Road Wheel Restoration

[Geetex]

I have to restore the factory Road Wheels for my '70 GTX and I'm looking for some input from people who have done this before or have knowledge of a good process. As we all know the Road wheel is a two piece wheel, the inner spoke part welded to the outer ring.
I've heard that the inner part is stainless steel and the outer ring is steel, can anyone confirm this one way or another. I need to know what materials I'm dealing with.
Please give me your thoughts on the best/least aggressive way to strip the wheels to bare metal without ruining the brushed part of the spokes. I'm thinking vapor hone or soda blast?
Once the wheels are striped, what would be the best way to re-brush the brushed part of the spokes so that they match the factory look?
After that, tape off the silver parts of the wheel and repaint I imagine? If the center is stainless, any special primer to use before paint?
Anything that I'm missing here? Does anyone know of a shop that does proper restorations on Road wheels?
Any and all thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Big Bad Dad]

I cleaned up mine and masked them off. Then took my time, and with a razor blade, carefully trimmed the masking tape around the area to be painted. I painted them with a rattle can. Don't remember if Rustoleum, Krylon, or? brand spray paint. They came out looking good, I think..

 

[Don Frelier]

I would chemically strip them. I like the masking kits they are cheap and work well.
Vht Paint.

 

[Geetex]

I would chemically strip them. I like the masking kits they are cheap and work well.
Vht Paint.

What chemicals are used to strip something like this that won't damage the satin chrome or brushed stainless part? I still don't know what material the center piece is, steel or stainless. I'm guessing that a shop that does chemical striping is the best way to go given the disposal problems that I would encounter.

 

[Ron H]

My brother does vapor honing as he just got his new machine; when I restoed my old magnums, I did strip them down using paint remover. I used Vaseline carefully coated on the embossed spokes and center so that new paint wouldn't adhere to them when I painted them. A little over spray though wasn't a big deal, just used a razor blade to scrape it off.

 

[Geetex]

My brother does vapor honing as he just got his new machine; when I restoed my old magnums, I did strip them down using paint remover. I used Vaseline carefully coated on the embossed spokes and center so that new paint wouldn't adhere to them when I painted them. A little over spray though wasn't a big deal, just used a razor blade to scrape it off.

I think vapor honing would be gentle enough to not harm anything, but I don't know for sure. Chemical stripping should work well also if it's not so aggressive that it damages the satin parts of the wheel. Ron when you had your wheels down to bare metal did the centers look like steel or stainless? Has anyone had any Road wheels that the lug holes were rusted up pretty bad? That would verify steel.

 

[MCODECUDA]

Paint the whole wheel satin or semi-gloss black. It’s been over 25 years since I did some so I don’t remember which is correct. Once the paint has dried take lacquer thinner on a rag and clean the paint off of the spokes.

 

[Moparnocar]

They actually sell masking kits for these

 

[Ron H]

I think vapor honing would be gentle enough to not harm anything, but I don't know for sure. Chemical stripping should work well also if it's not so aggressive that it damages the satin parts of the wheel. Ron when you had your wheels down to bare metal did the centers look like steel or stainless? Has anyone had any Road wheels that the lug holes were rusted up pretty bad? That would verify steel.

Vapor honing is an amazing process with many selections of media depending on the material-surfaces. I did this wheel refurb I don't know, 15 years ago...my new ones are chrome 2-piece unlike the old three-piece mag's I had. I think they were all steel and used regular paint remover only on the painted areas. We might be talking some apples and oranges with your road style wheels here...