Rally Wheel restoration

[X Baldwin Motion]

I was lucky to get the full set of rally wheels with the caps and trim rings from the original owner of my truck, I am going to remove the old tires and prep them for paint, any suggestions on where to get the most correct, durable product?

thanks in advance, Chris

[X Baldwin Motion]

[str8axle55]

I did a set of Vette raly`s yrs ago. I had the wheels blasted, primed them with gray primer, sprayed them with Krylon. At the time, I didn`t clear them, but would now. I guess it depends on your budget.

[54Caddy]

powder coat them, not as expensive as you think and it will look great for a long time

[AntiGov]

I had a 85 k5 with 6in lift back in the day (white black top) i bought it in 87 and had it 11 yrs....anyways i sanded them and painted three coats with krylon...sanding between coats ..they were very smooth and shiny....i painted them white to match the blazer...it was a nice change from silver...made the caps and rings stand out better....got lots of compliments back then...that krylon held up great all those yrs.....should never have sold it

[bigblock73]

2nd on the powdercoating...durable, looks great, and not all that expensive considering they blast the wheels to bare steel too.

[beamn7]

Ditto on the Powdercoat. Did mine on my 85....

[silvereagle07]

I restored a set a few years ago. By the time I had sanded and primed, sanded and primed , sanded and primed , sanded and primed then painted. I wish I would have powder coated them. Didn't have anyone close to powder coat them at the time.

[melks]

is there a certain color code you guys are using when the wheels are powder coated or repainted to achieve the factory look? thanks

[beamn7]

When I went, they had a color chart / samples and I just compared to what looked as close to factory as possible....

[X Baldwin Motion]

I removed the old tires and cleaned up the rims a bit to see what I had to work with.....






Most of the damage is from the trim rings. Change you use the trim rings after powder coating without damaging the finish? I had planned on just painting them and leaving the trim rings off since these wheels were just going to be for winter/snow tires.

[slam59]

Yeah I am going to get mine powder coated too. They said they would sand blast them and high gloss silver powder coat them for $50 a wheel. Friend of mine said to heck others in my area casue some will do it for even less he says. Not very expensive to do and they will last a very long time.

[kcsa75]

Originally Posted by beamn7

Ditto on the Powdercoat. Did mine on my 85....

Where did you get the trim rings? I just bought a set of rallys and caps over the weekend. But I need rings.

[motornut]

havn't tried the "right" colour ,have just sprayed them with rust paint in cans
have three sets of the rings,hate them cause of the "teeth rust" .....
don't use em just the centers
but i am getting my set of wagons done powder white for the jimmy next summer
a friend showed me a place that will do them bout 50 each...
i have a pot blaster,what a mess to clean up tho.

[beamn7]

Originally Posted by kcsa75

Where did you get the trim rings? I just bought a set of rallys and caps over the weekend. But I need rings.

Got the trim rings from JaeEagle. Part / kit # 4523. Here is the link:
http://www.jaeeagle.com/products.php?search_text=4523

Powder coat was done by North County Powder Coating in San Marcos, CA. Ran about $50/wheel

[JRANGER]

nice....That will help...my rings dont look bad but they dont look great!!

[rwhit57]

If you don't want the expense of powder coating. Duplicolor wheel paint, the color is "Steel Wheels" about 6 bucks at your local parts store and a near perfect match. Done a bunch of them with it. I use gray primer first and one can of the paint will do four wheels nicely. Not powder coating but cheap and looks good.

[Robert8096]

I did these with a Eastwood home powder coating gun and a standard kitchen oven. Charcoal rally wheel powder.



This one has a smaller trim ring.

[riz]

How does the Eastwood powder coating gun work?

RIZ

[Robert8096]

Originally Posted by riz

How does the Eastwood powder coating gun work?

RIZ

I have the Eastwood base gun and it works well. I also have the Caswell adjustable voltage gun and like it a little better. To use either gun you will need a small compressor or the ability to turn down the pressure on a large compressor. I run both guns around 10 PSI. Use the least amount of air PSI to get the powder to lay down correctly. Too much air and you end up wasting powder, not enough and it does not give you a consistent coat of powder. The part you are coating has to be able to conduct electricity and be able to withstand the heat required to cure the powder. The gun has a positive charge and you hook a ground wire from the gun to the part. This causes the part to have a negative charge and thus attracts the powder. Once the part is coated then you set the oven to the recommend temperature of the powder. There is a temp setting to get the powder to flow out. Once the powder looks like liquid then you reduce the heat to the recommended cure temp and let it bake for the recommended cure time. Once the part has cool down you can put it in service.

To use the gun you just load the gun with the powder. I sift my powder before loading it into the gun to remove any chunks of powder. Ground the part and plugin the power cord, set your air pressure and spray away. I do recommend a good respirator as you don't want to inhale this stuff.

I like the adjustable voltage gun better because I can turn down the voltage on small parts and up for larger ones. My opinion is that gives you a better coat and helps reduce the wasting of powder.

Cleanup is easy you just dump the unused powder from the gun back into the container and then turn up your air PSI a little and blow the extra powder out of the gun. Disassemble the gun and wipe it clean with a dry cloth.

Sweep the area with and throw the excess in the trash. Some people build a cabinet with a small exhaust fan or shop vac to catch the extra powder. Kinda like a sand blasting cabinet with a vac just with one open side for spraying.

I like the process better than painting. It gives you a stronger finish and resists most common chemicals. The only restriction I have is the size of the curing oven which in my case is an old standard kitchen oven. The larger oven you have the larger part you can coat. Don't use wifey's/moms kitchen oven because it's not recommended to cook food in an oven that has been used for curing powder.

Practice on some old parts until you get comfortable with the process.

I hope this answers your question.
Good luck.


Most of this bike was powder coated with the exception of the gas tank, frame, engine and plastic parts. All of the polished parts were coated with clear powder and others were coated with almost chrome powder. All the black bolts you see are powder. The wheels were done with satin black and I used a special tape to cover the polished part of the wheels. Once the black flowed out I took the wheels out of the oven and recoated them with clear powder then cured them.

[melks]

cool, thanks for the info and nice work.

[X Baldwin Motion]

Powder coating not nearby or in the budget, now I've tried two different colors of the Krylon but both are too "chrome" looking. Anybody have a source for a more "argent" color?

Thanks

[Keith Seymore]

Duplicolor FM149 is dead on. It comes in the small spray cans; there is a larger truck number which is also good but the number escapes me.

I've been using elbow grease and Duplicolor on my rallys (and I have a lot of them! - lol) for about 30 years with no issues.

K

[truckfan]

subscribed. i have used the Eastwood rattle can rally paint. worked great, dull aluminum krylon also good

[Keith Seymore]

Sorry - had to run off and couldn't finish my thought:

One more example from the Seymore stable of painted rally wheels -



- and I believe the corresponding Duplicolor Truck number is T-112.

I counted one time and I had a qty of 22 Corvette style rallys, ranging from 14x6 to 15x10. That didn't include 5 truck rallys, and 10 Pontiac rally I wheels. I also painted the spokers on my Haulmark argent silver (qty 6 because I carry two spares).

I spend a lot of time painting rally wheels! I offered the job to my son but for some reason it never got done...

K