TOPIC:

I hope it’s not as bad as that. The white deposits do appear to just wipe off on my finger. A bit of elbow grease will shift most of it. But then there are the areas I cannot see. The slide bores so very little signs of this issue.

Perhaps “Cellulose Thinners” was the wrong term to use. The thinners I used were suitable for thinning cellulose based paints. The composition is: TOLUENE; BUTAN-1OL; CYCLOHEXANE; HEPTANE; N-HEXANE; PROPAN-1-OL; TETRAHYDROFURAN.

Being quite lazy I was hoping for some quick fix by soaking in some sort of detergent (washing up liquid etc.) have even considered putting them in the dishwasher while my wife wasn’t watching.

Maybe the pics make it appear worse than it really is and I'm hoping for that.

I've used Autosol for polishing aluminum before and it's amazing. Maybe the elbow grease route will bring them back. A few cotton buffs and a drill or Dermel plus the Autosol.

Check it out - www.autosol.com/

Oh, I'm very familiar with Autosol and Duraglit wadding (silver) - I'm just allergic to hard work

Try and take them to someone that does wet blasting, mine weren't as bad as yours but you would swear they were straight of the shelf the way they came up once done.

I had a set of carbs go like that on me. WD40 and elbow grease got me through it.... Picture below mostly assembled after the 'elbow greasing session'. Tuned and balanced them on the bike ...and touch wood, all going well 3000 miles later. Good luck!

That looks like a PROPER restoration job, Craig. I take my hat off to you. Did you have the brackets, springs etc yellow passivated? the finish looks as new. I wonder if fine bead blasting is a good idea for the carb bodies? i believe it closes up the pores of the metal, therefore reducing the chance of surface degradation. I love it when parts LOOK beautifully finished!