Restoring wheels

Dom

XS650 Junkie
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Next up on my project list is to see if I can tidy up my wheels, they are wire spokes with the deep aluminium rims which sadly have been a bit scratched and gouged. Is there anything I can do to salvage them short of filler and powdercoating them? In an ideal world I'd like to polish them and replace with stainless spokes.
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Use paint stripper to get the clear coat off first. I like to use a gel style aircraft stripper as my preference. Then good old fashioned elbow grease in polishing them up. Gary swears by Dico wheels to clean up and get the hard part of polishing done. Not sure what they call those on your side of the pond though.
 
Use paint stripper to get the clear coat off first. I like to use a gel style aircraft stripper as my preference. Then good old fashioned elbow grease in polishing them up. Gary swears by Dico wheels to clean up and get the hard part of polishing done. Not sure what they call those on your side of the pond though.
Noticed my new brake lines Willis?

Yeah I used gel paint stripper on my fork lowers then polished them up last weekend, my 3" polishing wheels on my bench grinder make for hard work!
 
What can I do to lessen some of the gouges?
I don't see any bad gouges in the pic above, but if you have some typical gouges from previous tire changes, you can smooth them out a bit with a file before polishing.
 
I am in a similar situation with front wheel. I have my hub prepped for lacing. I cleaned up the center and sprayed it with "machinery grey". The painted center should clean up better than rough cast in the long run. Polished the flanges a bit too. New spokes and rim await, I am matching another h-section rear rim.
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The rear is pretty decent, it's just the front that has some nicks and dings. I love this style of wheel even with its 'water trough' feature
I have this great looking rear I'm matching. Seems to have "Machinert Grey" in the hub center with polished fin tips. It is a bit dusty, sitting in the shop for 2 months now.

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I haven't bought this pack
https://www.amazon.com/Rustark-Assorted-Polishing-Abrasive-Compound/dp/B08FFH95CY/ref=sr_1_26?crid=PTW5CXD4SQRJ&keywords=Nylon+Fiber+Polishing+Wheel+320&qid=1666908543&s=industrial&sprefix=nylon+fiber+polishing+wheel+320,industrial,122&sr=1-26
but this type disc mounted in a VSR drill works really well for spoke wheels, the recessed center lets you work without hitting the spokes and they do a better job of smoothing the pits, the dico wheels tend to leave "lumps" in the dished area.
It is very helpful to mount the wheels so they can spin while you work.
The abrasive wheel will quickly take on the dish' radius and this pack should take you from rough to near mirror.
 
I haven't bought this pack
https://www.amazon.com/Rustark-Assorted-Polishing-Abrasive-Compound/dp/B08FFH95CY/ref=sr_1_26?crid=PTW5CXD4SQRJ&keywords=Nylon+Fiber+Polishing+Wheel+320&qid=1666908543&s=industrial&sprefix=nylon+fiber+polishing+wheel+320,industrial,122&sr=1-26
but this type disc mounted in a VSR drill works really well for spoke wheels, the recessed center lets you work without hitting the spokes and they do a better job of smoothing the pits, the dico wheels tend to leave "lumps" in the dished area.
It is very helpful to mount the wheels so they can spin while you work.
The abrasive wheel will quickly take on the dish' radius and this pack should take you from rough to near mirror.
Geeeeez... ask a flipping question and we get a new rabbit hole to wander down in our searches...m We are here to learn after all.
Thanks @gggGary. 😎
 
Better read the reviews, lol. They don't fit on the grinder.
 
Roloc discs in medium (maroon) and fine (blue) will quickly remove gouges, scuffs, and scratches .....

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They'll also quickly knock the lettering off of stainless bolt heads so you can polish them up as well .....

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I refurbished a couple of wheels for a 74 a while back. like the bike, they were in terrible condition, badly oxidised, pitted and appeared the PO had used hammer and chisel to remove the tyres. there were some pretty deep gauges on the edges and the flats were badly scratched and had quite a few gouges out of them.

I have quite a long history with polishing aluminium and I've posted on here before re polishing aluminium if you care to read.
To refurbish these wheels I hit the edges with an angle grinder to remove the gouges. I used a nylon fibre wheel to smooth and remove the gouging and scratching from the flats, then polished them. they came up pretty good I think.

Both hubs were skimmed on the lathe to true up the flanges and remove the casting bridges between the fins. the bridges between the flanges on the front wheel was turned down a little so I could get in there with a mop to polish.

I then laced both wheels with stainless spokes. Heidens can supply good spokes of the. right length for stock wheels.

Do yourself a favour and get an 8" grinder so you can use decent size mops. I have a 45 year Old GMF grinder I've converted specifically for polishing. You can pick them up reasonably cheaply - new or second hand.

To polish the rim, grind off the gouges on the edge with a fine grit angle grinder, use a nylon fibre wheel on the grinder to remove gauges and scratches on the side walls. Nylon fibre whee.ls are a dense fibre wheel impregnated with aluminium oxide, they are not Scotch Brite wheels. They are available in a range of grits. Just be, careful when using them because they can remove a surprising amount of material in a very short time.

The mud collecting valleys on the rim can be polished used a 1/2" wide sewn mop, as can the centre. The flats are easy to polish using a wider wheel. If you are using a bench grinder as I suggested, cut some bicycle inner tubes to length and cover the bench grinder shafts, because the rim 'will' slip off the polishing mop from time to time and hit the shaft.

With polished aluminium comes maintenance, because the aluminium will not hold the shine very long without being treated. Treatment options include Bright Dipping, if you can find anyone that does it. Clear powder coat. Or one of the commercially available clear coats for polished aluminium such as Glisten.

Another option is bead blasting. Bead blasted aluminium looks quite alright, albeit rather flat. bead blasted aluminium lends itself rather well to clear coat, so no maintenance.

The first pic is the nylon fibre wheels I spoke of, second pic is an 8" bench grinder converted for polishing they aren't much good for anything else anyway, except sharpening lathe bits). Third pic is of some bits showing a reasonably decent polish job, last pic is of a bit I machined up, then bead blasted, as you can see, blead blasting gives quite a nice even finish. Second last pic shows that all bikes should have spoked wheels. The remainder are pics of my wheels.
 

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You can only disguise cuts and gouges by grinding/polishing away the metal either side.
Although you won't actually weaken the rim/hub any worse than the gouge did (it forms a stress point) making your rims generally thinner probably isn't the best of ideas.
Apparently it's normal practice for wheel refurbishers to TIG weld gouges and missing chunks from cast alloy wheels.
Then a quick trim in a lathe restores a dead true smooth finish to polish up.
I've never heard of anyone doing it with spoke type rims but I don't see why not.
Distortion would obviously be a major issue as well as the possibility of introducing cracks in the weld which could spread throughthe rim.
But I think these problems could be overcome with a bit of thought
 
Ever looked at the thickness of an alloy rim? You'd have to grind a hell of a lot off to weaken it! if you just grind/polish material either slide of the gouge you will create a dent, you have to remove material from the entire diameter to keep it flat and reasonably well balanced. Whilst gouges may look quite deep, they aren't, probably less than .3 - .4mm. Typically, scratches and gouges are caused by tyre levers, to get a gouge or scratch deep enough to weaken the structure would take a damn big tyre lever, an equally big bloke using it and a hell of a long time on a grinder to grind it out. A deeper gouge than that you'd have to hit it with a hammer and chisel/screwdriver.

Of course, there are all sorts of strange people in the world, people who use big screwdrivers, hammers and all sorts of odd tools to remove and replace tyres, so one has to use a little common sense, grinding .4mm off the entire side wall of the rim would take a bloody long time.
 
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