EXPERTS PANEL
"Wheels - In my restoration
of a 1964 4/4, I am considering powder coating the wire wheels.
Would you recommend this or suggest an alternate?
Thanks,
Keith McIver
Bill Fink
Keith,
I don't know the cost of powder coating, but to do it
properly the wheels would need to be disassembled, reassembled, tuned,
etc. It strikes me that new chrome plated wheels would be a better idea,
as you would then have new wheels instead of 36 year old wheels, with
a nice finish.
Bill Fink
Isis Imports Ltd.
Melvyn Rutter
Greetings,
A proper blast and powder coat is fine, although on old
wire wheels, they have to be checked for spoke tightness and see if they
run true first.
Regards Melvyn Rutter
Greg Solow
Wheels can be safely powder coated. dics wheels cannot.
the powder coating is flexible and the wheels can crack and the cracks
will not be apparent until it is to late.
Regards, Greg Solow
Rusted Chrome Wire Wheels
by the GoMoG Webmaster
These
are wise warnings..something I have seen over the last 30 years of
hearing and helping with 1000s of Morgan Trad problems. Though I adore
chrome wire wheels, they have big drawbacks and watchpoints. In no
special order:
1. Wire wheels, depending on their strength (dictated in part by the number of spokes) and inherent quality need re-truing every 10-20 thousand miles. Powder coated wheels cannot be retrued as the coating prevents that.
In my experience with my own and other wire wheeled car, not being able
to true wire wheels will reduce their effective longevity by 80+%.
| WATCHPOINT I It is often and wrongly assumed that polished metal is an aesthetic choice only. WRONG! Polished
metal resists rusting. It is infinitely more durable than paint or
unpoloished metal..which will always fail you, which always fail you,
stainless steel or not. Even the
later stainless steel used by the Factory after 1995, (bulkhead and
engine bay) stains. The Factory would not pay the pittance more to have
it polished. I have even seen such Morgan stainless panels rust in
extreme climates combined with a lack of care! All proper wire wheel sellers switched to stainless spokes
decades ago. I use MWS ALL-Stainless wire wheels. Everything is SS, both
spokes and the rims themselves. I have had them all re-trued 4 times (100$ cdn for all
of them) until I began retruing them myself. See the relevant articles in the Wheels Index. I
have had them for 23 years and 110,000 kms. |
2.
The logical (proper) way is to completely disassemble them, sandblast them, true them, then
paint them as Bill Fink advised above. Anything else is an exercise
in sad frustration over time. The cost and hassles of this 
makes it always cheaper and wiser to buy them new. Forever
shiny wheels, are possible, the all-ss sort, but their cost is 3-4
times what a chromed set will cost, Figure 1000£ each rim excluding
shipping & handling...and more than that difference
when compared with coated or painted wheels. In my humble opinion
as well, painted wire wheels are best painted (I find many
of these quite lovely) or if you want to stretch your wallet
much more, all-stainless. Painted wires can always be easily re-painted
at home and polished stainless is forever. ANYTHING in between these
two methods will always disappoint and upkeep is tedious.
Outside of re-tuning them every 20k, I have never done anything to
my polished stainless wheels aside from regularly use a 1400 psi
pressure hose on them, inside and out.
WATCHPOINT
II Both MWS and Dayton wire wheels, even if they have
stainless spokes, will have rusting rims if those rims are not made of
all-stainless AND this will happen very quickly if the subject cars are left outside and not regularly driven. Rain
water pools at their low point and causes rust within a couple of years. Trust me, I know what I am talking about. :(
|
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