Educate me on wheel restoration please

[JimV]

Hello gents......
I love learning or mastering individual tasks of the resto process.....eventually I will put them all together and no Weber will stand a chance against my vast wisdom. A real nice set of wheels is just as important as any other part of a resto and its time for me to figure out a process that works for me. I am asking about the old school 1000 wheels with the very brittle chalky white rings. In the past I just cleaned them right on the axle still attached to the frame. It was hard to do a thorough job that way but I got by. One of my tricks was to sand the white rings with sand paper to get them bright white but it was a chalky mess. I would usually follow the cleaning with some type of car tire dressing and they would end up looking 7 out of 10. For this old school green topper I have stripped the grill to flat on the ground and built her back up to a painted frame. I am about to make her a rolling chassis including a shiny new axle. I cleaned the large wheels in the sink and improved my sanding trick by sanding with a semi course grit under running water......that solved the chalky issue and the white walls are bright white now. Ultimately I would like to restore the wheels like a few of u guys do.......I cant remember where I read it but I know some of you remove the white rings and clean then paint the wheel black and even the white ring gets painted white. So my questions are......if anyone is still reading......
What is the technique of punching out the white ring from the wheel WITHOUT breaking it? What paint do you use for the wheel and the ring?
Thank you!!!

I do have several punches and hammers of course.....but I really dont want to break the white rings.

 

[Steve Hoch]

Ha, I did the opposite of you. I bought new wheels and restored the axle. My little trim rings were already broken.

 

[JimV]

Yep......I bought the axel material several grills a go.....I cant remember what I paid but I recall it being pretty cheap and I believe I got 3 axels from the piece....totally worth it. Brand new wheels sure would be nice.....I will pop on amazon to see how much they are but will still restore the ones I have.

 

[JimV]

Uhhhhh 23 dollars each is a deal breaker

Amazon.com

 

[Ed P]

There's this, and I'm sure there are others.

Weber Wheel Whitewalls

Weber Wheel Whitewalls

weberkettleclub.com

Chuck's Inserts

Chuck's Inserts. 871 likes · 1 talking about this · 3 were here. Custom 3d printed parts for all things Weber

www.facebook.com

[I guess you gotta log in to see the links]

I reverse-engineered and printed my own out of white PETG and they have held up well over the past year.

 

[Steve Hoch]

Yeah, new wheels aren't cheap. It's definitely worth the effort to restore them, and I'm interested in seeing the before and after pictures. I would also like to know what you do for the hubcaps, reuse the old or get new ones?

 

[Steve Hoch]

There's this, and I'm sure there are others.

Weber Wheel Whitewalls

Weber Wheel Whitewalls

weberkettleclub.com

Chuck's Inserts

Chuck's Inserts. 871 likes · 1 talking about this · 3 were here. Custom 3d printed parts for all things Weber

www.facebook.com

[I guess you gotta log in to see the links]

I reverse-engineered and printed my own out of white PETG and they have held up well over the past year.

Those are pretty cool.

 

[JimV]

Thanks for the links Ed! Yes I have seen the inserts on FB here before but he doesnt list prices. I sent him a message to see if they are cheap and quick.......This is a rest I am working on and dont want to wait weeks for inserts. If they are a good deal i might just order a few sets for future projects.
As for the hub caps.......Ed has them listed in the super duper stickies in this forum.....Just click the link and order a bag....they are always good to have around.
I have the wheels looking very good from just the cleaning and the sanding but the black part needs some " pop " so I can treat with a trim restore product or tire dressing product.........or plan B remove the white ring and paint the wheel black but most likely break the white ring

 

[JimV]

Steve I will include pics of my wheels when I am finished.

 

[BPratt]

Thanks for the links Ed! Yes I have seen the inserts on FB here before but he doesnt list prices. I sent him a message to see if they are cheap and quick.......This is a rest I am working on and dont want to wait weeks for inserts. If they are a good deal i might just order a few sets for future projects.
As for the hub caps.......Ed has them listed in the super duper stickies in this forum.....Just click the link and order a bag....they are always good to have around.
I have the wheels looking very good from just the cleaning and the sanding but the black part needs some " pop " so I can treat with a trim restore product or tire dressing product.........or plan B remove the white ring and paint the wheel black but most likely break the white ring

Hi Jim, I remove the ring by gently tapping on a block of wood against the tabs on the inside of the wheel. Rotate your tapping around the wheel so you don’t bend the brittle ring too much.

I paint the black wheel without the ring while it’s still on the frame. Just spin the wheel and paint.

I paint the white ring once a remove the chalky stuff.

Do the back wheel first to get warmed up with the process.

Sometimes I just swap the back wheel ring to the front as it’s usually in better shape. You can’t see both wheels at the same time

 

[Ed P]

As of March 2021 the seller was asking $18 to $26 per set. The ones I replaced were broken with a large piece missing so I had no other option but to replace them.

 

[JimV]

Thanks BP and Ed..........I did speak with Chucks inserts....currently the 8" wheel inserts are shipped for $20 per set. I would love to tap out these rings and might just do so to get my wheel patch. I will circle back w you guys on what I do

 

[Jon Tofte]

Late to the party. I think painting is very viable. I have used Krylon's paint for plastic on other stuff pretty successfully. I don't think it will hold up forever, but a new wheel won't either. I would go with their satin black and satin white. The new inserts are big plus but can get pricey for a flip grill.

As far as removing the white part, all I know to say is to gently as possible pop each one out with a very hard plastic edge or a screwdriver if necessary. It is probably a true statement that some of these are just too far gone and will break apart when you try to do that.

I also agree with the "put your best foot forward" idea of using the nicest you can on the front and a less perfect one on the back where no one even notices.

 

[JimV]

Thanks Jon.........I agree a satin finish would look clean. I wonder if it will peel or chip when it finally fails. Not a big deal just a plastic wheel and the new owner can always replace with a new one. Yes some of these rings break if u look at them funny so I am going to tap out a few rings that are already broken from my box of wheels just to get a feel.
As far as option B goes I have tried several tire treatments or trim back to black etc etc and these plastic wheels just dont absorb the chemicals like a porous car tire does. The trim restore stuff should work best but I havent found one that looks natural and really dresses the wheel yet. I have tried 303.....armorall,,,,,,Maguires tire shine........and I think I tried Back to Black trim restorer.

 

[Ed P]

Thanks Jon.........I agree a satin finish would look clean. I wonder if it will peel or chip when it finally fails. Not a big deal just a plastic wheel and the new owner can always replace with a new one. Yes some of these rings break if u look at them funny so I am going to tap out a few rings that are already broken from my box of wheels just to get a feel.
As far as option B goes I have tried several tire treatments or trim back to black etc etc and these plastic wheels just dont absorb the chemicals like a porous car tire does. The trim restore stuff should work best but I havent found one that looks natural and really dresses the wheel yet. I have tried 303.....armorall,,,,,,Maguires tire shine........and I think I tried Back to Black trim restorer.

Jim, I sense a bit of perfectionist in a hobby where there is so little money to be made. I think you would be better off just making the wheels look passable if you stand off and squint, or if you can't do that, see if Chuck would make you a quantity discount and maybe see if some of the other rehabbers want to go in on it. At some point you might end up spending more in time and materials than if you just bought the inserts and raised your selling price a little.

 

[Dave in KC]

I have bought over a half dozen sets from Chuck. Top notch work.
I highly recommend these for anyone looking to do a quality restoration.

He did the inserts I recently used on my WEBteq project.



I punch out the old ones. - (The factory has some sort of process where
the melt the tips after they installed. There is no way I know of that
you can remove them without basically destroying the tips. However,
I have successfully removed, repainted and glued back on when the
original whitewalls were still solid.)
After removing the old ones, I cleaned the wheels, and repainted with
some gloss black.
Chucks inserts snap on using the original holes, and have a perfect fit.
You can however, snap these back out if you want to clean, change,
repaint, or whatever.

 

[JimV]

Thanks Dave and Ed............perfectionist? Yes.......that said I dont do full Monty restorations all the time. I only do Full Monty's for the grills that deserve the extra attention. Since I was out of the game for several months I have just returned to save a few beauties one at a time and at a slow pace. The funny part is that the one green top 1000 needed a frame donor and other parts which turned into 2 / 1000's and then since the sandblaster blew out cook box #1 I ended up dragging the 3rd 1000 back to home base. In my head I simply cant let a grill go to waste so I use the " Bruce " method and start to fix frames etc. So now what I would really like to see all complete and posing next to each other is my Green.....my Red....and my Black 1000's all complete and Full Monty status. You are correct.....I will sell each for $325 and prob make only $100 to $150 each due to the cost of parts and labor. Is there a vaccine for Webertitis? It has me not thinkin' straight
Alright alright........if anyone was really counting along and using logic.......I will admit it......there are 4 / 1000's to make 3.......as I have coffee and scan FB Market Place...... The wife is getting nervous that I might have full blown Weberitis again but I keep trying to tell her no no no....thats crazy......Im fine

 

[THyde]

I haven't scoured Craigslist a few times in the last 24 hours or anything. And I actually don't flip. But I am also not about to go get 1 1/4" angle iron for a 1000 frame, nor am I going to finally stain and spar poly my oak slats and new handles.

For the wheels, I know this is a crazy idea, but what about a coat of spar polyurethane, satin, sprayed on after it looks just right? You can get that stuff in spray cans if you don't have a compressor. If I were JimV, I might try that on one of those "extra" wheels.

It's too late for a vaccine for me, once you have the disease the best you can hope for is that it goes into remission.

 

[JimV]

Hey TH I am right there with you. I have yet to sand and stain high quality wood with 3 coats of spar urethane.......as a matter of fact on my trophy flip I didnt even stain the wood......and it was poplar! I sold it as ....here ya go...stain it to match your back yard environment......and it sold for big money too. But I do over analyze certain areas of the builds just to learn a process that really works and I can chose to apply it or not depending on the flip. I like making advancements in the process......even after 50 or so flips I had never broken a frame down to flat pieces on the floor.....So for this green top I did break it down.......I also applied " The Bruce " for the first time replacing a section of frame.......cut a new axle.......used a sand blaster for the first time.........and that is the reason I wanted my wheels on this particular grill to look tight and right. I have even considered selling my SIlver B green topper and keeping this 1000 green topper cause I think this greenie is gunna look awesome and cook awesome! I will include pics cause I am bored and it completes my ramble on story....pics of the wheels in their current state......my trophy flipper.....and my current Silver B that has survived 50 other grills trying to take its spot.

 

[DanHoo]

@JimV what wood did you use on the blue 3000?

I like the light color.