With not much else to do today I decided to start stripping the rust, rot and grime from my wheels ready for five new tyres. After 60 plus years of standing in a dry climate they are solid, but with a fair amount of surface rust. The exterior I can deal with by sand blasting and elbow grease, but it seems that there is a fair amount that is loose inside the lip of the rims. I’ve tried to capture it here.
Any bright ideas on how to deal with this? Cut two slivers out of each side of the rim, empty it out and weld it back together before grinding flat? Drill a hole and inject with cavity wax? Ignore it, paint the wheels, put shiny new Longstones on and pretend I am always driving though sand?
This is a new one for me! Any advice greatly appreciated!
Hi - There are already small holes in the rim 180 degrees apart, on the edge? My wheels weren't as impressively noisy as yours, but by laying them down and spinning them repeatedly plenty of dust came out. If the rust is more flaky then it might be possible to inject some liquid de-ruster? I didn't try this as I wasn't bothered about removing it all.
I'm surprised at how noisy it is! However, this will be drowned out while driving unless you cut the engine on downhill runs and even then you're unlikely to hear it.
If you really want to silence them I'd be tempted to open out the existing holes a little and blowing through with an airline.
I’d see how you get on after the wheels have been sandblasted. With that sort of flaky rust inside the rim you may find holes break through with the blasting.
11-12-2023, 10:37 AM (This post was last modified: 12-12-2023, 11:03 AM by Colin Morgan.)
On examination, just one of the four wheels I took off my Chummy had serious corrosion. On this wheel, the insides of the rims - where they were up against the tyre - had gone very thin and started to corrode through. The centre was reusable, but the rest of the wheel was not. At a glance, it looked as good as the others - and they all had some rust inside.
Bilt Hamber do a powder that you mix with water at various % by volume. That liquid dissolves any rust. Liquid goes black as it dissolves rust.....is reusable till goes completely black and ineffective (easily worked out).
You can sort out a container that wheel will lay down in and make up enough liquid to immerse. Every now and again stirr up and rotate wheel. Metal comes out spotless and shiny. Not particularly expensive to buy pot of powder and plenty in pot to make enough liquid to immerse a wheel. Leave immersed for a day or two or as long as you think is needed. Pour any left over re-usable into a pot to store for next use. (Flakes inside rims will have gone.)
14-12-2023, 11:33 PM (This post was last modified: 14-12-2023, 11:34 PM by Leisureking.)
Thanks Dennis. I’ll look out for that. I have a mix which I think is phosphoric acid mainly. I need to get an in line air drier as my rather cheap set up seems to clog up pretty quickly. It is quite humid here!
If anyone was curious about how much has come out so far…that is a 2p for reference!
