All -

How have you gone about restoring the rim on your Space Saver Spare tires for a 1970 Cuda? I assume you can't remove the tire, so how do you remove the paint, prep the rim, etc.

Also, what is the correct gloss level for the black rim paint? Can someone please post original pictures of unrestored space saver spares to give me an idea of what they looked like?

Thank you.

Lye or oven cleaner strips paint and doesn't harm rubber or etch steel. Don't use either on aluminum however.

I have dismounted and mounted these tires several times. Cheby used a space saver also and I have taken those tires off and put onto mopar wheels. The tire will go right back into shape, folded looking, after you let the air out of it. That will make your wheel clean up and painting a lot easier. Plus you can clean your tire when its inflated.

The oven cleaner option sound good. I'll give it a try. Thanks guys.

Does anyone have any pictures to post that shows the original paint and white inspection daub?

GI Moparman, can you elaborate on the dismount and mount process. What equipment was used, procedures, etc?

I've done a few of these myself and in my opinion it really is the best way to restore a Space Saver spare. Bring it to a place that is well known for installing larger tires like 22 inch and bigger. They have the correct equipment. You really need that small low profile adjustable angle nylon wheel that a good tire machine has to get just the right angle while carefully removing the space saver tire. Getting it mounted back on it much easier. I look at it this way. Take it to the guys that remove and install very expensive large rims. They generally are programmed to be very careful with your wheels. After you do the restoration work on the rim, guys like that tend to actually care about not messing up your rim. Last one I did, drew a ton of attention from the younger guys working there when it came time to inflate the tire to seat it on the rim. They all had thier cell phones out taking videos. lol

These things are like gold, when push comes to shove your gambling with each process when dealing with a 45 year old piece of rubber, particularly when trying to set the bead when you reassemble. Agreed it should come back but it may not, best case it returns close to original shape (measure before and you'll find the diameter will increase slightly if you have a virgin spare)

If I were to gamble, I'd likely try strapping the OD to keep it from expanding during the bead set (inflation) process.

Unsure I would gamble with a thousand dollar bill, just my 2cents

A few years back I found a correct space saver rim, and after a lot of searching I finally managed to buy a correct BFG compact spare tire off eBay. The tire was tired but never inflated. A friend of mine who owned an auto repair shop offered to help me out installing the tire. We went through loads of grief trying to install the tire and get it to seat. A buddy of his from a nearby GoodYear shop even stopped by but still we couldn't get the tire to seat.
Finally he looked online and found this thread from here:
https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/553647/how-to-mount-space-saver-tire.html
I really was wary about inflating the tire completely, but the tire was far from perfect and I hadn't paid a lot for it, and we were out of ideas. So we inflated it, it seated, we quickly deflated it and it returned to correct shape. The tire even looked better installed than loose! Thanks to the late Jules for his advice.
I have the original space saver for my T/A project and the rim needs paint. I'm not too enthused about removing and reinstalling the tire, so I'm interested in hearing ideas on painting a wheel with tire mounted too.

I found this video interesting. I'm wondering how could there have been enough air in an air inflation canister to fully inflate a collapsable spare?
I notice he doesn't show the back side after deflating and it makes you wonder if it did return to it preinflation position.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tK8GvmS9zg

Cool video. I've never seen a space saver tire fully inflated. I'm surprised at how much the rubber expands.

What level of gloss are you guys using when you paint your rims?

I believe this is for a 71 Challenger ...unrestored

Thanks! That's what I needed.