Finishing wood wheels

[RichBad]

Hi,

Can anyone recommend the best option for finishing wooden spoked wheels?  I’ve completely stripped my wheels and powder coated the hubs and rims.  I wanted to finish the spokes in their natural colour and want something that is tough and will last!  Something that can fill the grain would be ideal as a few of the grains have ‘opened’ slightly.

 

Looking around the web there seem to be recommendations for and against almost everything therefore I’m looking for what people have tried and tested (with good results)!

 

thanks!

[JayG]

Not sure what to fill the grain with but recommend using a marine varnish for the finish topcoat. It has the durability and flex that the wheels will need.

[22touring]

I will give you my opinions, although I am sure some would disagree with me.

 

First, since it sounds like you have already disassembled the wheels and the spokes are all in good shape (you are lucky!), consider the benefit of painting them if they were originally painted.  Of course I place a pretty high value on originality. I'll bet that the longer you own your car, the more serious you will become about originality, and if you've already oiled or varnished the wheels, it's too late to paint them at that point.

 

Assuming you really don't want to paint the spokes, then varnish always cracks and falls off, IMHO.  Nor do I believe that wood spoke wheels came varnished from the DB factory.

 

Oiling them is better, but you don't want to use linseed oil because it will darken the spokes greatly.  Find the special clear and non-darkening wood oil that is available from furniture finishing supply companies.

[Spinneyhill]

I am sure this has been discussed fairly recently on these fora, perhaps in Technical.

 

About 20 years ago I met a man at Lake St Catherine, VT. He had an old (50s or earlier?) klinker-built boat with inboard 4 cyl. flat head motor. Lots of varnish. He was varnishing it ... again. He said if he did at least 10 coats of marine (spar) varnish it would last for a few years. Hmmm.

 

The problem with polyurethane is that it is generally not UV stable and doesn't last. It certainly didn't last more than about 4 years on my home''s wooden window frames.

 

I have a modicum of experience with weather-board houses. In painting them, it was important to remove all the grey or silver (dried out, probably fungus and microbe infested with the cellular structure breaking down) wood before painting else the paint would not stick. If your grain has "opened" it is probably in that condition.

 

Perhaps you could approach boat maintenance people to see what they do with wooden boats and spars. Boats "work" all the time as they roll about in the water, similar to spoked wheels. The hard part with wooden wheels is to keep water out where the wood is against metal - at the hub for instance. A crack will open against the steel and water will get in.

Edited November 12, 2017 by Spinneyhill (see edit history)

[Spinneyhill]

Another thought: ask a wheel wright.

[Wheelmang]

I just posted a question in the General Discussion forum about Wheeler Dealers and a rerun that I watched this AM. Guess I should have looked at the Dodge Brothers forum first. Ed China actually soaked the wood spoke wheels for a couple of days in order to swell them up and cure some looseness. I questioned the practice. 

[27dodger0]

I have a 27 Dodge Brothers sedan, and in doing the spokes, I made a lazy suzen affair to allow me to rotate the wheel, while working on the spokes.  My spokes were factory painted blue, and tough to get the paint off.  It took me about 40 hours a wheel to get it all off by using the most powerful paint remover and then having to scrape the rest off.  Final finish was a marine grade varnish, and it sure looks good!!!

[22touring]

I had the wood spoke wheels on my '22 DB restored by Calimer's wheel shop of Waynesboro, PA. If I understand it correctly, Mr. Calimer has made mandrels to accurately cut the different DB wood spokes.  So if I were you (since you have gone to all the trouble of disassembling the wheels and having the felloes and hubs powder-coated), I would see if perhaps Mr. Calimer could cut replacement spokes for you at a reasonable price to replace the cracked or split ones, because they may give you problems in the future if you don't replace them.  I believe Mr. Calimer has you send him one of your spokes so he can determine which mandrel to use.

[Spinneyhill]

This works if all the spokes are the same! There are some where they are not.

[Guest]

My Pontiac has been my daily driver since 1959 (400,000 miles). It sat outside for 8 or 10 hours a day, every day in any weather.  For about 20 years I re varnished my wheels every four or five years and tried all the "new" urethane finishes.  The urethane finishes always chipped and peeled off like cellophane even when thinned and sanded between coats. Then I went back to "spar" varnish, five coats starting with 10% varnish and 90% thinner and gradually working up to two coats of 100% varnish.  Then I striped my wheels and put on three more coats of varnish.  For the last 25 years I give my wheels a light scuffing, on the outside of the spokes, with fine sandpaper (not enough to get down to the stripes) and apply a fresh coat of varnish every five or so years. 

I would think if your car wasn't out in the snow, salt and gravel roads every day you might only have to recoat the top coats every ten or more years.

[JayG]

I had my wheels done by an Amish guy in Ohio.  I refinished the metal parts then sent him the parts and a couple of the old spokes.  He replicated the originals perfectly and assembled them.  I put a very light stain on them then marine varnished them.  

[sligermachine]

On 11/12/2017 at 3:04 AM, RichBad said:

Hi,

Can anyone recommend the best option for finishing wooden spoked wheels?  I’ve completely stripped my wheels and powder coated the hubs and rims.  I wanted to finish the spokes in their natural colour and want something that is tough and will last!  Something that can fill the grain would be ideal as a few of the grains have ‘opened’ slightly.

 

Looking around the web there seem to be recommendations for and against almost everything therefore I’m looking for what people have tried and tested (with good results)!

 

thanks!

I have a sail boat I have keep in the sea for 21 years lots of wood I will put a picture up of the stuff that holds up for 4 years at a time I have tryed every thing that u could get  some not even 6 months and it wood---- peellllll off   kyle

[32bizcoupe]

Before and after, sanding sealer and marine grade varathane man o war brand.

4 years no problems. 

[RichBad]

Thanks - any particular sanding sealer?

 

[sligermachine]

On 12/15/2017 at 12:07 AM, sligermachine said:

Can anyone recommend the best option for finishing wooden spoked wheels?  I’ve completely stripped my wheels and powder coated the hubs and rims.  

I like this it holds up my sail boat can't get on land to big so this is proven good for me --kyle  when yor thrugh with your doge or when you have time i would like to part # of the bearings u put in your stearing box im going to copy what u did on my Doge 1929  :] 

[sligermachine]

Just now, sligermachine said:

anyone

when i find a picure of my door to my boat i spent 100 hr. on it il post it it was coated 3 year ago -kyle 

[Spinneyhill]

The hard part of your question is "that will last". A friend of my sister-in-law had a 50s wooden boat. He had found that 10 coats of urethane was necessary to get more than three or four years life. He spent hours painting and sanding....  UV kills these finishes of course, plus movement, e.g. in a wooden wheel the spokes move relative to the hub and rim. They must move (deform) to mobilise their strength. The interface between wood and steel is where the crack will form and water will get in.

 

In Oz you will have very high UV in the summer as we do, so keep the car inside when its not being driven!

[keiser31]

On 12/17/2017 at 12:00 AM, 32bizcoupe said:

Before and after, sanding sealer and marine grade varathane man o war brand.

4 years no problems. 

Man, that is a good looking coupe!

[RichBad]

On 18/12/2017 at 9:20 PM, sligermachine said:

I like this it holds up my sail boat can't get on land to big so this is proven good for me --kyle  when yor thrugh with your doge or when you have time i would like to part # of the bearings u put in your stearing box im going to copy what u did on my Doge 1929  :] 

Hi, I added details of the bearing part numbers to my post here 

 

[RichBad]

Did one of the wheels and used marine spar varnish.  Came up pretty good after 6 coats.  Three more to go.

[22touring]

I do hope you realize that you are going to need to wear a zoot suit when you drive a DB with wheels like that:

 

 

[wldavis]

Looks great, Rich !!!

[Spinneyhill]

When you are in that zoot suit, remember the hat. Very distinctive!

[Bob Zetnick]

Those wheels are gorgeous! I like the idea of a zoot suit too!...both classy!

 

[22touring]

[C Carl]

Rich',  Please read "Brake drums powder coated" in "General Discussion" above.  -  CC

[RichBad]

8 hours ago, C Carl said:

Rich',  Please read "Brake drums powder coated" in "General Discussion" above.  -  CC

Thanks, I saw that.  My brake drums are not coated on the outer area that contacts the brake bands.  The rest of them is coated but that’s probably no different from how they were originally.  I saw some comments about heat dissipation properties of paint vs powder coat but I’m pretty sure that’s never going to be an issue on the rear brakes if a 1920s Dodge:)