Tornado Tubes Restoring

[Balingmad]

Hi
Any advice on best practice on restoring tubes on a Tornado rib.
Orange tubes
Holding air
Dirty and fading
Orange colour comes off onto your clothes when you sit on it wet
Thanks

[beamishken]

Originally Posted by Balingmad

Hi

Any advice on best practice on restoring tubes on a Tornado rib.

Orange tubes

Holding air

Dirty and fading

Orange colour comes off onto your clothes when you sit on it wet

Thanks

A tornado is likely to be polyurethane tubes, its probably uv damage to the tube tops which there isnt much you can do about a good wash & scrub then a wash over with acetone or mek might help a bit but its a one shot thing as your actually melting the surface. If its hypalon theres a good few products available but probably best to identify the material first

[jwalker]

As Beamishken said, they're likely polyurethane tubes and a good scrub to remove the oxidized surface is the first step. If you get the oxidised surface removed you can seal the surface with floor polish. Do a search because there has been a number of discussions on the forum over the years. One of the polish products was sold in supermarkets under the me Klear, iirc it was made by Johnson but it had a name change which I can't remember. There are others though and I buy mine on eBay 5ltr at a time. A couple of coats spread on with a cloth works well and is fairly permanent.

However, it won't bring back the colour. I've seen very badly bleached polyurethane tubes, especially the top surface.

[Nasher]

Sounds like time for some wear patches to be added on the tube tops, after cleaning them of course.

You can make a nice feature of them in a contrasting colour, and they don't need to be the same material if you chose your adhesive carefully.

Nasher

[Ribtecer]

^^^ that's the best bet, good thinking Nasher ��

[Limecc]

Been said before, neat 200:1 strength TFR will take care of the oxidation, then either paint, glue on wear patches or suffer, finishing with 303 Protectant.

[fastasfox]

If they are holding air well (xs ribs...formally Tornado) advised me that when the tubes become faded they tend to become porous and leak through microscopic holes and as such are hard to detect. If yours hold air then put wear patches along the tops but start putting a bit aside to get it re-tubed...if you get 5 more years out of them then so be it. I have 5m Tornado and I'm saving for re-tube as we speak....good luck.

[Balthazar]

I would spend time on cleaning all of the old wearing patches and re-patch everything again. Time consuming but you will spend only few 100 quids and save on re-tubing for the years to come.