Refurbish spoked wheels

[kndw]

As a winter project, I thought it might be nice to refurbish the wheels on my '76, and I could use some advice.

A few years ago, I replaced the spokes with stainless steel ones, and as the aluminum on the rims was oxidized, I chose to paint those and the hubs black. Of course, the paint got chipped pretty soon, and last year I took off the paint again with paint stripper. Underneath was still the oxidized aluminum. It wasn't possible to polish, so I think there is some coating on them, which did not come off with the paint stripper. Now I would like to do it properly. The plan is to take off the tires and to take out the spokes. Then I'll treat the hubs with paint stripper, and paint them silver. What should I do with the rims? Get them bead blasted and then polish? Any other ideas?

[Maz]

I rebuilt the wheels on my '75 a few years ago. I bought stainless spokes but, like you, had corrosion / pitting on the rims. I took the rims to a chromer, not to be chromed, but they have to polish everything before chroming so I assumed they would know what could be done. Sure enough, using their Industrial polishing machine, they polished through the anodising and pitting and left the rims looking beautiful. They did say that they couldn't polish too deep around the spoke holes, to prevent weakening the metal in those areas. I fitted the spokes and trued the wheels myself and with a monthly wax polish or coating with ACF 50, they still look fantastic now, after a couple of years.

Maz

[kndw]

That's a great idea, thanks!

[Maz]

Just a quick 'before and after'.
Maz