<VV> wheel restoration--no Corvair

[Chuck Kubin]

Hey Bill,
  There's TWO good ideas there (and one workable but potentially dangerous one, I agree) I still like the ingenuity. Until now I didn't think of adding color to the wheels, except for the center caps.
  My brake drums and the center of the center caps are Rustoleum red. Looks good peeking through the spokes on a gray car. If I filled and painted the bead the same color, I'd have a nice accent stripe that's easy to repair if it gets beaten up by curbs or tire tools.
  Also, I'd been polishing only the flat outer faces, meaning the areas inside the spokes are the oxidized silver-gray. The Rustoleum metallic black would look great giving additional visual depth to the already deep solid wheel, especially if I go back to the mercury gray metallic body color. This was a darker-medium gray, mild metallic with a touch of violet, used on Porches (I believe '84, if you have a paint chart. A GREAT color on an LM.
  Gonna have to think on this one. If painting the stripe on the bead doesn't work, I can always go back to my original plan and turn it off.
   
  Chuck
   
  
Bill Elliott <corvair at fnader.com> wrote:
  
Just for your amusement, I had two sets of very rare Mini Cooper rims in 
the same basic condition...one with a painted rim and the other with a 
polished rim.

The ones with the painted rim went out for professional media blasting 
and powder coating. Prior to power coating, they sanded down the edge 
gouges and I think actually used a little filler (in cosmetic areas 
only) to smooth out the appearance. Except for some unfortunate 
outgassing of the magnesium during curing, the refinish was very acceptable.

However, with the polished rims, I knew this procedure would not work as 
well. On those rims, I sanded down the painted centers by hand, primed, 
painted with Rustoleum Metallic black (gives a dark grey appearance that 
sparkles in the sun). Then I set about trying to figure out how to make 
the polished rim look better.

Following the guidance from an old UK restorer, I bolted the wheel to 
the jacked up Mini, started the car, and put in first gear at idle. 
(WARNING: THIS IS POTENTIALLY VERY UNSAFE AND I AM NOT RECOMMENDING THAT 
ANYONE TRY IT.) If I did my math correct (idle speed 1000rpm, 1st gear 
ratio 3.525, final drive 2.95) this gave me roughly 100rpm. This was a 
very workable speed and I used a combination of different sandpapers, 3M 
pads, and aluminum polish to smooth down the rough rim (not to show 
quality but to a very acceptable driver quality) and bring it to a high 
luster. I did foul out a set of plugs doing all 4 rims... ;-) but also 
found out I needed a 1/4" spacer to clear the brake calipers in the front.

Bill Elliott


		
---------------------------------
Yahoo! Photos
 Ring in the New Year with Photo Calendars. Add photos, events, holidays, whatever.