refurbishing wheels

[viperhauler]

i'm about to have the wheels refurbished on the truck...

should i just paint the inside of the wheels a medium silver color, then CNC the face and clear coat the whole thing?

i'm assuming they came with a cast finish on the insets and machined face from the factory? or were they painted? if so, what's the GM color?

 

[Norm]

Re: refurbishing wheels

I just did mine at work, I stainless blasted the inserts and then cleared over the rim.

 

[viperhauler]

Re: refurbishing wheels

ok, so there should be no actual color (silver) on the inserts? it's raw aluminum? and the face is machined?

 

[ChiPhoon]

Re: refurbishing wheels

i thought inserts were painted on stockers?

 

[Sy1192]

Re: refurbishing wheels

Subscribed.

I'm in the process of having my wheels done and wondering the same about the color (or lack thereof).

 

[Norm]

Re: refurbishing wheels

Not sure about stockers original color, mine were not painted, they were raw, and just left them the same. The one thing I don't know is the correct length of valve stems. We have 2 lengths at work, one is really short so adding air later on would be a real pain, and the other one the stem sticks out about 1 1/2 inches. Trying to find a stem so it is close to flush.

 

[Sy1192]

Re: refurbishing wheels

My truck came with those GM valve stem extensions.
Black plastic with the white plastic inner.

I'm assuming that's original?
Short stem with the extension that puts it just past the face of the wheel.

 

[viperhauler]

Re: refurbishing wheels

Sy,
Looks like we are doing the same thing...
I saw an Argent/machined wheel they were doing and the centers looked much darker so I don't think that's it...
It seems like they were just left bare cast in the center pieces and then just machined and I don't even think cleared from the factory...

Side note: my center caps also have red on them on the back...

Surely somebody here can say for sure??

 

[Norm]

Re: refurbishing wheels

I think Syclones had the GMC in red, Typhoons were in cast/raw color.

 

[Sy1192]

Re: refurbishing wheels

I think Syclones had the GMC in red, Typhoons were in cast/raw color.

Sounds right.

My GMC has to be the original color.
Shiny version of the red on the back of the cap.

 

[fauXGT]

Re: refurbishing wheels

I do believe they were all cleared from the factory. I've had a mix and match of wheels, and all had a clear. When I refinished mine, I put Por-15 clear on. With the harsh chemical/salts on the roads, the raw aluminum will tarnish and discolor/stain and pit w/o constant polishing and a protective coating/wax of some sort.

 

[Captain Morgan]

Re: refurbishing wheels

all 4 sets of wheels I have right now have argent/silver/gray paint in both the turbine inserts and the GMC script in the wheels, they are NOT left raw and clearcoated.

 

[viperhauler]

Re: refurbishing wheels

thank you!
that's helpful.
at this point, I think we'll pick a medium GM silver and go from there...

 

[fivetodrive]

Re: refurbishing wheels

Dave would you trade or sell me that 3-21-91 wheel? I'd love to hang it on my wall! Especially since its my birthday and crispy's birthday!

 

[Sy1192]

Re: refurbishing wheels

I agree with Morgan. All holes had 'argent' in them. I have a fairly nice original finish wheel with a 3-21-91 date, so it is a Syclone wheel, and it has the same argent and clear powder coat as Typhoon wheels. the color was sprayed before the surface was machined. The inner structure was welded to the hoop after the surface machining. The entire wheel was powder clear coated as the final step.

The Syclone center caps were painted red before the machining. The caps were on racks for painting in such a way that the backs of them got over sprayed when the face of the opposite cover on the rack was being sprayed. They were machined after the red paint was applied, then powdered clear coated.
I have never noticed any 'color' on the backs of Typhoon caps, so perhaps the cap letters were raw on Typhoons. I don't currently have any original-finish Typhoon caps to look at. I would be surprised if the cap letters had color in them prior to machining like the Syclones did with their red. Leaving the letters raw would have saved a lot of labor. On a couple of sets I've reconditioned, by the time I got done, the letters were pretty dark, even though I didn't do anything to them.

Look at the backsides of Typhoon caps. If the letters were painted prior to machining, there should be evidence of the color on the backs of them. I've never noticed any, but that doesn't mean a lot. I haven't worked with nearly as many Ty's as I have Sy's.

Exactly what I needed to know. :tup:

Thanks, DaveP!

 

[dgoodhue]

Re: refurbishing wheels

To me it seems like the typhoon 'GMC' is painted on the center caps. I have a NOS sealed center cap and a couple low mile original finish center caps. After the snow melts and my garage become accessible again I will do a closer inspection.

 

[viperhauler]

Re: refurbishing wheels

I agree with Morgan. All holes had 'argent' in them. I have a fairly nice original finish wheel with a 3-21-91 date, so it is a Syclone wheel, and it has the same argent and clear powder coat as Typhoon wheels. the color was sprayed before the surface was machined. The inner structure was welded to the hoop after the surface machining. The entire wheel was powder clear coated as the final step.

The Syclone center caps were painted red before the machining. The caps were on racks for painting in such a way that the backs of them got over sprayed when the face of the opposite cover on the rack was being sprayed. They were machined after the red paint was applied, then powdered clear coated.
I have never noticed any 'color' on the backs of Typhoon caps, so perhaps the cap letters were raw on Typhoons. I don't currently have any original-finish Typhoon caps to look at. I would be surprised if the cap letters had color in them prior to machining like the Syclones did with their red. Leaving the letters raw would have saved a lot of labor. On a couple of sets I've reconditioned, by the time I got done, the letters were pretty dark, even though I didn't do anything to them.

Look at the backsides of Typhoon caps. If the letters were painted prior to machining, there should be evidence of the color on the backs of them. I've never noticed any, but that doesn't mean a lot. I haven't worked with nearly as many Ty's as I have Sy's.

Would you mind posting a pic of that original wheel?

Looking like "argent" may be the color based on your post...

Side question... Borrowing a set of Vette wheels for a week or two, can I run 255/45 and 285/40 and be ok on the rpm? It seems so but if like to confirm...

 

[Captain Morgan]

Re: refurbishing wheels

To me it seems like the typhoon 'GMC' is painted on the center caps. I have a NOS sealed center cap and a couple low mile original finish center caps. After the snow melts and my garage become accessible again I will do a closer inspection.

I agree, the GMC is painted on the Typhoon caps as well. Perhaps they just used a different process when painting the Typhoon caps vs. the Syclone caps (as per Daves analysis of the red on the back sides of those caps)

If needed, I will strip down the crappy one on the left-middle and show the difference between bare and painted

 

[fivetodrive]

Re: refurbishing wheels

Side question... Borrowing a set of Vette wheels for a week or two, can I run 255/45 and 285/40 and be ok on the rpm? It seems so but if like to confirm...

NO... Even though they are close I would not take the risk. Being on a vette I would bet that the rears are worn more than the fronts and since the rears are smaller to begin with the variance just gets greater.

 

[Sportmachines]

Re: refurbishing wheels

In all the work we have done with the stock wheels, here what we have found, and how it compares to the other input. We have tested, stripped, cut, machined, etc etc many wheels to try and figure it out. We also have several NOS wheels and used them for comparison to establish the basis for our wheel refinishing as close original as possible.

This is accurate: The Syclone center caps were painted red before the machining. The caps were on racks for painting in such a way that the backs of them got over sprayed when the face of the opposite cover on the rack was being sprayed. They were machined after the red paint was applied, then powdered clear coated.

We found this to be true as well: Look at the backsides of Typhoon caps. If the letters were painted prior to machining, there should be evidence of the color on the backs of them. I've never noticed any,

This is how they were made, and also what makes them difficult to refinish since we are now working with complete wheels:

The inner structure was welded to the hoop after the surface machining. The entire wheel was clear coated as the final step.


Things we have drawn conclusions on:

The pockets in both sy and ty wheels aren't painted. They are an "as cast" finish, which matches the Typhoon GMC logo in the center cap. We tried to match the color, different paints and powders then clear coating over the top. It looked good, but not original. We then tried stripped, shot blasted pockets, with clear and it matches OE much more closely.

I don't believe the wheels were powdercoated clear, we think it was a liquid clear sprayed on via machine or robot. Seeing how they corrode and how easily the clear comes off indicates this. Unless it was super thin, undercured, or just a poor quality product, which is possible.

We also think the faces and the center caps are different alloys, and different machining process was used for each.

I'm sure theres more info, as we spent who knows how much time trying to figure out what they did and accurately replicate it. Hope this helps.