Had these wheels on my 71, and a couple of them always had a slow leak. Could never pinpoint if it was the old roller tires I had on them, or the wheel. I had the tires removed, but not sure if the wheels are worth saving..or can be at all?
I cleaned them up a bit with a wire brush, but the rust/pitting has me worried that they'll never be able to hold air, even with new rubber.
I wouldn't hesitate to use those rims. The pitting is minimal and really no pitting in the bead area. If concerned you can treat the rust, and then mount up your favorite hoops and hit the road...:yes:
Thank you for the feedback fellas. For the pitting, if I grind/sand them down smooth, wouldn't that make the bead imperfect...in a sense have a dip/low spot relative to the tire bead?
I’d use a rust eating agent, this way you will only remove minimal material. The bead should conform enough to compensate for the imperfections, if not some need sealer will easily seal them up.
You would need a high build primer, regular rattle can paint won’t build up enough, but I would suggest it to keep the rust at bay. I would be surprised if they leak, I’ve seen worse rims hold air. Bead sealer will do the trick if they do, I often use it on winter rims when customers don’t want to replace their rims because I’d rusted beads. I honestly think once you clean them, they’ll seal up just fine.
Those wheels don’t look bad at all to me.. As for the slow leak, I had a steel wheel that looked fine but would leak down every couple of days.. The tire was fine and the valve stem was new and not leaking.. It turned out to be one of the spot welds between the hoop and the center section.. I pulled the tire off and applied tome silicone sealant and it has been fine ever since.
I have refinished quite a few wheels over the years and depending on the wheels condition and desired finished results determine what I want to do with them.. I’ve hand sanded many a wheel but if they are in pretty good condition to start with that’s probably all that is necessary. I’ve had some wheels sand blasted if they were further gone or had a lot of paint built up on them and wanted to get them back to bare metal.. I like to use Rustoleum products as they are very consistent and readily available everywhere.. I use Selfetching Primer and paint with satin black or Aluminum silver..
The silver wheels were painted approx 2010 the black wheels were done around 2016.. Just a light sanding and repainted the faces only..
The wheels on the hot rod pickup were completely sand blasted and painted as described above around 2013.
Thank you all for the replies. I am not married to the wheels, but if they can hold air and I can shine up the outsides, it will save me some $ towards a brake setup.
I'll get to working on them these next few days. Thanks again!
Absolutely do not grind. You can use a rust removal jelly or I'd just use POR15 and be done with it.
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