Tampa 928s

Three out of four are leaking air around the lips of the rim before I remove them I need to know how to address this.
It was pointed out when I bought the car that the inside lips needed to be sanded; is that the best way to do this? The weird looking rim is due to me sanding it trying to get rid of the pitting, coming out not very OK
Also I want to refinish the rims and not spend a ton of money. I just spoke to the wheel finisher and he said they were originally powder coated. My options , powder coat $100-$125 per wheel including cleaning up the lip or paint them.
For what I have read due to the pitting damage, I have mixed results with powder coating but painting and using a non-sanding primer will cover the defects. Any feed back!

Angel84-928

You could media blast them which would be easier than sanding then, as you stated, primer & paint if you don't want to spend the cash on Powder coating.

Larry Velk

Boy, am I ever an 'expert' at this issue. We've owned some 8 or 9 Merkurs which have German (probably Ronal) cast Al wheels. They are the world's best wheels - super light, excellent balance, and true as a laser, but... the paint on them is for crap and wheel weights cause a super corrosion problem - the corrosion creeps under the plastic paint and they leak badly. Here's what you need to do:
Take them to a blaster/painter. I don't care if you fill your own cavities - you don't want to refinish wheels. I've done these every way possible and the only real fix is a complete blast and refinish followed by adhesive weights only. The last time I painted them myself after a media blast. This is a compromise to save some money, but painting wheels is really quite hard to do (I used single stage to color ppg). You might be able to get them done at $50. per wheel. The Merkur wheels often balance without any weights.
BTW, I had my manholes stripped and re-anodized and they turned out OK. but too dark due to the guys trying to do a better job and double-dipping them.
No sense in being obsessed with wheels and then doing a half-assed job.

soupcan

How old are the tires? Maybe the leaks are related to the tires moe than the wheels. Tires that have been sitting flat for years never seem to seat on the bead very well. If you are really concerned with the wheels sealing after you have the cleaned try coating the bead with Indian Head Shellac Gasket Compound. The guys use it at work and I have yet to see it not work on a leaking bead. If you are going to be in Old Town on the 29th I can give you a bottle.

JHowell37

Those wheels are not that old. It seems very strange for them to be in such poor condition. I would not sand around the inside lip of the wheel as I would think that it would only make the problem worse.

Tampa 928s

Zeus called and he has a lot of experience in wheels and suggested the following:
Cut out a large piece of cardboard tracing the tire cutting out the rim potion, use a Scotch bright pad #07480 on my die grinder go over the inner lip, have the rim excluding the lip Glass beaded. When done lightly paint the rims and and take to get the tires mounted but do not fill the tires up, place the cardboard over the tires and paint with a classic silver flex paint then fill the tires with air. The front tires are new and one rear is leaking at various spots around the lip. The wheel was electroplated before and reversed electroplated to remove the gold finish.
Sounds like a plan to me!
I'll let you know how this goes.

tailpipe

its a little redneck but if u clean the rim where the tire goes put black or clear silicone on the rim where the bead sits then mount and fill the tire it will not leak use black or clear silicone so u can't see it when the tire is mounted and if u r going in a demo derby use window uryethane( don't know how to spell it and i'm not running down to find out) for windshields it will bond the tire right to the rim its a bitch to get off after and almost impossible to drive off the rim in a collision

Steve Tacheny

I have a can of bead sealer here at work. It says right on the can that it is specifically made to seal bead leaks. I've used it a # of times on squads and various other wheel and it works well. It's made by "Tech International" (hope that was ok to post. If not, sorry). It does make the tire tough to dismount though

Steve