Blasted Wheels

[PaulRB]

Had mine blasted and powder coated at http://www.rugbypowdercoating.co.uk/
Thought they did OK

[billwill]

Hmm, I've had no reply to a request for quote from the firm that I found on the Internet that does grit blasting and zinc spraying, so I'm still looking for a possible supplier of this service.

Anybody know any possibles?

Ah just noticed paul's post above, I'll include them in a request.

[el-saturn]

the first corrosion attack starts as soon as the corrosive surface gets air and humidity contact, so once blasted give the wheel a light coating with any acrylic canned paint. you can "wash" it of with aceton e.f.! when you get em painted! otherwise you'll have the same job twice as stated above sandy - hit some rain today, kept the top down

[billwill]

Rugby Powder said they wanted them in a pre-blasted state and recommended a Coventry firm to do the blasting, so that kinda puts me off.

I've had two quotes of ?50 per wheel and one of ?70 per wheel, these are for blasting, Zinc spraying and powder coat or two-part paint.

~~~~

The guys I used for my MOTs, pulled the old spiked tyres off my old 'winter' rims for me today (shows how old that winter set was) and also, I've pulled down the rim off my garage wall that I thought I had bent badly back in 1978 and it doesn't look too bad at all, so I'll ask my MOT bods to spin it on their balancer & see if it is bent and whether they can straighten it.

So it may well be that I will be sending a full set of 5 for blasting, zincing & powdering.

[elanfan1]

I'm no engineer but I think you might want to get the opinion of a few others here who perhaps are with regard to my thoughts on zinc spraying:

You are essentially adding a thin layer of metal over the front rear and inner surfaces of the wheels - it might not add very much weight at all but surely you are relying on the skills of a guy who perhaps doesn't normally spray stuff where it matters so critically that the layers are even. I wonder but don't profess to know whether there is potential that you could be adding some imbalance to the wheels if there is a thicker coat in one area and a thin one opposite???

[billwill]

I abandoned zinc dip idea, because the zinc dip people said that zinc accumulates on the lower parts as the component is lifted from the bath of molten zinc.

However I am confident that the possible amount of imbalance to be caused by zinc spraying will be far less than the possible existing imbalance of the rim manufacture and of any paint processes and it will be well within the scope of the normal process of balancing wheels with clip on lead weights.

From the supplier responses it seems that Zinc spraying of wheels is apparently a common process.

[billwill]

I now feel a bit of an idiot. I took my old spare wheel rim down off the wall where I had put it, way back in 1978 because I thought it was bent. Then I compared it to my other four that my local garage had kindly removed the old tyres and became convinced that the old rim was not in fact bent at all. So I mentioned it to the garage (who had offered that perhaps their tyre press could straighten wheels).

However this week, looking at that rim from a different angle I do now see that it is bent a little inwards in a way that I did not spot when looking downwards at one wheel atop another lying on their sides.

Sigh, it would be nice to get this one cleaned, zinced and painted too, so does anyone know a firm that straightens steel wheels? All I find by Google are firms that do alloy wheels.

[billwill]

After deep thought I have abandoned having steel wheels blasted, zinced and painted as it would be a significant portion of money near the cost of alloy wheels instead.

So I ordered some Revolution Wheels allow wheels 5 inch wide by 13 inch dia drilled & machined to suit the lotus Knock On hub. They arrived today and I'm now awaiting delivery of 4 rainexpert tyres 145/80R13 from Germany, which for mystery reasons are routed via Oldbury in the midlands.

More details will follow on my Allow wheel topic later .
lotus-suspension-f42/alloy-wheels-for-t41625.html

[ericbushby]

Bill, I am sure your new wheels will be excellent. I have heard that changing to new alloy wheels can transform the ride with no vibration or wobble.
For others though, have you noticed that Sue miller is taking orders for another batch of new steel wheels for Elans. Plus twos possibly coming later. This is according to her advert in the April issue of the Club Lotus magazine.
Eric in Burnley
1967 S3SE DHC

[Donels]

Too late for you now, but you could have tried 'Cold Galvanising'. This is a high zinc content spray paint that is reputed to be nearly as good as the real thing. I have just stripped my galvanised chassis, fitted 30 odd years ago, and where the PO had damaged the coating rust has occurred. Stripped the damaged areas back the base metal and sprayed with the Cold Galvanising paint. I let you know in few years if it works!

Incidentally I was in a local industrial supplies unit earlier this week and a contractor was buying several cans. He tells me that they spray paint galvanised steel when they damage the coating to drill holes etc.

[billwill]

I knew about zinc paints, we used to spray our sub-aqua tanks with it on a repaint job.