Wheel Restoration Recommendations

[BrianX128 107]

So this weekend I decided to restore the "Ugly Duckling" as my wife named one of our riding mowers. Given that our other mowers are all "nice" looking with the exception of the Lawn Rov'r having a seat that is made primarily of duct tape I wasn't super concerned with having this one be "show quality" since it's the mower that is going to be doing the snow blowing, and tilling in spring. It's already 3 different pieces of horses I got from craigslist / fb that were "spare parts" I got in the deals for engines and attachments that I got told by the wife to get rid of and instead spent more money and made an extra mower out of. It's at least nice having said mower because I hate getting the good riding mowers in the mud and snow, but anyways like anything you go to restore the moment I started sanding I couldn't stop and the paint job actually came out really nice. I even lazily sprayed carb cleaner on the axles and got all the grease off and hand sanded them a bit and got everything nice and international harvester rattle can red except under the battery where my horrid nest of wires to make gauges, fuel pumps, lights, voltage regulators, and other stuff happy currently lives. I need to zip tie it all back together you'll get the idea..

 

From this..

 

To this..

 

 

I don't have a picture of the rear discharge deck or the mower with all the tape removed for the decals, and I need new decals as it's not a C161 anymore, but now I'm disgusted with how ugly these rims are after I saw the mower outside with paint and so..

 

I tried to sand those by hand and paint them while on the tractor, I got duct tape around the edge of the rim and hit them with some rusty metal primer first and it's so bad I don't even want to post the picture on here. I tried to do 3 light coats but the paint just doesn't want to stick to anything and streaks. I'm not sure if there is a better paint to try and use for rims or if I should have skipped the primer but I'm thinking I'm going to have to put the mower on jack stands and take the wheels off and figure out some sort of better way to sand them than hand sanding. I wouldn't even care but I'm not trying to leave the wheels look this horrid. I was only trying to hit the visible side of the rims as this thing is going to get dirty often, I need new rear tires on it anyways as these are dry rotted so I may take them off and try a re-do but if anyone has any tips for how to do rims short of sand blasting them I'm all ears.

[ebinmaine 68,887]

Ours are all hand done. 

No blasting. 

Trina will tell you the rims are the "least fun" part to prep. 

 

For the rears I've tried removing them and using various wire brushes while they lay flat. Also tried leaving them on the running tractor - in motion - and sanding both by machine and hand. 

 

I've found a combination of both works best. 

 

Run the wheel in forward speed as fast as it will go. 

Use a drill/grinder/sander to remove the bulk of the rust and old paint. 

Switch over to a small amount of hand sanding to get in some of the deeper spots. 

 

That may be enough. 

 

Wash the wheel with acetone. 

 

Wash the wheel with acetone. 

 

Wash the wheel with acetone. 

 

 

ALL grease oil wax whatever needs to be off. 

 

We've not found Rust-Oleum 2X to perform any better with or without primer given that the surface is clean. 

 

Paint away and let it dry as long as possible before use. 

[BrianX128 107]

I never thought about using the engine to sand the rear wheels, that would help a good bit with the rear wheels. Good idea. I could even rig something on one of my air tools to spin the front wheels to help sanding those.

[lynnmor 7,386]

Call STTC and see if they are affordable. Video

[AMC RULES 37,141]

Being that you have air capabilities, one of these needle scalers may be a better option than sticking your hand into a rotating rim at max rpm.

They do a pretty thorough job and can be had quite cheaply on many of most all of the online sites.

[pfrederi 18,000]

 

I have a sand blast cabinet for wheels and smaller stuff. Frames and the like the needle scaler goes to work...

[BrianX128 107]

4 minutes ago, AMC RULES said:

Being that you have air capabilities, one of these needle scalers may be a better option than sticking your hand into a rotating rim at max rpm.

They do a pretty thorough job and can be had quite cheaply on many of most all of the online sites.

 

I'm embarrassed to say I have one of those amongst all my grandfathers old tools and had no idea what it was for. Always assumed it was a half broken old tool he kept for spare parts. No idea if it still works but 99% of the old tools he had are still kicking so I'm guessing it does. This would definitely help me on the rear wheels in the center.

[AMC RULES 37,141]

Put 15 minutes with this tool into each rim, then a little bit of hand sanding after, and you'll be all set.

Same process that produced these restored wheels you see here.

[ebinmaine 68,887]

34 minutes ago, BrianX128 said:

rear wheels in the center

Definitely. 

 

 

2 minutes ago, AMC RULES said:

Put 15 minutes with this tool into each rim, then a little bit of hand sanding after, and you'll be all set.

Same process that produced these restored wheels you see here.

 

 

The rears on Colossus are off a camper. They were really rough. 

The tool I have is slow and smaller and also not quite enough air flow and even with all that I had about an hour in each wheel and had decent results. 

 

Needle scalers are certainly handy. Just be patient. 

[Pullstart 63,204]

If you have the means to dismount the rubber, e-tank all day long hands down is the easiest way to strip a week to bare metal!

[8ntruck 7,183]

Needle scalers  not only clean, but can be used to make parts more resistant to fatigue failures.

 

If weld repairs in a mower deck cracks are followed up with a needle scaler, the repair is more likely to last longer than just a weld.  The same treatment on transmission mounting plate repairs would also be bennificial.

Edited November 15, 2020 by 8ntruck

[The Tuul Crib 7,338]

I have been using what I called the wheel of death. You don't want to look straight into it only stand back! It stripped it down quick with a 4 inch grinder

[8ntruck 7,183]

 

Notice, the max rated RPM on that wheel looks to be 10,000 RPM.  It is likely to come apart if used in a grinder that runs faster.  Assuming a 4 1/2" diameter, the broken pieces would be moving about 200 feet per second when they come off.

 

[Tractorhead 9,065]

6 minutes ago, 8ntruck said:

 

Notice, the max rated RPM on that wheel looks to be 10,000 RPM.  It is likely to come apart if used in a grinder that runs faster.  Assuming a 4 1/2" diameter, the broken pieces would be moving about 200 feet per second when they come off.

 

 

Personal Safety is allway‘s a good idea on such jobs,

wear gloves and googles is highly recommended.

 

[BrianX128 107]

So I fired up the big compressor and used my "new" tool and put a wire brush attachment on a air based drill chuck and spun the wheels by hand while moving the wire drill in and out. I only did one side of the rims because I'm horribly impatient and wanted to see what it looked like being "done". I'm gonna pop the wheels off this week one at a time and do the other sides but I think it looks great.

 

Edited November 15, 2020 by BrianX128

[Oldskool 6,658]

55 minutes ago, BrianX128 said:

So I fired up the big compressor and used my "new" tool and put a wire brush attachment on a air based drill chuck and spun the wheels by hand while moving the wire drill in and out. I only did one side of the rims because I'm horribly impatient and wanted to see what it looked like being "done". I'm gonna pop the wheels off this week one at a time and do the other sides but I think it looks great.

 

They look great! Looks like I'm to late for any help lol. As I was reading down thru I was gonna go the easy route and say hubcaps 😄

[JoeM 7,874]

18 hours ago, The Tuul Crib said:

wheel of death

Perfect Name!

Good tool, I use one and would recommend a grinder with out a locking trigger! (don't ask) 

[The Tuul Crib 7,338]

2 hours ago, JoeM said:

Perfect Name!

Good tool, I use one and would recommend a grinder with out a locking trigger! (don't ask) 

It is also important to hold the grinder

with both hands!!( dont ask either!)

[Oldskool 6,658]

21 minutes ago, The Tuul Crib said:

It is also important to hold the grinder

with both hands!!( dont ask either!)

Mine sucked in the draw string on my hooded sweatshirt the other day. That will wake a person up I tell ya

[R Scheer 503]

On 11/16/2020 at 12:09 PM, Oldskool said:

Mine sucked in the draw string on my hooded sweatshirt the other day. That will wake a person up I tell ya

Now that would be putting your nose to the grindstone, not sure that's what they meant though.

[RandyLittrell 3,885]

On 11/16/2020 at 11:09 AM, Oldskool said:

Mine sucked in the draw string on my hooded sweatshirt the other day. That will wake a person up I tell ya

Yup! I have a burn scar across my gut from a baggy shirt getting caught in a 7" grinder. Didn't go too deep, but scared the crap outa me!! 

 

 

 

Randy