I had planned on replacing these (and still might pickup some just because) but figured I had nothing to lose by giving them a shot.
The blue and yellow joysticks came apart nice an easy, the purple one needed a little coaxing and the red one required rust cutter and a hammer *sigh*. So, by far the red had the most rust. I forgot to take pics before I started the first one so sadly I can't show you just how bad the red one was, however, here are my "before" pics (with the exception of the red one):
I tried a few different things and went in the order of Red, Yellow, Purple, Blue and it's evident in person that I got better with each one. There is still some visible pitting on the shaft of the red stick and some minor swirl marks on the yellow and purple balls (only visible when looking VERY closely in GOOD lighting though). However, after seeing how the Blue one came out I'm probably going to re-do the others tomorrow or Sunday.
Here is the final product:
In the end, my process was as follows:
1) Mounting the shafts in my drill press
2) Slowly work with 220 grit sandpaper carefully on the metal to get the rust off and VERY carefully on the balls to take the wear/scratches out.
3) Repeat the process with 400 grit sandpaper making sure to go slow and keep everything even.
4) Repeat the process again with 0000 Steel Wool.
5) Finally, while still in the drill press I used cotton polishing cloths to apply Brasso to the shafts and "Meguiar's Ultimate Compound Polish" to the balls.
Note: I had originally planned on using 600 and 1000 grit sandpaper which I could freaking SWEAR I had but couldn't find any and was too lazy to run to Lowes at 9:00pm
Note(2): I really tried to keep this post clean but there were soooooooo many ball/shaft/polishing jokes tonight from my friend Josh and even my wife that I can't even tell if what I'm typing is dirty or not anymore...
The blue and yellow joysticks came apart nice an easy, the purple one needed a little coaxing and the red one required rust cutter and a hammer *sigh*. So, by far the red had the most rust. I forgot to take pics before I started the first one so sadly I can't show you just how bad the red one was, however, here are my "before" pics (with the exception of the red one):
I tried a few different things and went in the order of Red, Yellow, Purple, Blue and it's evident in person that I got better with each one. There is still some visible pitting on the shaft of the red stick and some minor swirl marks on the yellow and purple balls (only visible when looking VERY closely in GOOD lighting though). However, after seeing how the Blue one came out I'm probably going to re-do the others tomorrow or Sunday.
Here is the final product:
In the end, my process was as follows:
1) Mounting the shafts in my drill press
2) Slowly work with 220 grit sandpaper carefully on the metal to get the rust off and VERY carefully on the balls to take the wear/scratches out.
3) Repeat the process with 400 grit sandpaper making sure to go slow and keep everything even.
4) Repeat the process again with 0000 Steel Wool.
5) Finally, while still in the drill press I used cotton polishing cloths to apply Brasso to the shafts and "Meguiar's Ultimate Compound Polish" to the balls.
Note: I had originally planned on using 600 and 1000 grit sandpaper which I could freaking SWEAR I had but couldn't find any and was too lazy to run to Lowes at 9:00pm
Note(2): I really tried to keep this post clean but there were soooooooo many ball/shaft/polishing jokes tonight from my friend Josh and even my wife that I can't even tell if what I'm typing is dirty or not anymore...


