Topic: Help restoring Henry Abe wheels

[Scott S]

Was it reverse threaded?

 I'm 99% sure that it was not. No literature I can find says anything about reverse threads on the front wheel. Rear wheel: Yes.
 I think that whoever put it in used a punch or drift to turn it into place and damaged the threads, essentially peening it into place. The threads aren't messed up that bad and they and the new retainer are aluminum, so they should be easy to sort out.

[Scott S]

 Looks like my Dad did a fine job on saving the threads. Here's the new retainer. Went right in. We also made a "tool" for when we get ready to do the actual installation.


 I cleaned up some tire iron marks around the rim on the rear wheel....somebody got all Ape Man on it. We also cleaned up the friction surface for the brake. There were a few spots of corrosion, so we're going to try filling them with JB Weld and then sanding back flat. They probably would have been OK, but what the heck.

[iron_worker]

JB Weld on your brake surface ... not sure I would have done that.

IW

[Scott S]

Worse case scenario, I have them turned. What's your fear about it? That stuff gets HARD. You can drill and tap it.

[Greggo]

I would worry about it breaking off if it expanded/contracted differently than the drum material..not sure that it would ever cause a wheel to seize up, but it would bug me enough to look for an alternative.

[Stev-o]

JB Weld on your brake surface ... I would not have done that.

+1.   (FTFY)

[Scott S]

 We decided against it. The pitting isn't that bad.

[Scott S]

Picked up the wheels from the powder coater today. They did a great job of blasting them. I'm not sure what media they used, but they're very clean and not too rough.




 The guy that did the blasting said that when they finish the raw surface with clear, it looks amazing. He said a lot of hot-rodders have manifolds, etc., done that way and it looks really cool. I took his word for it and decided to let him blast the whole wheel, tape up the rims and edges of the spokes, powder coat the wheel black and then have the whole thing cleared.

 They gave me this weird heat tape to work with:


 At first, I tried doing it in small pieces, but the tape isn't very flexible when making a curve.


 So I taped up large areas and used a razor blade to trim it. Aah...much better!

[Scott S]

 It took about half an hour to do one side of the front wheel.


 I took a few breaks, but this is what about two hours of taping and trimming gets you.


 I'll get them back to the powder coater next week and, hopefully, he can work them in soon.

[Stev-o]

They look great.  What color?

[Scott S]

 Black and silver/raw/whatever the edges look like when they clear-coat over the blasted surface!

[Stev-o]

Black and silver

Sounds good. Semi gloss black?  I wouldn't go high gloss.

[tlbranth]

I think your problem is:
"after they sat there for a few months, I took them home and spray bombed them"
Aluminum oxidizes fairly quickly. Paint doesn't take well to aluminum oxide. Soda blast again & paint soon thereafter.

[tomk1960]

Yes and no....the automotive wheel guy I referred to in the previous post is a local guy that does wheel repair. He's primarily a car wheel guy.
 He said they powdercoat the entire wheel and then have a machine/fixture to "re-machine" the lips and highlighted parts. He said he didn't have a way to tape them off. Sounds like BS to me....I think he just didn't want to mess with them.

 If I powdercoat, I'll have to get the bearings out and I'm not sure I can get the retainers to budge.

Scott - you're correct in the BS comment.  Re-machining is not necessary.  PC'ing a wheel like that is possible, but it does require some serious attention to detail.  First, the bearings have to come out followed by degreasing.  Then the painted surfaces get media blasted with aluminum oxide.  After washing and outgassing, it's ready for the first coat.  The ENTIRE wheel gets shot with powder and then the areas that want to be left bare must be carefully wiped clean.  Once they're satisfactorily done, the wheel goes in the oven for curing.  A final clearcoat is recommended afterwards so that the bare metal will be protected from oxidation.

One key step that goes between blasting and powder application is preparation of the bare areas.  When I do wheels like these, I try to stay away from the bare edges, but they still need to be cleaned up afterwards with various grits of sandpaper until you get the look you want.  Check out the Comstar wheel down below that I recently did.  No masking was done whatsoever.  I removed the powder from the edges using mostly just my damp fingertip and a wet sponge.  It takes time but it can be done.

[Scott S]

 Nice. My wheels have been blasted and they gave me that funky green heat tape to protect the areas I want left bare. Once that's removed, the whole wheel will be cleared.

[Scott S]

 Got the wheels back from the powder coater today! Other than a couple of small spots where the powder crept underneath the tape, they're awesome!

[Scott S]

 I'm also restoring a set of Lesters and I'm having a hard time deciding which wheel to run on what bike.
The H.A.'s would look awfully nice with the silver and black paint, huh?

[iron_worker]

So did they powder over the whole thing with black then peel the tape up and powder over the whole thing again with clear?

They look pretty dang cool.

IW

[Scott S]

So did they powder over the whole thing with black then peel the tape up and powder over the whole thing again with clear?

They look pretty dang cool.

IW

 Yes, that's exactly what they did.