Steel wheel pitting, solutions?

[dougf]

Hey! Hope everyone is having a great weekend. I had my old tires taken off my steel wheels I bought from someone about a year ago for $6.50 a tire. I have one wheel that is pitted as you can see in the pics. The obvious answer is replace the wheel, but I had to look 6 months just to find the set I have!

So, what have you all had experience with, J.B. Weld spread across then ground smooth on the bead area, body filler, high build primer and repeat coats with sanding ?

I have to move in three-four weeks. My current truck has p255's on them and will not fit on a U-Haul trailor because they are too wide, so I wanted to wire wheel and paint these steel wheels, and put my new rubber on them prior.

Thoughts?

[PGSigns]

I think that wheel has had it. You can have it sand blasted and use high build primer and sand it till you get a decent surface and it may hold air for a while. That may give you time to move and find some good wheels.
Jimmy

[jayoldschool]

Primer, paint, then bead sealer (lots) when you mount the tires. They'll be fine.

[dougf]

Thanks for the advice guys. From searching I see a lot of various opinions. I am going to clean them all up and see how smooth I can get the bead surface and post some pics. Im not sure, they are pretty pitted!

[jtrichard]

New tires are pretty forgiving clean very well (sand or bead blast preferred) paint .....some bead sealer and go!!!!

[pimpston65]

Originally Posted by jtrichard

New tires are pretty forgiving clean very well (sand or bead blast preferred) paint .....some bead sealer and go!!!!

Use inner tubes!!! Old school style...

[jtrichard]

Originally Posted by pimpston65

Use inner tubes!!! Old school style...

YES i have done that also

[vince1]

Make the effort to find a replacement. I had one like that and try as I might wouldn't put it back into service. That one has probably lost at least half its strength. But on the other hand, bad (not worst) case scenario it will just split and the tire will go flat.

[franken]

Inner tubes tend to run hot and fail if you drive a few hours. I've had tires too hot to touch after failing w/ a tube in them. But they last a while...

[63 & 64 Bowties]

That looks pretty bad, but as mentioned, bead sealer. I've had really good luck with this stuff.
I bought a can to keep in my garage even though I don't have a tire changer, I take to the tire guy for him to apply.

[dougf]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I am still undecided on what combo to use, or just use bead sealant. However, whatever I do I will post here for others.

4 hours with an angle grinder with cup brush, drill with cu p brush, and another drill with a wire wheel, and two coats of loctite rust converter. I only had the energy to do three wheels, I knew this was going to be a chore, but man, this sucked!

[dougf]

Well, bead sealer (the one posted) worked like a charm! Took them to a tire shop, the guy remembered me and was pretty surprised I cleaned them up as good as I did. Here's what they looked like after cleaning and painting.


Took them in, he spread bead sealer about an inch wide around the bead area and put the tires on right away and they have held 40 psi for the last few days with zero bubbles with a soapy solution around the lip of the rim. Just thought I would share in case anyone else wanted to try this. For now I'm going with satin red, so here's what one looks like so far. Take care.

[63 & 64 Bowties]

Good deal! Glad it worked.

[dougf]

Update: over a year later the tires haven't leaked down one bit!

[PGSigns]

Thats great. That bead sealer is some pretty good stuff.
Jimmy

[DPowers]

Congrats- they look good.