Wheel Time

[torque2me]

Hiya all,

Spring murmurings and the spare stored wheel/tyre's in the dark and dank garage have been aired and shown the light of day. ;-)

Yep, not all tyres are holding air and not all wheels are in pristine condition. Yeah, we all know what corroded GKN Kent alloy wheels look like. The issue is that the local wheel re-furbishers near me don't do polishing, only diamond cutting and even those have declined as their tooling will not do return surfaces as the "spoke" will contact the tooling. I'm not looking for a diamond cut finish (I think it weakens the wheel structure if done more than once or twice). Totally surprised that polishing is no longer around in the numbers they used to be, at least not in my neck of the woods.

Anyone on the forum/in the club, that have had their wheels polished (and the "spoke" faces painted or powder coated? Need some contact details so I can get something sorted. A puncture at the moment will see me in difficulties.

Kev

[Philip Wardle]

Tony White sells refurbished original alloy wheels including on Ebay, however I've achieved similar results doing two sets of five myself for my 2500 S (years ago) and Stag (recently). The amount of time I needed to invest was 5 to 8 hours per wheel depending on condition and how long it takes to strip the existing lacquer.

The problem of not holding air is annoying, the only reliable solution I've found is to fit tubes, I use Michelin inner tube14F13 with oblique outlet valve which is designed for 185/195/205x14 tyres. I put up with slow leaks for years until I came out of a hotel one morning and found overnight deflation of two tyres at the same time on the 2500 S

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[DJT]

I did mine back in 2014. As Philip says, it is very time consuming, although mine weren't lacquered so I didn't have to strip that off.

I attacked the rim where the tyre bead sits with a rotary wire brush to remove any corrosion. This was followed by a coat of acid etch spray and two coats of Smoothrite. I am on my third set of tyres since then and they still hold air; not needing much in the way of top up throughout the year.

[jbuckl]

On eBay there was a polisher selling stag wheels for about £240 a set based in West Bromwich

[torque2me]

Thanks for those replies :-)

We don't seem to be in clover on this issue :-( yet it is one the vast majority of owners will face at some time.

Philip/DJT - What materials did you use. I presume maybe relevant attachments to a drill with some sort of compound? Or was it all elbow grease with wire wool and such?
Still think a session in an acid bath (even if that is all) will be a great help. I'll have to ask around as even the majority of those doing diamond cutting may have the necessary acid bath.

Cheers,

Kev

[DJT]

Philip/DJT - What materials did you use. I presume maybe relevant attachments to a drill with some sort of compound? Or was it all elbow grease with wire wool and such?

In my case it was a lot of elbow grease. Starting with sandpaper to remove the oxidised surface, moving on to various grades of wet 'n dry to remove scratches, then wire wool with Solvol Autosol, then polishing mops in my drill. The black bits were etched primed, then painted with Smoothrite. All this was done with no tyres fitted. I got my local tyre shop to remove the old ones, then supply and fit new ones once finished.

Yes, better results can be had by buying professionally restored wheels, such as those sold by Tony White, but I do like to try things myself first. In future I would probably buy some ready done, on an exchange basis.

[Philip Wardle]

Hi Kev

Last time round I had already bought a stainless steel polishing kit to do the windscreen trim and stainless pieces around the tonneau cover, there was plenty of compund left to do the wheels. I think I may have also used some white compound from another kit. The final finish was 0000 grade steel wool and Autosol, this was cleaned off throughly before finally protecting with wheel wax. Once they're done I don't re-lacquer because aluminium oxide tracks develop underneath, and of course you have to strip the lacquer off again to deal with it. Re-waxing a couple of times a year keeps them looking good.

It's possible to vary the finish from dull matt to really shiny, depending on preference and how long you want to spend on it. Personally I think really shiny is too bling, to my eye something in between is closest to the original.

The painted areas can be masked-off and sprayed, I usually use POR-15 or Eastwood - you could of course have a different colour but I still think black is best. Having invested all that effort a great way to finish off is to fit a set of polished stainless centre disc from Chris Witor, these really do look the business.


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[richardthestag]

Planet wheels Naphill might be worth a call

https://www.planet-wheels.com/