibreflex style, it has a strange green material in between two layers of white glass. Very cracked and is shorter at both ends that originally. Now measures 25" x 6.5" roughly.

One Day I'll Flyaway

Started to polish my helmet (titter ye not missus).

Flatted back the paint with 1000 grit wet & dry, got a lot of the marks out. this was in preparation for polish and then lacquer.

I decided it was best to strip the trim off and one thing led to another and before I knew it I ended up with a bag of bits.

Got plans, will keep you posted. ;-)

Oh and further to the eBay seller advertising it as a Death Box, heard from Sean Goff that Death Box didn't do helmets (as I suspected) but Jeremy Fox made some before starting Death Box.