40 year old mag rims

[Michael Rand]

OK folk, having just bought a full set of original Brabham BT40 rims I am in urgent need of advice.
When I ran my own BT40 in 1974-5-6 I was less than a fan of these rims, they are unique and especially the rears offer up a huge expanse of wheel that when polished are absolutely gorgeous.
I was never terribly cosmetic oriented [key the off stage laughter...] but for this ex-Duclos 2 time National Championship winning car [1973 and 1974] they deserve to be nice.
I bought this set from apexspeeder Douglas Brenner, they just got here and are precisely as represented. That said, they are repulsive even by my admittedly loose standards.
So, where to start ?
Media blast to get the surface crud off first ?
A couple appear to have been painted a long time ago, not a bad idea, but counter to what I have in mind.
They seem sound enough but I am doubtful they are raceable but I have a good set of Chevron style rims that will do the job as well as a set of BBS maybe for rains.
Hell, I would hire a strong backed youth to spend the needed weeks to get them beautiful !
Barring that I will one at a time attack these wheels as time allows and when they see the light of day they will astound everyone.
Now, how do I get them to that state ?
Any and all suggestions and experiences welcome.
Mechanical equipment needed, electric drills and/or bodywork type wheels etc can be purchased, various pastes and waxes and shiners, all that stuff, what works and where do I get it ?
Many thanks in advance to the vastly experienced and helpful apexspeed community.
The car is beautiful and deserves a shiney set of original unique rims.

[Ralph Z.]

While you are a long way from polishing those rims with all the prep required, I am currently using Mother's Aluminum Polish with great results. File that away for later.

[stonebridge20]

Rand, if they are either centerlock or 4.5" 4 lug, your welcome to come to my shop and polish them on my lathe. I made fixtures that fit in the back side of my lathe for mounting wheels on for polishing. Flick the switch on, polish rag in one hand and your dink in the other as usual. Call me and I can walk you through it. Not the dink part though.

[Purple Frog]

Did I miss the announcement of the apocalypse having occurred?

Rand worrying about what his wheels look like? At the 2013 Runons he about fainted when I started cleaning his car.

Be very careful with blasting. It can ruin stuff in a heartbeat.
Typical hardware store paint remover will probably boil off the old paint. Try a small amount on the inside of the rim before proceeding.

Then load the wheels, ice, vodka, red solo cups and go to Bethel.

[formulasuper]

Rand, if they are either centerlock or 4.5" 4 lug, your welcome to come to my shop and polish them on my lathe. I made fixtures that fit in the back side of my lathe for mounting wheels on for polishing. Flick the switch on, polish rag in one hand and your dink in the other as usual. Call me and I can walk you through it. Not the dink part though.

Tell us again what goes in the hand without the polishing rag?

[Rick Kirchner]

I had several early 70s FSV Panasports polished (rim only) with the centers painted. I also had a set of nasty FC OZs that needed something done, so I opeted for polish vs paint.

I'd try a very light media blast - either very fine glass at low pressure (last resort) or plastic or walnut shells. What I think would work best though would be soda blast.

then a big-ass bar of rouge (truck stop polish shop). There are a couple of online polish supply houses - even Eastwood - and someone there could probably give the best advice WRT the types of wheels and buffs required.

After the rouge I finish up with the blue stuff of your favorite brand (flitz, etc) and then a coat of paste wax - which will dull the finish but drastically reduce your future workload.

OBTW - if water of any acidic or basic level of PH hits the surface it will turn black before you can scream "NOOOO!" I try not to handle the tires and rims without gloves because sweaty hands might as well be battery acid. That goes for the watery exhaust of your die grinder as well.

The lathe is a great idea becasue not only will the surface be more consistent but you won't screw up, go high speed in a small localized spot, and risk flashing the mag. Mag's great at sucking the heat away but I'm always amazed at how much is generated with a die grinder and a buff.

[Swift17]

... I'd try a very light media blast - either very fine glass at low pressure (last resort) or plastic or walnut shells. What I think would work best though would be soda blast. ...

I happened to be by a restoration shop - and they were working on a Ferrari Sports Racer with "mag" wheels - their suggestion is just what Rick K said BUT they limited their answer to "...soda..." blast only -in a push - walnut shells at VERY LOW pressure ... they said otherwise the other media create heat and other "problems" ............

[Michael Rand]

Thanks for the as ever great advice from all, well, maybe except for PF !
Really, thanks to everyone, I'll follow p way later this year with a report.

[RussMcB]

Why aren't there pictures in this thread?!

[stonebridge20]

Why aren't there pictures in this thread?!

If Rand shows up in my shop, I'll get you those pictures.

[Purple Frog]

Author is technology challenged. He has just recently figured out how to turn over the tape in his answering machine.

[chrisw52]

Why aren't there pictures in this thread?!

My thoughts exactly...

[TED K.]

Aside from all the chatter about cleaning and polishing, Mag is very suceptibile to Inter Granular Corrrosion. Suggest you also consider having them inspected- dye penetrant or magnaflux or ?. It would be a shame to have them crack after all that polishing.

TedK.

[Purple Frog]

The stagecoach arrived in Florida today. Rand sent pictures.

[Gokart Mozart]

Good luck!

[Gokart Mozart]

Those are going to be absolutely gorgeous when finished!

[iamuwere]

Mr. Rand, those rims are hotness (once you get the skanky off of them).

[Michael Rand]

The Late Charlie [Chuck] Dietrich kept his BT40 wheels absolutely gorgeous and none of us could figure out how.
Or why !
No enclosed trailers in the early-mid 1970's, so you get them all polished up beautiful at home then drag the car on your open trailer 300-900 miles through whatever the weather was to get to the next race.
How Chuck managed to keep the pretty was beyond me.
And many of us just gave up the fight !
Lots of painted wheels in time, as several of these are.
Polishing wheels just took time away from other more pressing needs, I leave it to the reader to figure out what those things may have been circa 1970-1980 !
Thanks for all the input, in time I will get photos of the finished product to share......

[formulasuper]

Using a lathe is definitely the way to go, will cut your labor down exponentially & get a perfect, better than new, finish. Let the machine do the work, not your arm.

[pooch776]

Hi Mike, Congrats on purchasing the ex Ken Duclos BT40. I have to disagree with the idea of polishing your mag wheels. The outer lip maybe but that would be it. Just too much of a PIA to maintain to say nothing of the threat of pitting/corrosion. I would blast them, have them crack tested and finished using either dichromate (the original Dow #7 finish used in period for most mag racing parts), Keyfos (modern finish used by some indy car teams) or paint them with flat black DP epoxy primer. John Rodgers use to dichromate mag wheels but I am not sure if he still does. Dichromate and Keyfos have the benefit of allowing you to crack test them without having to re-strip them. Epoxy paint gives you a similar look and does a good job of preventing corrosion but you have to re-strip them to do any future crack testing. One nice thing about using flat black epoxy is you can touch them up if necessary. I have used all three of these finishes on mag parts. I dont think you can go wrong with any of them. One other thought would be to powder coat them flat black. I have never done this before but I recently started using a local Powder coater (Bonehead Powder coating) and a large part of their business is powder coating alloy wheels. Cheers, Joe

[DanW]

The other alternative is Alodine on mag.

It is a chromate conversion process. The two most common are Alodine 1201 for alu or Alodine 5900 for mag. Make sure you use the appropriate protective equipment, including respirator, gloves, goggles.

http://www.henkelna.com/product-sear...=8797998120961

http://www.henkelna.com/product-sear...=8797998120961

[Michael Rand]

Hey Joe,
You are spot on my friend, they are getting a cleaning and light media blast then crack testing/\.
All being well keyfos would be the final step, nice black rims like many cars around the world use these days.
Having had a BT40 with these rims back in the day I can well remember the hours spent in vain trying to keep them beautiful.
Worth the effort for maybe a day......
Prefer at least a shiny finish to flat though....

[Steve Demeter]

Chuck once told me and showed me his rather large bag of generic simichrome polish acquired at Odd Lots that he used to keep all his shiny metal parts shiny. Elbow grease helped.

And as those who knew Chuck, know that he was extremely thrifty.

[Charles Warner]

If you paint the wheels do not paint the areas where the retaining cone mates to the wheel surface. Soon the wheel nuts will be coming loose due to the movement of the paint on the surface. Kefos or dichromate is the answer.

[pooch776]

If you are not a big fan of flat black and looking for more of a satin finish then Kefos is your answer. I think I used Keco in Indianapolis. Joe

[flat tappet]

Hey Joe,
You are spot on my friend, they are getting a cleaning and light media blast then crack testing/\.
All being well keyfos would be the final step, nice black rims like many cars around the world use these days.
Having had a BT40 with these rims back in the day I can well remember the hours spent in vain trying to keep them beautiful.
Worth the effort for maybe a day......
Prefer at least a shiny finish to flat though....

Last time I saw one of your wheels...it was passing you between 2 and 3 at LRP, into the woods!!

[Michael Rand]

Yes, my fix it when it breaks maintenance method caught up with me that day !
But made it back for the next session if my ever more failing memory serves.....
Damn good thing it is a Crossle, the Boy Scout of FF, brave, helpful, honest, not clean in my case, but you get it.....