Best Way to Strip and Refinish Steel Rim

This is a pretty rare rim with a fair amount of rust. Thoughts on chemical stripping vs. media blasting? It looks worse in the photo than it is, but I do expect some pitting. Would an aluminum oxide media do better against whatever pitting there is or am I better off chemically stripping? Either way, a full primer will be needed I assume.

Thanks!

glass or alox will be fine. dont go too nuts on the grit size though. something around a 70 grit will get you a .5 mil profile and clean out any rust pit holes and still retain whats left of your numbers. Be mindful that there is no media stuck in the 4 parts of the face that sit against the outer ring. lots of wheels have a sealer there that can cause issues with media being stuck in there after blasting.

Agree glass is cleanest, hold your blast gun away from the surface a good distance, turn down pressure if needed and sneak up on it. High pressure and heavy grit will take the shortest amount of time but may remove stampings as well. Remember to shoot at heavy angles across the surface (parallel to the surface being blasted) where you expect numbers. If fine pitting exists after blasting, you may want to evaporust as well.

Whats the wheel going to be used for?

Remaining pit locations as well as final use of the wheel will determine how you address what you find beneath.

Good luck

Word of caution when dipping a wheel or blasting with fine media in the area of the web to rim joint.

I have seen several light colored wheels with rust starting to migrate from this seam.

Have it e-coated or saturate this joint with self etching primer, multiple applications.
Then perform the remainder of your wheel prep before paint.

On a couple rallye wheels I cleaned up I used EvapoRust down in the seam area. Before spraying the wheels with epoxy primer I poured a little reduced primer in the seam and rolled it around to help seal it.

On a wheel like that you can pack modeling clay in the open slots from behind and then pour a little Evaporust in the seams. The clay should seal it long enough for the Evaporust to work. Might want to put the wheel on some newspaper or plastic sheeting just in case you get a little seepage.

If you take steel wheels to have them blasted and powder coated here you'll get back a wheel with media bits packed into the seams and very little coating in the joint. First couple times the wheel gets wet you'll have rust starting. Expensive and no attention to detail so I just do them myself with good primer and paint.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Much appreciated!

Degrease first, lots of heavy duty detergent then HOT steam cleaner/pressure washer. Then overnight in Evaporust. Then use a chemical stripper to remove paint. Once stripped give it another steam cleaning treatment with detergent. Use Ospho (or similar acid wash with a phosphate residual) to clean bare metal and neutralize any flash rust. This should result in a bare rim with no additional blasting required. Treat the pits like bodywork, add filler in bad areas, use high build primer for lighter areas, sand away almost all of it so only the filled pits with filler/primer are remaining against the clean bare steel.


If striving for absolute originality don't use a primer coating, just paint per factory. Most were sprayed gloss black (factory used cheap paint, was not very glossy) on the backside, then color was shot onto the outside with no hole masking allowing for color overspray onto the black through the holes.

.02

Thought I'd post a picture of the results after the evaprust bath. That stuff is pretty amazing. In hindsight, I should have sprung for more than 3.5 gallons. It was a bit of a challenge soaking one third of the rim at a time. Before picture at the top of this post.

Evaporust works great. Harbor Freight carries it and they will let you use the 20 or 25% coupon with it.

Thanks - I will check that option out. Fastenal carries it too, but I haven't many coupon/discounts available.

my local machine shop bakes them in an oven used by most machine shops to bake grease and grime dry and then after cooling puts them in a bead blaster which knocks off" all" of the dried grease and grime of completely , leaving a nice clean metal finish with no residue or sandblasted finish. a set usually runs about $100.00 .

Lye eats grease and paint. Turns it into soap and goo. Doesn't harm steel no matter how long you leave it in, but it EATS aluminum. After the lye does its magic, pressure wash. Lye doesn't touch rust, so use Evaporust after the pressure washer.

I have always just sand blasted, putty fill any pits, sand, prime and paint to match.

Same here. He bakes them, then locks them into a tumbler to clean them up. Clean surface, not 'pitted' like blasting.

this would be the easy way. for some reason there are some really bad blasters out there who have ruined the whole industry and left people scared to get anything blasted. Moparts has its experts and they like to say that their process is the best. (which is just might be) but I guess its the difference in doing a 20 year resto or actually just getting the job done in a couple hours.

i have blasted hundreds of rims, i don't get media stuck in the seams. I must have just been lucky i guess. i dont knock off number stampings or make some massive surface profile in the steel like everybody is scared of. despite the moparts popular opinion blasting steel wheels will not blow holes through them or cause them to warp. lol

You don't need to invest in sand blast equipment or pay somebody to sand blast. As said above, degrease and paint strip. Clean up the paint stripper with mineral spirits, and dip in Evapo-Rust for a day or two. Clean up the Evapo-Rust with mineral spirits and apply a phosphoric acid such as Rust-Cure or Ospho. Clean off excess phosphoric acid with mineral spirits again and paint.

I had planned to get a large air compressor and a big sand blast cabinet, but after working with Evapo-Rust, there's no need. Evapo-Rust isn't cheap, but it's a whole lot cheaper than a large compressor and a big sand blast cabinet. You can buy 5 gallons for $80 from northerntool.com with zero freight cost if you pick up at their store. Even 50 gallons at $800 would cost quite a bit less than a big air compressor. And the results are just as good or better.

I did 5 wheels like this. Works out to $16 a wheel just for the Evapo-Rust. And the Evapo-Rust isn't depleted yet.

my bigest problem is i live in the rust belt, and stuff gets a little pitted. at work, we used a steel shot blaster, and that blended the pits into a uniform surface finish. what stuff [grit ?] do you use as blast media ?

EvapoRust works great but I'll save you even more money. Use vinegar at $1.00 a gallon and leave it in for two days and rust will be gone. I restored a drill press and car parts this way. Just paint or coat quickly before flash rusting.

how much prep should a guy do to the wheel before dunking it in vinegar ? grease/paint removal wise ?

I would use a good engine degreaser and power washer and for paint, a good paint removing gel, and or a wire brush on a drill.