Has anyone tried soda blasting wire wheels and hubs?

JimEd · New Member Joined: Jul 31, 2009 Posts: 7

I have a set of spoke wheels with a small amount of rust on the spokes and would like to have the entire assemblies soda blasted to remove the rust, clear coat, etc and give them a satin look.
I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with doing this. Do you think I could leave the bearing in when doing soda blasting?

pumps

My spokes are not the best but cleaned up pretty good. I have heard of some type of strip that you can polish your spokes with. I used 0000 steel wool on my spokes and to remove the clear coat on my front rim. It came out pretty good I think. Just took time. As far as the bearings I think I would remove them. I don't think you could clean the soda out after. UNLESS you taped them up really REALLY good I suppose. See the difference between my front and rear rims. I was quite pleased how it came out.

JimEd · New Member Joined: Jul 31, 2009 Posts: 7

It looks like no one has tried soda blasting, so has anyone had their wheels, spokes, and hubs media blasted? I would like to have it done as one piece. I want a brushed or satin look to my wheel assemblies.

AirHog · Full Member Joined: Apr 28, 2009 Posts: 21 Location: IL

I blasted my wheels as one peice. Just tape up the spinning bits. Was good for removing all the scale and rust, but in the end if you want a satin/brushed finish you will have to go over by hand with some scotch bright pads. But once its blasted its real easy to brush it out.

blackwidow

Try naval jelly you can get it at any hardware store that is good for rust romoval

Srinath

Media blasting like using walnut shells will remove only rust and leave chrome intact.
Sand blasting (done with synthetic abrasive 60 grit dust free aluminum oxide) is likely to remove the chrome as well, or pit it rather seriously. Excellent for paint/powder coat to stick, but sucks for leaving it as chrome.
I've not done wheels, but I did exhaust and painted it with 1200F paint.
Cool.
Srinath.

weekendrider

I ran a a case guard through an industrail wheelabrator 3 times and it didn't get all the chrome off. The chrome was harder than I thought. Steel shot medium and 200 psi.

dpmphoto

The only way to rims properly is to unlace them and sand the god awful clear coat off with emery cloth and then sand the rim going through several grades of sandpaper followed by mothers or some other polish. I have tried to sandblast myself and the shits bulletproof.

Mathil

To strip (or even change the look) of chrome you have to at least blast with Aluminum Oxide. I put a piece of chrome through my blast cabinet filled with #8 glass bead and it didn't even touch it. If you're looking for a satin finish on your aluminum pieces, #8 glass bead is THE WAY TO GO. I put badly oxidized pieces in, and they came out looking new. Aside from pitting where the steel spokes had rusted nearby, and in the pockets under the front rotor, they came out smooth as a babies bottom.

dpmphoto

I'm confused now, I thought we where talking about the aluminum rims,there's no chrome on them. All is I know is that the yellowed clear coat is murder to remove,I tried glass when I did it I just don't remember what size but it wouldn't touch it nor would aircraft remover. I ended up taking everything apart and polishing it similiar to the way u do engine cases and they came out like new, only problem is re lacing the rims which is not much fun. I think wire rims are the way to go and it's worth the work they look so much better than mags and actually mags flex too much if your racing vintage.

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