I had called a guy in my area that was recommended for old Hondas. When I called him, he said it might run, and not need much done to it. He wanted me to bring it by. The bike needs new tires, they are rotted and flat. Not to mention the rims need to be refinished. If I'm going to put new tires on, I might as well clean up the rims at the same time.
So how to refinish the rims. I'm assuming I can use the old rims ( you never know what you will find until the tires are off), replace the spokes and refinish the hubs.
I want to make the rims look close to original. Would that be stripping the rims and having them chromed?
From what I read, the hubs were polished and a clear lacquer finish was applied. Is that what needs to be done?
Are there any suggestions on what else I should do or think about when restoring the wheels?
Lacing the wheel is its own thread.
More Questions, Now The WheelsRimsOne way to look at it is whether you have more time or more money. If you have plenty of money it is easiest to hand your wheels off to someone to re-chrome rims, etc. But, make sure you know what the cost will be before they get started.
I have limited time and money for my bikes. I don't plan to follow the show circuit. I just want the best looking bikes I can get that I will ride a few times a week on shorter trips. For my purposes, I like to keep things original whenever I can. It means living with some patina. I have spent a LOT of hours with Flitz, rags and my rims. I even tried putting the whole wheel in a "tank" I made (top off of the salt tank of my water softener) with 3 gallons of Rust Dissolver. Chrome came out well with almost all of the rust gone. Aluminum hubs were very improved, too. None of my rims had a lot of rust to begin with, but there is some minor pitting. The spokes seemed to dull-up some from this treatment so I am not sure if I recommend it. But, getting the rim de-rusted on the tube side is worth something. Maybe I will try putting just the rim down in the Rust Dissolve instead of the whole wheel. The main point here is that Flitz will do an amazing job at bringing chrome back, even when you have advanced surface rust. It will never fix a big pit or lifting chrome. But I have been amazed with about everything else. Even stubborn "bumps" of rust can be removed. It will usually leave a small pinhole, but most people will never get close enough to see it. It requires a lot of patience and lots of elbow grease. I find I normally have to treat an area 2-3 times on the rims. It gets better each time you put the Flitz on and let it work. I have even used Flitz on those dull spokes. They are a little more time consuming and usually take 4-5 treatments each. But, most of my spokes came out as shiney as chrome. A few are more stubborn. Mostly, the difficult ones wore me out, but I plan to go back and hit them again this winter. You can get a lot done while watching a football game or movie. I saved an old electric toothbrush to get down in the tight spots. The benefits are dramatically reduced cost ($20 for Flitz) and you have the original wheel with no dis-assembly/re-assembly/balancing. I also do this because it is therapeutic for me to bring something back to life that looked like it couldn't be done. I enjoy investing some of myself in my bikes. Below is the result. Sorry for the grainy picture. I am no photographer.
If you are going to take the wheel completely apart, instead of buying new spokes, you might want to try and polish the old steel spokes with a polishing wheel and ruge. I just completed a set and they came out like shiny stainless steel. Only takes 5 minutes or so per spoke and absolutely looks great. Will try to add a picture shortly to show the difference.
I am having the rim re-chromed and the hubs polished. When the hubs get back, will put a clear coat on them as original. Tic
I suspect that now that the zinc plating is removed you will have very rusty spokes in the future. ......lm
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