Bugeye steel wheels [original] needed

[Rut]

Well, I found a set of 5 welded Bugeye wheels in Alabama and would like to find 5 more. The wheels I found were in great shape, but needed stripping and painting. I took them to a local company that sandblasts wheels, car frames, and such and was shown and example of their work which was nice and smooth. When I picked them up today they are so pitted from the media they can't be used, won't hold air, and genrally look like 40 grit sand paper. They thought the wheels looked great! I took them to my local machine shop and they are going to bead blast them to see if the can be salvaged, but don't have much hope. Anyone in the Alabama-Mississippi-Florida Panhandle area have a set they want to sell?
Thanks, Rut

 

[jlaird]

Sigh, you saw mine without the holes. Later model. But they are free.

 

[Rut]

Jack,
Thanks again for the kind offer and I may very well take you up on it! I was headed to Lilian, AL to pick up the wheels when I came by to visit you and Miss Agatha. The really sad thing is that the wheels I picked up only needed wire brushing and a good prep and paint, but I wanted to do it right. Everyone I spoke with locally had good things to say about this shop and the finished samples I was shown looked great...go figure!
BTW, I did find a great chrome shop in S AL and will be going by to discuss the few items that need chroming. They were very nice on the phone and I have some of their finished overiders...great quality.
Thanks again, Rut

 

[Whitephrog]

Rut

I have two nicely restored that I might part with.

 

[Rut]

Ray,
Thanks! Please email or pm me with your info.
Best, Rut

 

[jlaird]

Rut, a few coats with sanding of heavy sanding primer will fill the holes.

In fact Miss Agathas were epoxy primer-ed after sand blasting. Amazing what modern paints will/can do.

Too soon to give up.

 

[regularman]

If it is just pits then I would hit them with a coat of good epoxy primer and then something like the Nason high build with many coats, just hitting it over and over as soon as it flashes off(which will be almost immediate) until it is smooth and then your silver basecoat and clear it with several good coats of clear and they should look like new money.

 

[smaceng]

Make sure the wheels are wobble free. I started with 10 BE wheels, and ended up with 5 good ones. Try to stay away from the riveted wheels (1st Gen.), as they may leak and are known to be the least strong. Also, the later BE wheels (3rd Gen) are the strongest, as the brake inspection holes are offset from the "cooling" holes, not in-line line like the 2nd Gen wheels.
Scott in CA
BTW: Does anyone know how to get the hubcaps off without marring the paint?

 

[Rut]

Thanks guys,
I bought 6 wheels with less than 1/32 runout and they were very round. The pitting is so rough I don't see any way to fix them. The shop I use is going to bead blast 1 and see how it looks. I primed one and it looks like crap and I really don't like thick primer/paint on things like wheels where it will be prone to chipping. I'll keep looking and hopefully it will take less than 3 months.
Thanks all, Rut

 

[Rut]

BTW, I'm in S MS (Hattiesburg) for the next 2 days if someone has a lead.
Thanks, Rut

 

[61frogeye]

BTW: Does anyone know how to get the hubcaps off without marring the paint?

Glass shops use a plastic stick (can't remember what it is called) to help put glass in new rubber among other things. They are a great tool to have in your tool box for a lot of jobs and should pop the caps off without scratching the paint. I have a friend who wanted to look at my BE hubcap and just walked up to it and yanked it off the wheel-I am not kidding.

 

[v8mgbal]

I have used POR patch to fill pits on wheels and it worked great. its just POR-15 in a tube but dries hard as a rock.

 

[jlaird]

Rut, do not give up on those wheels. They should be OK for many years to come.

 

[regularman]

I have used POR patch to fill pits on wheels and it worked great. its just POR-15 in a tube but dries hard as a rock.

I second this. If you use the silver por-15 and then top coat it with silver it will be hard as nails. Por-15 is hard like porcelain when it drys and won't be easy to chip or anything else. Even if you scratch the surface paint, the por-15 below will still be silver. The silver is made for filling in holes. Its thicker than the black.

 

[Joel_McGinley]

Rut- I have four early rivited Bugeye wheels (no tires) that have been garage stored- almost no rust and no obvious dings. I used them as "garage wheels" for moving my SCCA HP bugeye around. I could take some photos and send by e-mail (pretty new to this site- might not get them attached.)They would clean up with light sanding- no heavy blasting. I'm in central Florida so shipping wouldn't be too bad. Joel
email joeljane 'at' cfl 'dot" rr dot com

 

[jgrewe]

Been walking around my BE more than working on it this summer. If you're still trying to figure out what to do I'll throw in my 2 cents.

There is a surfacing powdercoat primer called "KL primer". I've used it on some pretty rust pitted parts with great results. It gets cured like a powder top coat but sands like a filler primer. It can be put on thick thick thick in one coat and you will end up rims that look better than new.

It might be a little spendy to have done because it is restoration type coating with the extra sanding labor. I did some stock rims for my RX2 that had a few little spots that were pitted and after screwing up the color coat I found the stuff nearly impossible to sandblast off(2 coats of powder: primer and color)I ended up getting special powdercoat stripper to finally do it over.

That rough surface would probably give the powder some extra 'tooth' to grab onto.