Oh these rims . . . the tires, I swear they were fused together. I soaked the tires, I sawed the tires, I, I, I... The lip on the tire was so tight that only Christopher Markley could succeed with his tire remover.
Terribly rusted and pitted I posted the rims for sale and now I reach out to all those who read this to chime in ... are these rims salvageable? Or are they pits for the pits? Pictured here are the rims covered in aircraft gel stripper.
The paint came off easy, but the rust is a different story. The outside of the rims look clean. It's the insides that are bad.
I applied three coats of Naval Jelly and used a copper brush to scrub off the rust to determine how much pitting existed. I had begun to use a wire attachment on my drill and grind the pitting down, but luckily my battery died and I stopped before I did much of anything. Grinding will only hurt the rim and weaken its integrity.
Pictured here is the "worst" of the pitting, which I believe is not as bad as I expected. Note the difference of smoothness on the outside of the rim versus the inside. If this is the worst, are these rims salvageable?
New rims cost $40 each for stock color or $50 for chrome. My intention is always to stay original when it can be done without sacrificing functionality or significantly altering costs. I planned to powder coat these rims originally with a matt silver -- similar to factory stock in appearance. Looking at these rims, what do you think? Do they need a coat and sand of Bondo and then powder or what?Post your comment please.
I have two interested buyers in the rims, but also have 2.5 hours invested in cleaning them up now so I can be fair with the buyers about what they are getting. Now I wonder if I should/can just finish off the restoration of these original SS180 rims.
