Restoring Wire Wheels

[Steve29]

I would like advice on restoring wire wheels. My wheels are in generally good condition but with surface rust and some light pitting. I intend to paint them as they were when delivered from the factory (including re-plating the chrome snap ring). I don?t want to get the wheels respoked for a couple of reasons one of which is that new spokes have a different look than the originals. If I was going to go for a chrome plated look, stainless replacement spokes would be a good choice. I am looking for ideas on how to best finish and restore the spokes and the rest of the wheel as well. There are 70 spokes per wheel and 6 wheels, so it?s a daunting task. Your experience and suggestions on how to best tackle this project would be much appreciated.

[tbirdman]

I was quoted from Dayton wheels $800 per wheel to chrome plate.

[mrpushbutton]

If the wheels are solid, and run true, you could send them to the chemical-strip place and get them back surgically clean, ready for paint. Epoxy prime, let kick, then shoot K-36 surfacing primer on them, let it dry, then wet sand by hand, every spoke, every nook and cranny, the rim and hub surfaces until absolutely smooth, and of a common surface (the k-36 gives a fast build-up of material that sands easily, filling the pits and sanding off of the "good" areas) then paint with MODERN paints such as concept 2000 or good old fashoned (yet still modern) Deltron (acrylic laquer)

[Guest Hal Davis (MODEL A HAL)]

I took mine to a place that sandblasted them and powder coated them. I don't know what color you had in mind, but they had a pretty good selection. I found one that was close enough for my purposes. Seems like he charged $80 labor per wheel plus the powder which he had to special order. It is tough stuff, resists chips and scratches much better than paint.

[ex98thdrill]

Depending on what your definition of "light pitting" is, have you tried using Never Dull or a fine steel wool?

[Steve29]

There is pitting on the spokes and rims that will require a light filler. This occurred where the wheels were sitting close to the ground. The top of the wheels are very nice. My problem is removing the light rust from the top and filling the pits on the bottom.

Thanks,

Steve

[Steve29]

Thanks for the advice. I was sure there would be no way around sanding each spoke by hand but I can dream.

Steve

[mrpushbutton]

Steve, everyone wants to go to the local auto parts store and buy "100 point restoration in a can"--but they haven't invented it yet. Look at my post above. That is the only way I'm aware of, and like other projects sounds more tedious that it actually is. I have seen many cars at the local old car get togethers with pitted wires that were simply blasted and painted over. That was pretty common 30 years ago when "restoring" a car. The bar has been raised much since then.

[Guest stude8]

Some time ago I redid a set of 6 wire wheels for my 1930 Studebaker. They were 20" 48 spoke rims. I you have 70 spoke rims sanding will be a nightmare, the 48 spokes were rather close centers at the felloe ends, these were fixed spoke rims, both hub and rim ends were cold headed in place so respoking was not an option.

I had them Redi Stripped to bare metal, setup a childs wading pool as a Phosphoric Acid etch bath then force dried them in a tent affair made from a card table with tarp and electric fan driven heater to eliminate all moisture after the dip job.

First paint coat was a Ditzler 2 part epoxy Primer (Kondar ??) followed by a high fill acrylic lacquer primer and hours of (days) hand sanding. Had to use some scratch putty fill on bad pits and then more Acrylic primer. Top coat was a 2 part catalized Acrylic Enamel Ditzler product shot in a cold shop situation in October which allowed a long cure time that allowed good flow out over several hours before cure took place. You will find shooting wire spokes causes "Shadow" areas that never seem to get covered perfect, the spray gun angle is always less than perfect. We actually used cotton "Q tip" applicators to dab bare spots around spoke bases at the rim that simply couldn't be shot by the gun just right.

Stude8

[mrpushbutton]

Stude8--congrats, you did it right. you have to fill the pits in order for the wheel to look right, otherwise it's like every other 1965 "lets paint the old car and call it restored" deal. No, it's not fun, but there ain't no easy way out of this one.

Oh, wait a minute, yes there is, you can have fresh paint over pits..............NOT!

[tbirdman]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> You will find shooting wire spokes causes "Shadow" areas that never seem to get covered perfect, the spray gun angle is always less than perfect. We actually used cotton "Q tip" applicators to dab bare spots around spoke bases at the rim that simply couldn't be shot by the gun just right.

Stude8 </div></div>

I've read that to paint wire wheels and get to get good paint coverage, this method is used. Attach the wheels to electric motor. Spray the wheel with an excess of paint. Turn the motor on and spin the wheels for 10 minutes while the paint flows. No personal experience with this method.

[jrbartlett]

You are correct. Rotating the wheels and over-stacking on the paint until everything flows out smooth works really well. Use a hardener to avoid wrinkling. I have done it.

[Steve29]

Hi Guys, thanks for your help. About how many RPM should the wheel be spun to cause an even paint spread and not spin it off? Should the wheel be painted and then spun or can you paint the wheel while it is rotating slowly. I would think that rotating the wheel while painting would take care of the coverage problem and missing areas of the spokes, but I suspect you are talking about spinning it faster than you could while painting it? Can you tell me more?

Steve

[jrbartlett]

Rotate it slowly -- maybe 5-6 RPM is all you need. We bolted the wheel to a pipe, suspended the pipe and turned it with vice grips. Spray enough paint (from both front and back sides, and at various angles) to get good flow-over and fill-in of the pits, and no more. Which is much more than you could apply with the wheel stationary. Without rotation, you'd get runs and sags from trying to fill the pits. With a hardener in the paint, you can probably stop rotating after about 15-20 minutes. You can check on the drying process by touching the outer rim, where it is covered by the tire. This method won't fill everything all by itself -- you'll still need to do some priming and sanding, and perhaps a little filler, and filing of rough edges. But this works better than any other method I've seen. My wheels are 10 years old now, and still look great. They started out badly pitted. Try one wheel and see what you think. If not satisfied, you can ship the wheels off to Dayton Wire Wheel for paint or chrome.

[ex98thdrill]

At first I thought this post was referring to chrome spokes. Now that I know you're talking about painted spokes, a couple of thoughts have come to mind....

What about powder coating?

Wouldn't the finish on the wheels come out more even, look better and be more durable?

[Guest stude8]

I built a wheel rotator platform using an old BBQ roticery motor as a drive power source. It turned the wheel in a plane parallel to the table it sat on. This has its good and bad effects, always start with the back side of rim up first then when you finish that side turning it over with still wet paint to be careful of is tricky. Try to avoid ruining the back side by perching the rim on its stud bolts to keep it raised off the platform. This was for regular pressed steel 1964 vintage rims. Then shoot the outside surface which is the side you really care about showing any faults. This is all fine if you only have one rim the shoot, if you are doing a set of 4 then you have to work rather fast to use the paint in the gun especially if it is catalyzed with a hardener agent.

Obviously with more than one rim to paint in the session you need to prepare drying spots to hold the wet painted rims until they cure. It is always good to have two persons present to help move and process the rims as they are painted.

It may sound discouraging but painting rims, wire spoke or pressed steel is one of the more difficult jobs than just spraying a fender. Stude8

[Guest aussie610]

Be wary of powder coating wire wheels, I looked into it for my MG a couple of years ago. and was instructed by a number of sources not to powder coat. This was because wires do actually move if only slightly, as the powder coat doesnt, this tends to cause cracking, thereby letting water under the powder coat, the wheels end up looking great on top, but under the powder coat they are being eaten away.

Just what I was warned about, take this as you wish

[Steve29]

Thanks everyone for your help and advice.

Steve