Can I save these wheels??

I have a set of Keystone wheels, not sure what kind or year. They are pretty rusty, but they do fit my 5 on 5 wheel pattern.

Couple of questions:

1. I know the outer portion is chrome, but are the spokes and center portion supposed to be chrom as well? If not, painted?

2. Best way to clean and restore them?

 

Maybe steel wool will clean up the outers, but they wont be perfect without a rechrome. The centers look aluminum.

 

MAYBE some Naval Jelly will help, but they look pretty beat. Cool wheels, though.

 

Spectra chrome - They will look like new! @$400

 

The best way to restore those wheels is to take them apart, the problem with that is do you have the right stuff to put back together? The outers are steel and the spokes are aluminum.

 

talk to the wheel kid ,he said he can take my radirs apart and rechome them

 

Try to brillo the **** outta the rims, clean up the centers and either polish, clearcoat, or spray 'em dark magnesium gray. I have a set of the cheesy 70s Keystone Kl***ics on my Barracuda. Sure, they look like mullet rims normally, but my enters were peeled so bad, I stripped them and painted them with the VHT cast iron finish. I constantly get asked what kind of rims they are. 10 times better looking than when they came out of the factory!

 

Those are kl***ics!! Save them!!!

 

Bead blast the poo out em. Paint them to look like magnesium. They will look good enough until you can get them rechromed....

 

Nothing short of rechroming will remove the pits where the rust color is coming from but I have used "Naval Jelly" to remove the rust stains on top of the chrome. You can probably make them into decent 15 footers. I like it because it does not scratch any of the remaining chrome. If it isn't too bad you will end up with a bunch of small pits in the chrome without the rusty color. You'll need to keep them waxed to keep it from coming back. If the chrome is peeling then you are SOL.

It's not a magic bullet that removes the rust on contact but with a little elbow grease it will make them look a hell of a lot better. I put it on and let it cook for a few hours. I used an artist's oil painting brush with short stiff bristles to work on the stains. Only you can tell if that is good enough for your tastes.

 

They look a little too far gone for steel wool to me. I like them though.

 

Send them to Jimmy to have them restored/rehooped--those are bad***!!

 

Here's what they started out like . . .

 

I think they are cool too.. You don't have to rechrome them, if the centers are aluminum or magnesium you could polish them and maybe paint the rings with a silver base / clear or possibly powder coat them. you could also use the mothers power ball for alot of the clean up after the heavy stuff is taken care of.

 

This is the eternal problem with chromed wheels whether composites with aluminum center or just plain chromed reverses. I have the reverses on the 57 and can't/don't keep 'em clean as they should be. The composite wheels on the T roadster have grey-painted round 5-spoke centers with chrome rims and are also a big pain in the ****.

 

Anyone have any pictures of wheels they have painted the magnesium color? Either part or whole. If I sand/soda blasted the wheels, would that take the chrome off too?

Might look cool to keep chrome exterior and redo aluminum center with magnesium paint.

Thanks for all your help.

 

Soon as I can dig some stuff out of the way in the garage, I'll get you that picture.

 

I have a pair of Hollywood Wheel Disc 15 x 5's with the 5 x 5 1/2" bolt pattern that were chromed wheels with cast aluminum centers. The chrome was really bad, so I blasted the entire wheel, masked the center and painted the chrome portion of the wheel. Here it is:

 

not EXACTLY the same wheel but close. take a closer look...

i've never seen sandblasting actually remove chrome, and i've tried it with a big mutha professional pressure post set up. yer gonna have to have them chemically stripped.


...i wanna see them with the chrome outers and mag-grey centers. i never liked that wheel personally but that finish combo intrigues me.

 

media blast'em and powdercoat. Sweet.

 

Here's what they looked like when new.

 

Awesome pics! I am going to media blast them and then powdercoat them. Still debating on the color though. Thinking of doing a metal flake silver outer with a darker grey interior. Anyone have any other pics of two tone wheels.

They have a chrome colored powder but was told it turns out more like stainless than chrome. Any pics of powdercoat chrome color?

 

I'm in the same boat. I have a pair of the old-style ones that are just starting to peel. Still debating on what to do with them. Stripping the old chrome off the centers is a good start I suppose; after the centers are cut out of course.

I thought about polishing the tops of the spokes after the chrome is stripped, but I'm not so sure It would work out real well.