New Wheels
Well there not really new. Actually there pretty old but now they look good. From my last post you know I got the wheels off the bike and prepared myself to clean the rims. I was planing to wire brush them and knowing that would take forever. Then I had the idea that I could sand blast them. But now I needed to find a sand blaster. Enter my friend the farmer. I called him up and yes in deed he has a sand blaster. So I went over on Monday, I was going to do this since Sam took two days of vaca. We took the tires off and the inside of the rims were in very good condition when considering the outsides.
Cleaned Wheels
This was great news as I would not have to remove and replace the spoke band. With the wheels ready I got started. It was fun finding the three valves, air in ,
Paint Rig
air out, and sand out, on the SB but once I was able to get sand to come out of the nozzle the wheels cleaned up almost instantly.
Next was paint. I had purchased rim paint and was ready to go. I set the wheels up on the jack stand so I could spin them and get a good even coat. Three coats later I let them cure over night.
I went back to Kens on Tuesday and we put the tires back on the rims. Yeah!!! But now I have the problem of balancing them. After all these aren’t tractor tires. So I took them up the local, and only, Honda dealership. to get them balanced. Long story short they don’t have spoke weights and the sick ons will ruin the paint.
Painted Rims
The Harley steelership wanted $30 per wheel to balance them with spoke weights. I then had an idea. I took some lead solder balanced the tires on the same jack stands that I used for painting. Then seamed to balance out pretty well.
Great News–
The solder should work- if you attach it securely- solid (no flux core) will be best- rosin core might weep, but might be OK, acid core will likely damage the paint. The quality of the balance job may determine your top speed.