Refinishing and cleaning corroded and oxidized aluminum wheels - Tire dismounting by hand
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- čas přidán 29. 08. 2024
- Restoring a corroded aluminum wheel that had a slow leak from the build up around the bead/rim. The clear coat on the wheels was failing, and there were lots of little white worm lines where moisture had seeped under the coating.
PRODUCTS:
BeadBuster XB-455 to dismount tire amzn.to/3MK3Uey
Mother's Aluminum Polish amzn.to/3ufiUe6
Ceramic coating amzn.to/3SIUeVn
Aluminum brightener/cleaner (suggested for future upkeep) amzn.to/49Gwcke
(Amazon affiliate links)
REPLIES TO FREQUENTLY POSTED COMMENTS:
→ Yes this was tedious, and yes you can just buy new rims. Do what works for you. For me, it was a meditative way to kill some hours on cold winter days, and I get satisfaction to this day when looking at them.
→ Yes the dismounting process looks brutal and it's much easier to take them to a shop. But I wasn't trying to save time/money in this project. I was curious to learn how to dismount wheels and have used the experience from this project on many other small machine wheels since (ATV, snowblowers, etc.).
When I cleaned up some 15 year old aluminum wheels that I liked, I cleaned and painted the back side of the wheels. It looks good and is a lot easier to keep clean. Finished the face of the wheels with Mothers Aluminum wheel polish and they look nice again.
Just wanted to add I sand blasted some aluminum wheels in a home made sandblaster box on low air pressure about 40 to 80 lbs and then little 280 sand paper on bad spots then some auto clear coat... looked great !!!
Such a great video. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with us. I’m thinking about trying this with mine. We took the cladding off some newer Silverado wheels and the aluminum wheels behind the cladding were oxidized, so we spray painted over them. I think I’m ready to strip the paint off and refinish the aluminum after watching your video.
Way to get at it. Great job man . Great video too. I'm working on heavily oxidized and pitted 15" alum. Alloy . They have fine CNC grooves in the pinwheels so I can't sand. I stripped, aluminum acid wash and I'm doing a heavy multi step polish. So far so good. I can appreciate your hard work.
Thanks! What product do you use for the aluminum acid wash?
I have been wondering what to do about these cnc grooves.... I was about to sand! Your post gave me second thoughts that wod have been a bad idea! I do have aluminium acid cleaner so will try that foow up with some poilsh
I know have a better understanding of why it costs so much to have wheels professionally refinished. Excellent job of showing all the different skill sets needed to save a set of wheels.
I’ve done this in a pretty similar fashion although other than wire brushing the backside and some of the front, the rest was hand sanded and polished. First time I’ve seen a wood chisel used on wheel weights though
It should be noted that was a cheap chisel which is no longer used on wood. Doing stuff like this with it long ago destroyed the tip. : )
Such determination!
Wow I was going to try and do this myself but not after seeing this I am to disabled how much to have it done??
I was hoping to learn a secret or new trick to getting old factory wheels back in shape...alas, the answer is work. Again. Still. Great job, man, guess I better buckle up and start laying supplies, I’ve got all 4 to do.
Sandblasting
I think I have those exact wheels. Found a set of Western Weld USA made 15x7s & 15x10s for the Chevelle.
Great job.
Thank you very much.
Dude this was fucking intense....yet motivating. Thank you
could have used a mini sand blaster in the back side of the rim followed by a ligher sanding for faster and better results and apply clear coat for longer durability
I am gonna do this.
A little bit of a time and mess saver would've been not to worry about checking for leaks if you plan on breaking the tires down and cleaning the beads anyways. I'm working on a set of American Racing AR23s and those rivet looking things around the inner rim are the bane of my existence!!
I started the process just to diagnose the leaks - the full refinish just started happening as I got more into it. : ) Could not agree more on the rivets - every time I re-polish these wheels I curse them.
@@stickwallfarm what can be done if a rivet gets corroded off? I have a set of American Racing rins like that where a few rivets are missing
@@tedc6694 not sure, haven’t had one of them break off. What’s it look like underneath? It’d be nice if it wasn’t ugly and could just be polished up, then you could remove all the rivets and make cleaning so much easier. Probably wouldn’t have the same look though.
@@stickwallfarm they broke off fairly but nit completely flush. They wont be able to be buffed but the inside of the rims show the bottom of the mushroom. So ill be able to punch them thru and replace them. I was sure they were aluminum at first, but since they have no discernable temp to touch even when rim is cold to touch, i now think they're probably convincing plastic. I think plastic fake rivets are common and easily replaced
Fantastic
good job
Hey I was cleaning some wheels and this layer of chrome finish started peeling off and cut me, it was like an aluminum can. Do you know what that is I’m having trouble finding out
A ton of work
2 tons
Can I use a polish and cermaic coating on the painted portion of my aluminum wheels? I'm going to sand, polish and coat the polished lips of my wheels but would like to polish and ceramic coat the painted center portion as well. Just no sanding on that part.
I don't see why that would cause a problem.
Seems like a lot of work to remove tire from rim. I would have taken them to my mechanic to remove, then clean and take back to put back on and balance. But, I'm a girl, what do I know!
gugz 102nd it was a lot of work, you’re right. :) On the flip side, it was a fun challenge and I learned something new (have since put the skill to use changing snowblower tires). Also, I’m a woman as well. :)
Good job, young gun! Excellent!
I just bought a set of 86 z31 t turbine wheels. Any suggestions?
My rims look way more corroded, hopefully a lot of elbow grease brings them back to life...
Any idea what type/model of alum rims are these? Working on a set like these but one is too damaged to restore so I'm thinking of buying 1. Good job btw.
Ion Alloy 71 I believe
@@stickwallfarm right on!
Great job! My bike aluminum wheel have bleach stains (white splotches like yours). It must be corrosion. Advice I was given was to use rustoleum stops rust clear coat. I was about to start but noticed that you used paint stripper, sanded and buffed the aluminum. I suppose the entire wheel should go through this procedure as opposed to just spraying the clear coat on the segments that have the white corroded splotches? Can acetone remove the clear coat? Hope this reaches you in time.
The white splotches are the aluminum corrosion - it's aluminum's version of rust. I would only use a clear coat product after stripping/sanding the aluminum down to bare metal, removing any previous clear coat as well as any corrosion. Otherwise, I can't imagine the new clear coat would hold up for very long.
@@stickwallfarm okay. I sanded the entire wheel with 400 grit removing the corroded damage. I tried acetone and paint thinner and nothing came off. The sandpaper didn’t take off a plastic clear coat residue but I’m assuming it’s off. After some research others have suggested a 400 grit would remove the clear coat, so I assume it’s off. It looks fine otherwise and will research more before deciding on clear coating the aluminum wheel.
What size sand papers did you use?
Do the Alcoa ranger level 2 rims have the same centre capsize??
Not familiar with those rims, sorry
What are these wheels called? I have these too!
Where did you find replacement center caps?
eBay. Search “Gorilla Chrome Closed-End Push-Thru Wheel Center Hub Caps”
That dismounting device looks like it could fuck up the rims, also sandblasting is way to agressive on aluminum.
Michael Langston the bead breaker has a rubber foot and is suggested only for rims with a flat lip. Soda blasting could do the trick if concerned about the aluminum.
Love the video, what are the different rotating wheels you used on your angle grinder and dremmel? Thanks!
On the dremel I went through a few packs of the "Stainless Steel Rotary Wheel And Brush Set 5 Pc." from Harbor Freight. These were effective but wore out quick and threw a lot of the little wire pieces which would get embedded in clothing. Protective eyewear a must. On the regular drill I used an abrasive ball, some wire wheels, and a "Wagner Paint Eater" (black, stiff, sponge looking disc). I didn't actually use an angle grinder as I didn't have any wire wheel/abrasive attachments for it at the time. In hindsight, that would have made quicker work of the job. As would a sandblaster : )
Thanks for the reply! Gonna make a day outve it and hopefully get my wheels looking much more spiff and spam
Ever heard of a sand blaster?
Mat Helm did this in an apartment basement- didn’t have access/room for a sandblasting setup at the time. Thanks for watching.
Or a vapor blaster
Why didn't you show us the part of you painting them? I know you didn't just paint the valve stems...LoL
Didn't paint them. Put a ceramic wax on them. Few times a year I clean them with aluminum brightener and re-wax.
what a LOT of work for rims that are prob $35/ each at Sears. Some old vintage rims might be worth the effort but that was insane, the rivets, the holes, etc. My time is worth way more than those rims but the lesson was worth it.
These wheels are listed for 100/each. Regardless, I enjoy making old/worn things look new- it’s a hobby/how I like to spend my time, so cost of time is not a factor in this instance. Thanks for watching.
I like your response
That was hard to watch especially the tire removal wow
Thanks! That’s very kind and encouraging of you.
@@stickwallfarm A manual tire changer would've been easier and less than half the price of the BeadBuster.
Good thing he don't care about chrome outer lip
There is no chrome outer lip on these wheels.
what chrome outer lip?