renovating wheels? refurbish old or buy new?

[nickclifford]

hey all,
I just got my baby into a vintage trailer rally and want to refurbish the rusty wheels ... my question is:
A. refurb original wheels, about $100.00 each for sandblasting and coating (i have to incur cost of buying a heavy duty jack, and stands + removing and replacing the tires).
B. Buy new rims !

I'm missing a hub anyway, originals are thrashed .. thinking I'll go with solid black. Best place to buy rims?

any thoughts ? much appreciated

[nickclifford]

maybe I just answered my own question... 6 bolt, could this work ?

https://www.vintagetrailersupply.com...-p/vts-545.htm

[68 TWind]

I ordered a VTS black wheel for my spare. Good quality and nice coating.
My wheels have the clips for the old baby moon hub caps, the VTS wheels do not have the clips so I had to refurb my wheels myself. It took about a day per wheel to clean, sand and paint. I will brag, after 6 years they still look great.

[TheGreatleys]

Those are the rims I'm running on my 74 overlander. I also have the shiny dome hubcaps, also from VTS. Look great, no complaints.

If you're buying new rims anyway, it would be a good time to consider whether you want to go to 16" rims so you can run Michelin truck tires like some folks do. I did not, got the 15s and Maxxis M8008s, but the choice is yours and now is the time.

[xrvr]

Etrailer has wheels, bought my wheels for my Avion from them.

[jimfa440]

I have 4 Alcoa aluminum 15" wheels with good Maxxis tires taken from my 2000 Excella. I went to 16" wheels and Michelin tires. PM me if you are interested.
Thanks
Jim

[tjdonahoe]

Originally Posted by nickclifford

hey all,
I just got my baby into a vintage trailer rally and want to refurbish the rusty wheels ... my question is:
A. refurb original wheels, about $100.00 each for sandblasting and coating (i have to incur cost of buying a heavy duty jack, and stands + removing and replacing the tires).
B. Buy new rims !

I'm missing a hub anyway, originals are thrashed .. thinking I'll go with solid black. Best place to buy rims?

any thoughts ? much appreciated

I have 4 aluminum wheels and tires from my '13 classic....as I replaced them with 16"....

[supercubep]

You can take your steel rims to Les Schwab. They will bead blast your rims and powder coat them in the color of your choice. Around $30 per rim, 7 days to do the job.

[Klatawa]

one thing to check is the back side of the wheels and look for the max air pressure stamped on the wheel. You may be spending a lot of money on the referb and find the tires you want to use exceed the max air pressure. I know the tires I am using are 80 Psi max. Just some thing you might want to check out.

Here is the route we took with wheels: our Tradewind had the original split rims so I check into purchasing 4 new wheels. What I found is the cost of the steel wheels and shipping then all of the paint supplies to paint the wheels was only five dollars less a wheel to purchase aluminum wheels from Les Schuab. This also saved me time from painting them.

Good luck with you project Dave

[nickclifford]

Originally Posted by supercubep

You can take your steel rims to Les Schwab. They will bead blast your rims and powder coat them in the color of your choice. Around $30 per rim, 7 days to do the job.

Ok.. great to know, seems like a deal.. I'm torn between news rims and upgraded Michelin tires or refurb old rims and keep existing tires for a few more years. I recall reading that tires should be changed every 4-5yrs regardless of mileage ? Mine have done very little mileage and about 3 yrs old, they classic entry level tires from China. I could do without the expense of new tires.

[nickclifford]

Originally Posted by Klatawa

one thing to check is the back side of the wheels and look for the max air pressure stamped on the wheel. You may be spending a lot of money on the referb and find the tires you want to use exceed the max air pressure. I know the tires I am using are 80 Psi max. Just some thing you might want to check out.

Here is the route we took with wheels: our Tradewind had the original split rims so I check into purchasing 4 new wheels. What I found is the cost of the steel wheels and shipping then all of the paint supplies to paint the wheels was only five dollars less a wheel to purchase aluminum wheels from Les Schuab. This also saved me time from painting them.

Good luck with you project Dave

I don't run tires at max PSI .. being that I have four wheels to carry 5500lbs decided to run at about 55psi each.

[LSP]

Evening Nick! My name Is Lorn. I was wondering if you still had those tires and rims? What where you wanting for them? We just purchased a 1966 land yacht project and need to get it moving again. Let me know and thanks!

[nickclifford]

Originally Posted by LSP

Evening Nick! My name Is Lorn. I was wondering if you still had those tires and rims? What where you wanting for them? We just purchased a 1966 land yacht project and need to get it moving again. Let me know and thanks!

still on the trailer, long story but couldn't get them off in time for trailer rally, so leaving on for now. I'm probably going to keep and have sandblasted anyways ..

[LSP]

Originally Posted by nickclifford

still on the trailer, long story but couldn't get them off in time for trailer rally, so leaving on for now. I'm probably going to keep and have sandblasted anyways ..

Thanks for the response! I just went the same way and had mine sandblasted and powder coated.Have a great weekend!

[nickclifford]

Originally Posted by supercubep

You can take your steel rims to Les Schwab. They will bead blast your rims and powder coat them in the color of your choice. Around $30 per rim, 7 days to do the job.

cost per rim was actually about $55.00 with tax ! they look great though, I'll post some pics