Inca Yellow

Restoring the Rostyle wheels

March 31, 2009

All the Rostyle wheels, even the spare, are suffering from surface rust. Following some very good instructions I had a go at restoring the spare wheel to a just-off-the-factory-floor look.

I've got a couple of hints when doing this. The first is take your time to mask off the tyre (if it's still attached) as it will save time trying to wipe silver paint off later. A good trick is to slightly deflate the tyre to allow you to get masking tape/newspaper under the rim for a good seal.

The second tip is to get hold of a plastic wheel mask from Moss. This costs about £12, but is well worth it for the time it will save you with tricky masking and the clean lines it will produce, plus it's re-usable. If doing the job with the tyre on you'll need to drill a hole for the valve to pop though, but that doesn't take more than a couple of seconds - make the hole quite a bit bigger than the valve to let you adjust the fit of the mask. I added a few bits of masking tape doubled over between the mask and wheel to ensure a close fit in the 'spoke' areas.

Follow the link for the full walkthrough, but in essence you do this:

1. Wire brush / wet-and-dry off any rust from the surface of the wheel. In my case this also meant getting rid of some previous restoration work.

2. Mask off the tyre and prime the wheel for a good adherence for the next layer.

3. Coat the wheel with a few coats of silver wheel paint.

4. Add a couple of coats of clearcoat to seal the silver and give it a shiny look.

5. Place the plastic mask over the wheel and give it a couple of coats of black wheel paint. make sure you get the vertical bits of black near the centre of the wheel.

In all I'm very happy with the result. I got a little bit of silver on the tyre, but that's why I started on the spare! With new wheel nuts and centre badges they will look like new.

Update: With new tyres on and the practice gained from the spare, the results were really good.

Tags: see more posts related to bodywork and exterior

Comments

1. Billy Emerson

   2009-04-27 22:43:30

   If you deflate the tyre first you can get the masking tape tight under the rim to get a nice finish without overspray on the tyre. :)

2. Adam

   2009-04-27 23:57:15

   Absolutely right Billy. This was my first wheel and you can see the overspray which resulted from being too quick with the masking and not realising how easy spray paint gets under stuff.

   I've just finished my last one and the results are so much better - no paint on the tyre at all. The best thing I found was to get short lengths of masking tape under the rim as you say - tape is easier to push under the rim than paper. Then mask off the rest of the wheel with newspaper. I also found it worthwhile to apply pressure to the top of the Moss mask when spraying to avoid the black creeping under it.

3. Capt Shanti Goonewardene

   2010-04-09 17:08:34

   Iam in the process of restoring a 1971 Ford Capri Mk-1 saloon which I purchased in Liverpool while being employed with a British Shipping Company. The car was shipped back home to Sri Lanka in 1974 when I left Britain and was used at home. The vehicle was fitted with Rostyle steel alloys size 5J x 13. Since I go out to sea for long periods the vehicle was not used very much and was virtually neglected for the past six years as I now have a Peugeot 406. However early this year I commenced restoring the Capri and was looking for a set of Rostyle rims without any sucess.

   I tried Tickover & Speedshack in the UK and also Motomobil in Munich but alas the rims were not available.

   However much to my surprise and delight I came across a set of Rostyle Rims 5J x 13 fitted to a Capri which was in a vehicle graveyard in the outskirts of Colombo. The rims were in excellent condition with the makers name stamped and clearly visible.

   The rims were taken to a Marine workshop and grit blasted and two coats of Marine underwater Primer was sprayed. Iam now in the process of masking the Black quadrants and restoring the wheels having received some guidance via the Internet.

   Rgds / Captain Shanti.F.Goonewardene

   Colombo/Sri Lanka.

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A while back I inherited a 1979 MGB GT. It had been sat in a garage for nearly two decades and was in desperate need of a bit of attention. Knowing absolutely nothing about cars and even less about engines I, of course, decided to get it back on the road.

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