[foxgapLeMans]

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.

[67Lemons]

Originally Posted by foxgapLeMans

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.

[Formulabruce]

This is The way it gets done..

[Formulabruce]

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.

[njsteve]

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.

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by Formulabruce

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.

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.

[78w72]

Originally Posted by Formulabruce

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.

"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.

[mgarblik]

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

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

[burd]

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.

[kingbuzzo]

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

[65madgoat]

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

[Big Bear]

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

[kingbuzzo]

Thanks

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

[Held for Ransom]

Originally Posted by Verdoro 68

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

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

[kingbuzzo]

perfect - thanks!

Do you guys prefer the year one rings/caps?

[78w72]

Originally Posted by kingbuzzo

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

[kingbuzzo]

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.

[65madgoat]

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.

[kingbuzzo]

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?

Sent from my SM-F721W using Tapatalk

[78w72]

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.