'70/'71 Road Wheel Reference & Resto

[bill440rt]

Just finished up a little side project, restoring a set of '70-dated road wheels. These are the Magnum style wheels that get a trim ring. I started with a very nice set of originals, but they still needed a cosmetic restoration.
I noticed there are quite few differences between road wheels & Magnums. The Magnum 500 wheels have a welded in center, then the wheel is completely chrome plated. Road wheels only have a chrome plated center section, which was then welded into a steel hoop. The hoop is not chrome plated, just bare painted steel. After welding was performed, the outer hoop was then painted black.

You can see this in these pictures. This is a typical wheel of what I started with.
The black paint fades just beyond the weld line. On the front side, the black paint actually extended onto the wheel face & faded with a soft line. It was not masked off leaving a hard edge.
Also, the hoops were painted in gloss black, and the recessed areas were a semi-flat black.

[bill440rt]

My biggest concern during this project was retaining the original chrome on the spokes, because the chrome was in really nice condition. The backsides were flash chrome plated, and the recessed areas rarely received little or any plating at all & rusted quickly.
I needed something that would remove the rust from these recesses, yet not hurt the chrome. Any kind of abrasive blasting was out, and milder blasting would not remove the rust. So, after a bit of research I decided to soak them in an oxalic acid solution. I mixed a mild solution of about 1-2 teaspoons per gallon of water. I found an oil change catch tub that fit the wheel perfectly & used that to soak the wheel in. I first tested it on a spare wheel, & let it soak for several days, with periodic brushing with a brass wire brush. It did not have any ill effects on the chrome, so I started with each wheel.
Each brushing would expose a new layer of light rust, and sped up the process.
After soaking, it removed just about all traces of heavy rust but the bare metal was left discolored. I scrubbed this with some steel wool, metal polish, but it still remained discolored.

Using a small touch up gun as an airbrush, I just spotted in the bare areas with an aluminum colored rust preventative paint. It blended in nicely while providing protection.

   

[bill440rt]

With the backsides done, it was time to concentrate on the hoops. The wheel centers were masked off again front & back and a strip disc on a drill made fast work of removing the old paint & rust.

[bill440rt]

The centers were masked off again, and 2 coats of PPG DP black epoxy primer was applied. They were left to cure for about a week.

The wheels were then scuffed in prep for paint.
To replicate the "soft edges" front & back where they were originally painted black, door jamb foam tape was used. This is basically a foam rope masking material with an adhesive applied, it leaves a nice soft edge instead of a hard line.

[bill440rt]

For paint I used a gloss black urethane from Eastwood. It has a good gloss to it, but not overly glossy like a high end urethane like PPG Deltron or similar. They were given two coats.
You can see the replicated "soft edge" line as well.
The recessed parts are still DP primer, that came next.

[bill440rt]

The wheels were masked off, again. A combination of different width 3M Fine Line tape was used to mask off the spokes to paint the recessed areas. Each wheel took about 20min to mask off. Pretty simple, just tedious.
The recessed areas were painted with SEM Hot Rod black, which was a perfect match.

[bill440rt]

Here they are after unmasking. 

[WHITE AND RED 69]

That's some fine work there Bill     They look great!

Makes me wish I would have held on to my set of road wheels 

[bill440rt]

Hey Clayton, thanks! 

These road wheels are really for my '70 (it's originally coded for road wheels). It had road wheels on it when I bought it, but only 2 of them were original to the car (they are in nice shape, too). I always wanted to have a nice complete set for it, date matched. It took me 3 years to find this set, scouring swap meets, online searches, wanted ads, etc. I ended up finding this set in Queens, NY of all places (actually, they found me, thru a wanted ad I placed). They were sitting in a guy's neighbor's garage, taken off his '70 Challenger back in the early '70's. They were stored ever since. 
They are dated to the year, month, and DAY of what I was looking for. 

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

As usual stunning   Gonna be painful to scratch them up with trim rings

[tan top]

looks good  , nice work 

[fy469rtse]

Bill dont put the trim rings on , love this look with lettering on the tyres,
Charger version of the road runner wheel package , good job ,
Makes me wish I had kept mine 

[Dino]

That's some fine work there Bill     They look great!

Makes me wish I would have held on to my set of road wheels 

Want to buy mine?  I'll have to look up the part numbers again but they look like Bill's.  Shipping might kill it though...

[BananaDan]

Looking good buddy!  I'm very glad you found them.  The epic hunt was tiring me out too!   

[bill440rt]

Looking good buddy!  I'm very glad you found them.  The epic hunt was tiring me out too!   

Who could forget Harlem in the snow! 

[TexasStroker]

Very nice!

[WHITE AND RED 69]

Hey Clayton, thanks!  

These road wheels are really for my '70 (it's originally coded for road wheels). It had road wheels on it when I bought it, but only 2 of them were original to the car (they are in nice shape, too). I always wanted to have a nice complete set for it, date matched. It took me 3 years to find this set, scouring swap meets, online searches, wanted ads, etc. I ended up finding this set in Queens, NY of all places (actually, they found me, thru a wanted ad I placed). They were sitting in a guy's neighbor's garage, taken off his '70 Challenger back in the early '70's. They were stored ever since.  
They are dated to the year, month, and DAY of what I was looking for.  

Finding a wheel with the exact day stamped on it. Talk about a nice find  

That's some fine work there Bill    They look great!

Makes me wish I would have held on to my set of road wheels  

Want to buy mine?  I'll have to look up the part numbers again but they look like Bill's.  Shipping might kill it though...

There is no way they would fit anymore. My rotors are almost bigger than the wheels  

[PlainfieldCharger]

Great find on the dated wheels and even better on the wheel restore. Like the acid trick too. I wonder how strong you could go? Thanks for another great restore thread!

[Dino]

Want to buy mine?  I'll have to look up the part numbers again but they look like Bill's.  Shipping might kill it though...

There is no way they would fit anymore. My rotors are almost bigger than the wheels  
[/quote]

My bad, I forgot you have actual brakes on your car.