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Message started by heroicseven on 10/10/12 at 21:35:23

Title: Restoring wheels? or wasting time?
Post by heroicseven on 10/10/12 at 21:35:23

I'm pelotas deep restoring my bike, and I have just begun to adress the wheels. They chrome is meh.. and the spokes are heavily caroded. I have spent most of my day removing said corosion with a wire brush and drill from the front wheel, as Im sure you can imagine the proccess is painstaking and progress is slow. The end game is to paint them once corosion is gone.

My question is, should I buff and paint? Or look at lacing with new spokes and rim? How much would it cost or thereabouts, to relace theses hubs?
Imput apreciated!!!! ;D

Title: Re: Restoring wheels? or wasting time?
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 10/10/12 at 22:55:31

I cleaned my spokes with a piece of parachute cord with the center strings removed, so, it was just the shell, wrap that around a spoke, all the way around 360 degree, with chrome polish, pull tight, and saw back & forth, the spoke gets Hot,,

Title: Re: Restoring wheels? or wasting time?
Post by ToesNose on 10/11/12 at 04:15:19

Ugg spokes are no fun to clean even without rust.

Hero are you near the water in SD? If so it's an uphill battle with salt air, I remeber living on the beach and having to clean wire wheels all the time. If powder coating was affordable then I probably would have gone that route ;)

Title: Re: Restoring wheels? or wasting time?
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 10/11/12 at 06:32:22

Yea, it was hard, I went thru 3 or 4 pieces of cord, they eventually break. These aluminum spokes suck,, I GUess theyre aluminum, they sure arent chrome. I cant imagine how to use a wire wheel on them,
A brass brush wont cut chrome, most rust on chrome is a tiny dot in the surface of the chrome allowing the rust to stain an area around that dot.
Good place for a slosh of Ospho or Jasco , whatever theyre selling in your home town, at the paint store. I never liked the gel, a quart of liquid is cheap & lasts me usually a coupla years.

YOu know, before you invest too much time in spoked wheels, you mite be the right guy for a wheel swap, have tubeless tires & no spokes.,,I think Verslagen has done it, ( fingers crossed, I hope IM right I hope IM right)

Title: Re: Restoring wheels? or wasting time?
Post by ZAR on 10/11/12 at 08:09:54

I keep toying with the idea powder coating. I hate chrome and the idea of painted wheels(reminiscent of the 1940's bikes) really appeals to me. I haven't checked in to the cost or prep time yet though :-/

Title: Re: Restoring wheels? or wasting time?
Post by ToesNose on 10/11/12 at 10:25:55

I've looked into it Zar, the toughest thing is building an oven large enough for wheels that will keep the heat at a constant high temp. The cost of powder coating startup itself isn't too expensive, I've seen guys get started for under $100 and come out with excellent results, but that is for small parts where a toaster oven is used. Allot of guys build their own "ovens" using the insides of an old kitchen oven and make an oversized oven/kilm type insulated booth. Regardless it's allot of time and effort to make your own setup for larger items. On the plus side I'm sure you could turn a profit powder coating stuff for friends and others.

Title: Re: Restoring wheels? or wasting time?
Post by heroicseven on 10/11/12 at 10:26:20

I live about 4 blocks from the water, I can just see it from my window!
These spokes are a pain, I was thinkin bout painting them and if it looked cheesy may powder them. The pnly concern i see with powder is where the spokes overlap themselves.

@jog - you talkin about the gs wheels? I think I would have to get a new front end.

Title: Re: Restoring wheels? or wasting time?
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 10/11/12 at 11:21:04

Dude,, honestly, IDK what Im talkin about... I just know there are wheel out there that dont have spokes & someone here has some on his bike,,& that, sir, is All the help I am,, & that aint much, izzit?

Title: Re: Restoring wheels? or wasting time?
Post by ToesNose on 10/11/12 at 14:56:21

LoL JOG, yea I've seen a few people with alloys on their bikes instead of spokes. I also don't know who has them, here's a pic of a crazy bike I found off Google images just surfing around. I don't know if it's anyone from the forums, but it's got alot of work into it for sure.

http://i792.photobucket.com/albums/yy206/bcrx2/8453_0original.jpg

Title: Re: Restoring wheels? or wasting time?
Post by Joe F on 10/17/12 at 18:19:27

That comes from this article http://www.rockandroad.de/motorrad/bike-portraets/+fighterbobber_1012.html The wheels are off of a Honda CBR900R with what appears to be a fair amount of machine work.

The google translation leaves something to be desired.

Title: Re: Restoring wheels? or wasting time?
Post by WD on 10/18/12 at 05:50:38

If you really want to paint them... sand the chrome until the shine is broken. Tape over the axle hole, bearing covers, etc, anything you don't want paint on. Hit the whole mess with etching primer (rustoleum in spray cans works great). Paint whatever color you want, let dry at least 2 weeks before top coating with clear wheel paint.

You can do both wheels for around $40. Unless they are super crusty, then you'll need to hit them with ospho or similar before priming and painting.

Title: Re: Restoring wheels? or wasting time?
Post by EJID on 10/18/12 at 13:08:30

1A212B3D00213D2B4E0 wrote:

Been following a build on another forum and this guy modified an old fridge/freezer as an oven for powdercoating large items...actually had to create a smaller expansion chamber to do his frame, hence the additional wiring/insulation/etc...

http://i669.photobucket.com/albums/vv58/missile150/20121007_162944.jpg
http://i669.photobucket.com/albums/vv58/missile150/20121013_121742.jpg

Title: Re: Restoring wheels? or wasting time?
Post by Dave on 10/18/12 at 13:32:25

352A2C2B3631003000382A266D5F0 wrote:

Yea, it was hard, I went thru 3 or 4 pieces of cord, they eventually break. These aluminum spokes suck,, I GUess theyre aluminum, they sure arent chrome.

I just checked with a magnet....and the spokes are steel. They are not chromed - they have a zinc or cadmium type of plating that is not very durable.

Title: Re: Restoring wheels? or wasting time?
Post by ralfyguy on 10/18/12 at 14:50:55

1C272A3D2C203B3D262E233C4F0 wrote:

[quote author=352A2C2B3631003000382A266D5F0 link=1349930123/0#3 date=1349962342]Yea, it was hard, I went thru 3 or 4 pieces of cord, they eventually break. These aluminum spokes suck,, I GUess theyre aluminum, they sure arent chrome.

I just checked with a magnet....and the spokes are steel. They are not chromed - they have a zinc or cadmium type of plating that is not very durable.[/quote]
You are correct. They are steel and the finish is zinc electroplated. I am fighting with my front wheel spokes as well. What I noticed that helps a little is after you polish them, rub them down with car wax. Takes longer to corrode again. The zinc is actually a sacrificial corrosion protection. When the zinc is still new and shiny, it already started to put on a patina. The zinc actually corrodes on the surface thus building an even better corrosive layer. That layer will eventually weather away after a decade or more thus making 80's models have rusty spokes often. If you polish them up, you actually remove that protective patina and it starts the process anew. After several polishes, you are down to the bare steel.
So IF you polish them and don't want them to get dull, you need to put your own protective layer on there, so the zinc doesn't have to. Car wax is better than nothing. It protects car paint, why not spokes?
I even use it for my bare polished aluminum clutch cover.