Don- I am not sure that your method of "preservation" is the best available. Firstly, acetone, if carcinogenic at all, is of little to no risk to your health assuming you don't drink the stuff or take showers in it. On days when your liver is mad at you, it makes acetone all by itself. But I digress. Acetone is solvent, sure, it will clean the grime off your hoods, but it also extracts what little natural elastomer agents left in your hoods. Stay away from the stuff for that reason only. Use warm water and a mild/diulte detergent to clean up the hoods, and DONT boil them. While slicone comes in many forms, sprays, gels, etc., laying down several layers--dried between each application---of fresh liquid latex is a good way to protect and get further use out of your old hoods. Another option I have tried with good results is "rubber cement" application in place of liquid latex. It seems to be a bit more durable over time. I am sure there are other tricks out there, but Stay Away from the acetone and boiling approach. Cheers Dave Anderson Cut Bank Mt
In a message dated 3/8/2004 1:36:31 AM PST, gillies@cs.ubc.ca writes: So I have recently been buying up old-logo campy hoods to experiment with restoring or preserving them. the last set i got, was in bad shape with cracking everywhere and starting to split.
i soaked them in acetone. this dissolved the outer layer slightly, which was good, but don't rub too hard or you can literally rub off the logo, which i did on one side of one hood.
I tried boiling them but they just turned light yellow, rather than brown and apparently they did not absorb the hot filtered water, so i quit and cleaned them up with acetone again.
I decided the main thing to do then was to reinforce the hood, so I have been repeatedly applying silicone to the inside of the hood (these ones have stretched out a little bit anyway).
Overall I am disappointed but i think i have added maybe 5 usable years to a set of hoods that would probably have fallen off the bike next year, otherwise. h
owever, i probably will now have to wear cycling gloves since acetone is a carcinogen. as a result, i am still looking for ideas for what can be done to preserve campy-type gum hoods.
I think a better solution would be to buy brand-new dia compe hoods, and try adding silicone to the inside of them until they fit my campy levers very well. these are made of a much more durable rubber anyway and that seems to be the key to long-lasting hoods (together with frequent applications of armor-all).
I have also noticed that nevr-dull (chrome polish) will lift dust, dirt, and oil out of old campy hoods.
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA