Wheel Renovations

Post by **aupickup** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 8:17 pm

where i am i can pay £10.00 for shot blast and primer, or £18.00 for shot blast, and powder coat any colour

Post by **Luxobarge** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 11:26 pm

linearaudio wrote:
croft wrote:Hi luxobarge, out of interest how much did the bilt-hamber stuff cost? I'm busy de-rusting some stuff in the same size tub you have but following the recent article in Practical Classics! It cost me £2.00 for the soda crystals! Granted you need a few scrap bits of steel and a battery charger but I'm seeing the same sort of results you have in your photos. I took the easy way out and had my wheels sand-blasted and etch primed £10.00 from my local guy. Keep up the good work, enjoyng your Pictorials!! Cheers, Croft
I had a go with the battery charger method a month ago- after two minutes it started smoking badly-exit one selmar battery charger
What did I do wrong?

Well it sounds like it was drawing too much current, you probably had the electrolyte too "rich" (i.e. too concentrated) and/or had the anode too near the object (cathode) in the tank. Best to use a battery charger with a current meter, and make sure it doesn't go further than it's designed to.

BTW - you can probably fix your battery charger, it may have only blown a fuse (most good ones are fused) and if not, then it's likely to be only the rectifier - you can get another one easily enough from RS Components, or Maplin etc.

Cheers

Post by **Luxobarge** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 11:30 pm

aupickup wrote:where i am i can pay £10.00 for shot blast and primer, or £18.00 for shot blast, and powder coat any colour

Yes, I'm sure I could too, but this is an exercise/fun thing to see how well it works, with a view to doing other more complicated/expensive items in it later on or on another restoration. Also I just prefer to do as much as humanly possible myself on any restoration, I just get more satisfaction from doing it!

Fair point though - if I was wanting to get them done quickly for a full resto I'd probably go the blasting route - mind you, I've got my own blaster and the last full resto I did I blasted most of the bits myself, it's just that it's not big enough for wheels.

Cheers!

linearaudio · Post by **linearaudio** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 6:37 pm

Luxobarge wrote:
linearaudio wrote:
croft wrote:Hi luxobarge, out of interest how much did the bilt-hamber stuff cost? I'm busy de-rusting some stuff in the same size tub you have but following the recent article in Practical Classics! It cost me £2.00 for the soda crystals! Granted you need a few scrap bits of steel and a battery charger but I'm seeing the same sort of results you have in your photos. I took the easy way out and had my wheels sand-blasted and etch primed £10.00 from my local guy. Keep up the good work, enjoyng your Pictorials!! Cheers, Croft
I had a go with the battery charger method a month ago- after two minutes it started smoking badly-exit one selmar battery charger
What did I do wrong?
Well it sounds like it was drawing too much current, you probably had the electrolyte too "rich" (i.e. too concentrated) and/or had the anode too near the object (cathode) in the tank. Best to use a battery charger with a current meter, and make sure it doesn't go further than it's designed to.

BTW - you can probably fix your battery charger, it may have only blown a fuse (most good ones are fused) and if not, then it's likely to be only the rectifier - you can get another one easily enough from RS Components, or Maplin etc. Cheers

Yes it blew the 25amp output fuse after frying the rectifier! I wonder if it was because it is one of the "automatic" type of chargers which would probably see the saliney solution as a very flat battery and act accordingly...

Post by **Kevin** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 12:19 pm

where i am i can pay £10.00 for shot blast and primer, or £18.00 for shot blast, and powder coat any colour

You are fortunate my local place is £35 + vat

Post by **PAULJ** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 8:27 pm

I was thinking of getting mine blasted and powder coated, any reason why not?

Post by **Luxobarge** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 9:11 pm

PAULJ wrote:I was thinking of getting mine blasted and powder coated, any reason why not?

None whatsoever! I just personally like the fun of doing it all myself, just playing really, but for sure if I was doing a full-on high quality resto, then I'd probably do the same.

Cheers!

Post by **Longdog** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 5:10 am

Nice result.I was lazy and got mine powder coated, I can understand the feeling of achievement by doing them yourself.You should call this thread Wheels, the igniter of winter enthusiasm.

Post by **Luxobarge** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:08 am

Longdog wrote:Nice result.I was lazy and got mine powder coated, I can understand the feeling of achievement by doing them yourself.You should call this thread Wheels, the igniter of winter enthusiasm.

Hehe - winter enthusiasm eh? You say that, but have you noticed that I've stripped and painted only one of three wheels so far - the other two are stripped but not painted yet, and this has been going for weeks? That's because the final stripping needs doing outside, and the painting needs to be done in sensible temperatures, and as I write this, it's minus 5 C outside! I've got enthusiasm, but not enough to go outside and work in these temperatures!

Hey ho - soon be spring......