If you are not sure if you have lose balls or a bearing ring, turn the frame over and than loosen the bearing cup ring.
The balls will stay in the ring and you can take savely the cup off.
After that take out the fork, the most balls will stay in the cup and are easy to collect.
Turn the frame over into the normal possition and with a very large screwdriver and hammer you can hit the lower cup through the fork tube.
If you hit it on both sides, the cup will drop out and you can do the same with the other side.
To take off the race you must hold the fork up-side down and put it on a piece of wood.
Than with a small hammer hit the race on both sides untill it drops.
Most of the time you can clean the headset with brake cleaner and after putting on new grease it is ready for use.

There are even special wheels for buffing in to tight corners.
New buffing wheels needs to be burned before use to give better result and keep them in good shape for a long time.
The burning can be done by moistening the wheel with water. Press hard with a piece of metal while the disk is running and
keep it there until it starts to smell burned.
In Europe we have 220 and 380 volts for machines and it is saver to use the 220 volts machine because it is not that strong.
I always use old bench grinders because they have better bearings.
The stones are taken off and replaced by horns so it is easy to replace the buffing wheels.
It is very important that you can stop the machine by hand while it runs.
When a wheel grabs a part, people will automatically try to hold on to it and then it can easily injure somebody.
I always wear a tight shirt and thick leather gloves.
A tight T-shirt will prevent that the grinder can grab me, and the thick gloves prevent me from cutting and burning on hot parts.
If you want to buff a chain ring you have to mount it on a piece of plywood with the same size as the chain ring.
Otherwise buffing wheel can easily grab the chain wheel and can injure you even while wearing gloves.
The plywood will prevent that the buffing wheel grabs the chain ring and it is easier to buff it this way.
Some French bike parts are made of plastic at look after cleaning like old chocolate with a white trace.
You can buff it on a clean wheel with very light pressure and have to keep the temperature low.
It will shine up like new and stays shiny for a long time.
Sometimes you have rusty steel parts.

When you put a 3M disk on the horns you can easily take away the rust and than buff it.
I will look like chrome but it is just blank steel so it needs protection.
This can be done with car wax or clear coating.
Buffing is also a good base for chroming steel parts.

Buffing is not expensive, you just need:
An engine from an old grinder.
Buffingwheels.
Buffing paste.
Heavy duty gloves.

The bike is taken apart and the frame is cleansed with soap.
When there is a lot of grease we use a can of brake cleaner and an old cloth.
By the time it is clean I put it on a box and start cleaning with scouring pads and JIFF.
It takes a lot of time and JIFF to clean it so far that you can’t see the cracks in the paint and the old damages anymore.
Use clean water to check on the parts you have cleaned and be sure that  just the top-coat has been damaged.
On places where the frame is more damaged you can do a more intense cleaning.
It is not possible to take everything away because that will destroy the base paint.
You can protect the original decals with some old inner tube wrapped around the decal parts.
If you are up the the parts where the decals are placed, take away the tube and clean it very carefully.
It is very difficult to take the cracks and old top coat away in the small corners.
But is it all a matter of time, take your time and rinse often with clean water to see the work progress.
New clear coat can make it to a real fantastic job and these reworked frames look often better than the total reworked ones.
DIY spray can clear coat is in acrylic and also in a 2K version, both do well but 2K is stronger and more expensive.
After cleaning, drying and taking of dust, you can spray a first layer.
Before you start first paint a little spot on the underside if the paint matches and not working on each other
That must be very light, more like a cloud of dust, and has to dry for at least an hour.
The rough surface is a good base for the next thicker layer that covers the frame in a mirror gloss finish.
Repaint this twice to have the perfect finish.

When you rinse the chrome with hand-warm water there will be a film left and will protect the chrome longer.
Most of the time this is good enough for the chrome-work on a bicycle.
It is also possible to use aluminum foil and wrap that into a ball than use the ball to clean the chrome.
Turn the ball around and re-wrap it frequently so you will always have a fresh piece of foil.
The chrome will start to shine and cover the bad spots.
When the rust is hard and the chrome is completely gone it is no longer possible to restore, so don’t expect miracles.
The chrome quality on bikes is most of the time good and will stay for a long time in good condition. 
Re-chroming is very difficult with a bike frame, often only the rear end is chrome and that can’t be chromed again.
It is important not to leave any paint or dirt in a chroming process, or the process will not work.
Front-fork and loose parts can be chromed easily.
All the old chrome must be removed with a sand-blasting gun, and buffed until it shines like a mirror.
Every little scratch you leave behind will be like an existing scratch in your new chrome.
At last the parts to are being chromed must be cleaned very thorough before the chroming process can take place.

NEVER use a grinder or a angle grinder to take off the guides because the damage you make is high and it can even weaken the frame.
Most of the guides and braze-ons are put on with a blowtorch and copper or silver.
The same burner is hard to find and expensive on gas, also the change to burn a hole is very likely.
The best is to use a low temperature burner often used for copper plumbing and take the time to heat the part you want to take off dark red.
When it is possible put the frame in a vice the hold firm.
Take the time to heathen it up slowly and wait until it is really red.
Then get a pair of pliers and get a good grip on the part that you made hot.
Turn and twist the parts and it will come off without any damage on the frame.
Let it cool down just by air and wait until you can touch if with your hands.
Never use water to cool down because the stress in the metal will rise and damage or bend the frame.
The left over copper or silver can be taken off with some file strokes and sandpaper on a small piece of flat wood or on the file.
Never go to fast, take your time, it is impossible to put metal back on.
Only the rear derailleur eye must be taken of with a grinder or a saw.

Shellac is a natural polymer and is chemically similar to synthetic polymers, thus it is considered a natural plastic.
It is soluble in various organic solvents. When dissolved in alcohol, typically blends containing ethanol and
methanol, shellac yields a coating of superior durability and hardness.
It is used in the traditional “French polish” method of finishing furniture, and fine violins and guitars.
Until the advent of Vinyl in 1938, phonograph records were pressed from shellac compounds until about 1950.
Sheets of Braille also used to be coated with shellac to help protect them from wear due to being read by hand.
Shellac is edible and it is used as a glazing agent on pills and candies.
Shellac is now considered obsolete as a molding compound, but its use in industries continues as there are
no synthetic or natural substitutes in a number of processes. For examples, it is used as an outer fruit coating to
prevent post-harvest decay (e.g. apples); in dental technology it is used in the production of custom impression
trays; it is used in the optical trade.
AND it is used by many cyclists as a protective and decorative coating for their handlebar tape.

Working with shellac.
It looks very nice to have shellac on your handlebar tape. It is easy to apply and it last for years, when it gets older you just repaint it and it is like new again.
Flakes are the best you can get and there are different colors on the market, blond and amber.
You can use alcohol to make the flakes in an old fashioned clear coat.
Best is to grind the flakes first before you put them in the alcohol, it saves you a lot of time and stirring.
Still you have to stir a lot to bring it to a good solid paint.
Wait a day or 2 before you start to use it so it can settle and dissolve completely.
Make the lack to a milk thickness and start to paint the tape with a soft brush.
The first layer will be absorbed completely and it will dry in 30 minutes and you can
repaint it again and again.
Because the alcohol will vaporize the lack gets thicker and he handlebar tape will start to look better.
50 grams of shellac is enough to do two handle bars and repaint it for years.
It is possible to color the shellac with other pigments and create new colors.