used honeycombs...
 

I have been on the fence about replacing my old man wheels with either aftermarket honeys or stock honeys.

I finally found some used ones locally here but they are missing rings, caps and need to be restored.

Is it worth restoring them (since they are missing stuff) or should I just save up for the aftermarket ones that cost an arm and a leg?

Also, is there a sticky on the restoration advice - can't find to save life...

I read somewhere that they are hub centric - does that mean that no modern tire shop would know what to do with them?

Thanks all

Discount tire has the equipment.
You ca t beat the new larger size ones, they say if they’re too big, your too old. lol

We just did a set not too long ago. Find a set where the urethane is in good condition to save yourself some trouble. The center cap section apparently likes to warp.

We sandblasted ours, used flexible primer and top coated with OER magnesium wheel coating. We haven't put tires on them yet, so I can't comment on how hard it is to find a shop to balance them.

Resto article: https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...d.php?t=800267

Hub-centric wheels are balanced with cones on the center hole. There are several styles, but almost any shop with a balancer can handle that style. Lug-centric wheels center off the individual lug stud holes. This is the style that requires the multi-wheel adapters that many shops do not have. For my Coats balancer, that adapter is nearly $1500.00. To expensive for me. I do have a Pontiac 8-lug adapter thankfully. I do not know what the honeycomb wheels require.

I just did a set of 15" Honeys, they were soda blasted, then neutralized with vinegar and water solution, primed with flexible primer and then painted the correct color. I am still looking for 3 nice trim rings , but the rings I have work for now. I mounted a set of B F Goodrich's on them and had the problem with the hub centric balancers, I took them to a shop with a good old fashioned bubble balancer and they have come out very well, I am still looking for a shop with a lug centric balancer to get them done that way for the heck of it. Overall I like them better than the 14" Honeys that were on the car.

The one thing to keep in mind if you stick with 15’s is the serious lack of tire choices. If you want a 245/60 or 255/60 your only choices are BFG, Cooper Cobra’s & Hankook Kinergy ST’s. I’m sure Coker & others offer some reproduction tires but at double the cost.

I restored a set of honeys recently, same process as mentioned above, the OER paint looks very good in magnesium or gold, has a slight texture to it that looks close to original. I was going to use them on my 72 firebird but decided to go with rally 2 for street use... for both the honeys & rally 2's I prefer the no trim ring look, its correct for honeys in 72 and both wheels look better without them IMO. I have a set of NOS 15" honey trim rings I will be selling along with the wheels.

Most tire shops, especially older ones should have the lug centric adapter to balance them, just call ahead to confirm.

As for tire selection, 15" are limited compared to modern 17-18" tires but there are still many available RWL options besides the 3 listed above, 245 & 255/60 are popular 60 series but the factory size for later 2nd gens that look good are 225/70/15. 235/245/255/275 60 still have other options, Firestone Indy 500s are being made again that are a better tire than BFG for less $, same for the Mickey Thompson radial S/T, also many lesser known name brands like Mastercraft Avenger, Herculese H/P 4000, Galaxy radial G/t, & a few others. Also some black wall options & even a very high speed rated brand I cant recall right now that another member posted on a recent 15" tire thread. ,

This is great!

Ironically prolly have this issue in the basement archives as well - good ol' HPP.

I wonder if the products they mention are still available...researching

I'm in Canada so that could be an issue....

Yes, these may get me thru until I can afford the new style.

So...older the balancer equipment more likely they can do it?

Why did you use the douche water on them? Was there left-over plastic debris from the blast or some other reason?

Did you not like the year one rings or you just wanted the gm ones?

What did you use for flex? 3m?

Thanks

Very good point - being in Canada I'm assuming there are fewer choices.

I'll start a new thread for that issue... :(

Ok lug centric & OER FTW.

Starting new tire thread.

Took mine to wheel shop to make sure they were straight before paint, just sayin.


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Is there a link to a preferred lug centric balancer adapter?

sage advice....thx Dave

Unfortunately no, while most modern balancers share a 40mm shaft there are others on the market that don’t so it’s best to buy the adapter directly from the manufacturer. If you have an older balancer & want to measure the shaft there are some parts distributors online who offer the adapter based on shaft OD or mfr. Either way they’re typically around $500 or more for a lug centric adapter or pin plate.

Not really. That adapter was always an option and always expensive. As mentioned, call around and find a shop that has one if needed. If they have no idea what your talking about, they don't have one. I would guestimate less than 1% of all wheels require it. Manufacture the damn wheel with a precision hole in the center and you don't need one. It isn't rocket science! Rant over.

This doesn't sound promising at all.

So worse case scenario tires can't be mounted at all or they can but horrible jeep death wobble?

I just went through this. Yes first check wheels run true. As for balancing - a lug centric adapter is $100 on amazon but $500+ for a legit one. However putting the normal metal cone in the backside of the rim on the balancer and the 'plunger' like polymer cup hold down on the face will get you an accurate balance.

Darn it, I did not think of putting the cone on the back side of the balancer, I'm going to pull the one wheel that would not hub balance and try it.

The reason that the wheels were washed with the vinegar and water solution is that soda blasting leaves a film on the parts that needs to be removed before priming or the primer and paint will come out looking pretty bad.

Just as a quick FYI, avoid using the cone on the front of the wheel as that it is not always trued for a hub centric wheel due to various center cap designs, always a best practice to cone from the rear when using cones.

This is The way it gets done..
https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...6&d=1743445244

Since my dealership Also sold Corvettes, we had a portable floor unit made by "Bear alignment " that would spin the whole tire, wheel, etc ON the CAR.
This worked well for honeys since we did not have a lug centric unit.

For what it's worth, the local Midas Muffler shop near me has a balancer with the lug centric adapter. Don't know if this is an individual franchise thing or if all of them use the same equipment.

Those on the car units were the gold standard before good computer balancers were the norm. They did a good job. Bear, Alemite, and Hunter all had good ones. The Hunter one was was nicknamed the "Mexican Hat" balancer. An adapter was put on the wheel, then the Mexican hat was attached. The wheel was spun at a Zillion MPH, and you had to grab one of the 4 knobs on the Mexican hat while the wheel was at speed. 2 knobs added or subtracted weight and the other 2 set the location for the weight. EXTREMELY dangerous to use because the entire assembly would fly off the wheel doing all kinds of damage and injuring the operator. The smooth chrome Oldsmobile rally wheels were almost impossible to keep the adapters on. Also you could not balance a limited slip rear with these units. You had to rotate the wheels to the front, balance them and move them to the back. It was a 2 hour ordeal to do 4 tires properly.

"Road Force" balancing. Last time I checked on that around my area it was like 3x the price of normal balancing of ~$20-$25/wheel.

Hunter Mexican Hat balancer. Aaaah, the good old days!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJd-AnU71nQ

A local guy has 2 sets of 15” combs, pricy, one set has tires, a buddy in Penn was looking for a set for his 50th, ended up finding another set that needs to be restored, They were $800 for the set. Then you gotta get nuts, rings and caps. Those 2 sets are restored in silver, so he’d have to go gold. And everyone does the wrong gold. lol.

and so the mis-adventure begins... 🙄

missing center caps/rings natch...one of em has what looks to be a vintage tire!

couple dings but not turrible...

I'll try midas here but is this what you mean by the amazon adapter?

https://www.amazon.ca/sspa/click?ie=...tdGY%26psc%3D1

https://www.amazon.ca/sspa/click?ie=...tdGY%26psc%3D1

The adapter I was referring to was this one for $100 for lug centric balancing. Most machines are 40mm from what I have seen so this would work on them. A genuine part like this from a professional manufacturer is over $500.


https://www.amazon.com/DYRABREST-Uni.../dp/B0BVQPDBWW

The center holes look good. Hope they work out for you

Thanks

I'll talk to the tire store then look for some supplies and get them blasted.

There is a .doc version here...
https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...d.php?t=749020

perfect - thanks!

Do you guys prefer the year one rings/caps?

Pretty sure the repro caps/rings are all the same, made by the same company. Just need to shop around for the best price, I got mine from an ebay seller a few years ago, they were almost half the price of today

https://www.ebay.com/itm/33494455745...Bk9SR6SLivq-ZQ

Took my truck to the cheby stealership this morning for a different matter and they claim they can mount them there. 🐑🏃*♀️

I also checked my local tire dealer and he says he can mount them but I don't believe he can. I mentioned they were lug centric and needed special adapter but blank stare ensued.

So if I find someone with a media blaster do I get them powder coated after that or do I just primer them then paint? Perhaps powder coat is not possible if they aren't steel?

Thanks so much.

Powder coating gets cured in an oven so you don't want that with the polycast.

If anything you can cerakote (the air dry stuff) the back side and spray paint the fronts.

But I simply used MRO Seymour gray spray paint for the back sides. Great stuff. Really good color like oem dove gray was.

And then used magnesium color OER brand spray paint on the fronts (after using flex paint and adhesion promotor first) -- a little light in color for my taste as I feel it should be a darker magnesium color. But worked well.

Ok that makes sense.

I Remeber powdering my rally ii's years ago.

I found a guy with a walnut blaster here. Do you think that will clean them up?

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Blasting should work to strip the paint, do a test area first to be sure the guy and his set up doesnt damage the rubber. Are you going to repaint them yourself?

On the ones I did the original paint was mostly intact & had a strong bond so I just repaired any small issues and sanded everything feathering the edges, then a light primer coat with SEM flexible primer, then the OER wheel paint. Good thing about honeycombs is no real masking like ralley 2. I used a spray can medium grey to touch up the backs & insides, even redid or touched up the factory red stripe.

The caps are repros and rings are NOS but only 1 GM box survived... I have 3 more to do pretty soon, I am able to do 3 rims with 2 medium coats out of 1 can of OER wheel paint. Crappy pics & lighting but shows the basic color and some texture/metal flake in the paint.

I think so...i masked my rallys years ago the old fashioned way and they turned out so I'm feeling brave lol

Those look good

Yeah I did the hand masking on my ralley 2s also, turned out better than the stencil kits a friend used on his, Honeys are so much easier to repaint. Best of luck on yours.

Thanks....

Ok, got the walnut or silica blaster lined up...

Found the honey OER paint at Slummit that will ship here - nobody else will.. 😑

Found the self itching primer...how many cans each

Found the rings/caps at CI because I need odds and ends from there anyways - 20% off sale will help with the t-rump tax... 🙄

Are the lugs different than the rally ii type?

If I use rust paint on the back of the wheel will any grey do? 🧓

This is getting expensive...lol not lol 🤡

Assuming these are sponge-worthy...especially where the rings were and my meat hooks won't fit in there if I sand

Self etching primer is usually for bare metal, being these are rubber faced I suggest/used SEM flexible primer, should be able to find a place to ship to you.. where are you again?

Unless the wheels need multiple heavy coats, 1 can of SEM primer worked for all 4 wheels with 1 medium coat, 2 cans of the OER for 4 wheels with 2 medium coats. You dont want too thick of primer/paint on these, it can contribute to cracking or build too high and make the sharp edges look dull. But the OER paint is easy to apply and lays out smooth, you should be fine.

Lugs are same as ralley 2s, tapered seat acorn style, theres some nice chrome plated ones on ebay for low cost, again probably same manufacturer other places sell for higher. I used these on my rally2s, nice chrome & look like new after almost 10 years.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/26164583689...3ABFBMrvHTw79l

Paint for rear of wheels can be any good quality spray can, rustoleum, krylon or more expensive eastwood types.. I used rustoleum after cleaning & scuffing the backs & insides, they were in good shape on mine just a little dirty, used it on the back of the rallys too.

Found a couple more pics of the honeys with the repro cap & a crappy trim rig layed in place to give a better idea of the OER color.

I'm in Canada.

CoPilot is suggesting this:

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/d...color+adhesion

https://media-www.canadiantire.ca/pr...impolicy=gZoom

Would that work for the fronts?

Just dropped them off with the Walnut nut. The guy at the tire store was shocked to see a '74 firestone still on there lol

No SEm retailers in canada, or US place that will ship there? I can't comment on that adhesion promoter since Ive never used it.. I have used a different brand promoter on interior plastic parts, gave a more glossy finish than I liked compared to parts without it. Maybe since the top coat is a textured flat sheen paint it wont matter as much?

I found one reseller and reached out.

My auto body buddy is checking with his suppliers as well.

If those options dont work out, myself or another member could buy here & ship them to you??

Oder SEM from Walmart.
I’d go to an auto paint store and get the good stuff.

Been getting SEM paint through our local NAPA.