Doing some 3-pc wheel refurbing.

I've owned these wheels since new and they have been great, never bent never even a flat . So it's new tires time and I decided to do a bit of cleanup and more while they're without tires.

They are very true and have never leaked at all. The silicone seal looks fabulous on all four.

I've cleaned them pretty well now and have decided NOT to get the centers refinished because they're not that bad and in looking at it this is not just a simple powder coating job. The mating surfaces, there are several, need to be free of paint.

The twenty(20) original bolts are 12.9 8x25mmm 1.25 and they always did show a bit of corrosion at times so I was thinking of using something else. The nuts and washers will get re-utilized.

What did surprise me is that the inner (none on the outer?) lip shows some corrosion so I think I'll fill those with Lab Metal and sand it smooth. I'm not sure if I think painting that portion of the lip is necessary?

The outer rim half just needs a bit of polishing as I've maintained them well over the years. That could be done without disassembling the wheels.

So my initial idea was to replace the bolts one at a time but I've also thought about carefully removing them all then removing the center section and re-installing 6 or 8 of the 20 bolts used? That would make the polishing easier to accomplish.

I can't imagine that the two rim halves would spring apart once all the bolts are out?
So if I'm careful I think this should work?

Now replacement the bolts is a bit trickier. I'd like stainless but the ARP ones just won't fit and they're over $4.00 a piece. I don't like them quite that much. McMaster has some Magni-coated 12.9 socket headed cap screws that would certainly do the job but the outer coating is aluminum. Not so sure about how good that look after a while?

McMaster-Carr

http://www.themagnigroup.com/images/PDFsheets/GenBrocAFELLO.pdf

It's not even clear to me that 12.9 grade bolts are necessary (3,000lb car street use) but I'm also wary of any of the garden variety stainless ones. What ever SS alloy ARP's are made of is supposed to be 10.9 but those are typically for applications with more bolts per wheel too. Again, none of their stuff fits anyway.

Suggestions & comments?
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IMHO: Take a look at Perch & Partner in Germany.

 

Subscribed, as I may do the same to a similar set of BBS wheels...

Question though... Is there any other option for the center cover? The BBS one looks so dated when you put the center lock cover on. Almost looks better without it.

Has anyone come up with a way to freshen up these wheel so they look less dated? Perhaps a different center cover?

Bo

 

What are they, 9x16?

 

8x15 running 225s in the rear.

I'll post the covers later on. These are Hayashi rims who later became HRE wheels. Dated looking is just fine as it's on an 80's car. They're very nicely made and have held up well.

Here they are on the car.
1984 Maserati BiTurbo at the Le Belle Macchine d'Italia

I got some of the 12.9 bolts yesterday which have the aluminum coating but they're not show quality stuff and I have to wonder how that aluminum covering will hold up to wheel cleaner and the elements.

Forgeline built a set of race rims for another car for me and they have a version of the ARP manufactured 10.9 polished SS bolt that is socket headed and the right length for about $2 each. A sample is on it's way.

So I'll probably go with those unless someone can definitively explain that 12.9 @ 20 bolts per rim is an absolute requirement? Getting a wheel manufacturer to offer their opinion on that subject is tough. IMHO titanium bolts which they also offer is absurd in this application.

 

Have a link for that? Google yields a lot of fishing results ...

 

One rim is apart now and my plan to leave the rims together while removing the center section is working just fine.

Not sure about just cleaning up the center sections though.
Even after several hand cleanings with brushes and going through the dishwasher as a final clean some of the damn brake dist is still hard to remove and the finish is slightly damaged from age in a few spots.

It appears to be a very thin paint and not a powder coating. That's great if you want to be able to detect signs of failure but it makes cleaning quite difficult. It doesn't seem to be anodizing either. Why woiuld it be only on the front side if it were? My Forgeline wheels have a very durable and smooth powder coat on the center sections.

I've used half a dozen powder coating places around here in the last 15 years. I would trust none of them with doing these. These were masked very specifically because they have to be except for those 20 bolt hole recesses. This coating is thin enough that I don't think it mattered but powder coat would be different.

I wonder if companies like HRE & Forgeline machine some surfaces after powdercoating?

Ever see a wheel come off a car because they were powder coated in the lug nut interfaces? I have.

 

So I think I'm going to have the centers powder coated in gold and that requires a clear coat for chemical & UV protection. What was on there was a nice single stage enamel paint circa 1986 and though I am capable of painting these wheels it's just another part of the project I don't want to do. They said painting the wheels would be more expensive. These will require a fair amount of masking too. Seems like $300-350 for all four centers is what it costs in NJ.

I'll post a photo of the cleaned up centers which really look pretty good but I think since I have them all apart that I'll get them painted.

On to the rim restoration and polishing.

 

IMO that is not corrosion, it's casting flaws in the original manufacturer, odd for the spun aluminum?

It almost looks like a poor repair, but if you have had them "since new" I guess it's a flaw.

 

Yes that would be odd ...

Have to disagree. I saw these wheels when new and they were perfect. I think this has happened since 2000 when I last had tires put on them!

I've seen the same exact phenomena on some other long term wheels though those were magnesium.

I'll fill and sand the voids I expect it will be just fine. They weren't leaking at all.

 

That could be pitting corrosion, in which case the damage could be worse (deeper) than what's visible. Are you near the ocean?

 

I am but the car is not.

 

Sorry for slo response. I didn't view F-chat for a bit.

Pertsch & Partner rund um’s Rad M7 Felgenschraube, M7 Titanschraube, M7 Edelstahlschraube, M7 Goldschraube, Chromschraube, Spezialschrauben, Schrauben, Zierschraube, Zierstopfen, M7 Mutter, mehrteilige Felgen, Felgenbetten, Aussenbett, Torxschr

Very cool stuff. I've purchased rim parts from them and they were beautiful.

Best

 

So I finished these last week and I'll be posting some photos of the process with resutls.

Naturally it didn't go quite as planned ...
But it's tuned out well after a couple of stumbles.

Here are the other related threads.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/technical-q-sponsored-algar-ferrari/449175-any-one-ever-use-shine-seal.html

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/technical-q-sponsored-algar-ferrari/457892-what-put-polished-aluminum.html

I ended up waxing the aluminum with Mothers carnuba wax.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/technical-q-sponsored-algar-ferrari/448457-ever-use-allens-fasteners.html

The chrome plated 12.9 bolts worked fine. They sent me one short one but since I ordered two extra it was fine. The combination of chrome plating on the head and the powder coating on the center section made a few of them a bit tight so some relieving on the inset holes after powder coating had to be done. I accomplished that with a drill press using one of the old bolts which has ribs on the side of the head to rub a slight amount of the paint off. That worked great.

More photos and description to follow.

 

Two bolts left in to keep halves from splitting.

After 28 years of use this is what needs to be cleaned up.
Not that bad really and the rims ran very, very true.
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It really did take a lot of sanding. I used a combination of those 3M sanding pads in rough and medium along with sandpaper. The inside rim surface just got cleaned up with a final sanding with a medium & fine pad.

The tire bead area got special attention and on one rim those corrosion voids got cleaned out and filled.
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Used everything from 120 up through 400 and even had to back track to 80 a lot after using the 120 and 220. There were a LOT of road nicks and I got most of them but some were simply too deep so I minimized them. The marks from the valve stems were left in too.

I even had to go back and re-sand some areas after the first cut of polishing.

The polishing was a lot of work even with a decent buffing wheel on a stand.
I imagine that a really big industrial buffer would have mad this easier. It sure does give your forearms a workout. Not great on my old back either ...

Even more fun was to follow!
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hats off to you, looks great! ages ago I assembled more sets of rims then I can count. Personally I would have split the rims and cleaned off the silicone sealant. putting down a bead of clear silicone sealant is actually very easy, the trick is getting the surface clean of oil, acetone works great. basically you assemble the rim then mount it to turn table or even better a hub mount like a tire balance machine and with a slow spin lay down the bead. Today though I'd use self sealing rubber tape, faster less mess and instant cure.

centers usually have steel inserts for the lug bolts/ studs vs plan aluminum. seen plenty of deformed cone facings. If you look closely you can see the steel insert in your center. And yeah it's normally not coated or painted over, though with a proper face and tq on the bolt it shouldn't be an issue. the shoulder on the bolt/nut has a convex face that mates to a convex face on the insert, much like a flare seat for an olive fitting, it insures an even concentric surface for proper tq. on the threads.

being bare aluminum it's always a tough call to clear or leave alone and then polish every Saturday... I've gotten to old to sit around on the ground for a couple hrs polishing rims.. besides there's more fun things to do on a Saturday morning!

brake duct is corrosive and has the advantage of being nice and toasty when it's being liberated from the pad to insure that great baked on finish!

the hardware that went in, did it have a shoulder? did the original screw? normally there is a shoulder that centers the bolt holes and belville washer with locknut. Do I think your going to have problem? no, it's just odd seeing a fully threaded shank.

 

Thanks. I think the next round of photos and description should answer your questions.

The hardware you've seen is the original. Not locking washers or shouldered bolts.
The nuts did have loctite on them.

 

In spite of instructions to the powdercoater half the lug nut areas had paint on them which removed with paint remover. But the recessed areas for the socket headed cap screws was a little more problematical. I had to get a bit that would clear out the bottom but not scrape the sides.

The original paint held up pretty good. I don't know what it was but it was very thin with a lot of gold sparkle. It was a lot less trouble than this powder was.
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I used chrome plated 12.9 bolts with the original flat washers and nuts that got polished.
That's 80 nuts I polished! The washers as well. All were originally chrome plated but the original bolts were not. They always looked like crap to me.

Assembly is to 26 ft lbs using a criss cross pattern with black dots on the nuts to keep track of where I was. I did it in two stages letting it wait overnight in between and then checking the final time after overnight as well.
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Now to mount the tires and if there are no leaks then I will use penetrating loctite on all the bolts.

Well we had a leak ... so after removing the tire you can see in the second photo where "someone" nicked the sealing bead. Amazing that after almost 30 years that's first time this has happened. The areas of leakage are shown in the next photo.

I elected to try and seal over rather than disassemble the entire wheel which I wasn't sure would work but it did! After two weeks all wheels are hold pressure perfectly.

So after a couple of days of no leaks I used the loctite on the nuts.

We ARE done!
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