I posted this in the wheel section yesterday and received no replies and only 15 views. Trying it here. Come on give me some ideas!!!!

I searched and found a few threads, but nothing on what I am about to try. The spokes on the front of my 98 Wide Glide are rusted pretty bad.The rim itself is in pretty good shape.I haveused emory cloth and steel wool then polishedthem and it lasted until I got rained on one day. Yeah I know I sanded all the cadmium off. Iwould love to buy me some newXtreme Machine wheels, but I can't justify in my mind the pricethey want forthose things. I thought of the relacing, but we live an hour away from the closest city and do not want the hassle of shipping mine away. I am going the cheap way and figured I have nothing to lose,except time andelbow grease, until I can buy what I want. I have an air conditioned shop that I can work on it a little at a time so I am not even going to remove the wheel. I am going to use some fine emory cloth to sand down to bare metal. I haven't bought the paint yet, but I am thinking of acrylic enamel. I will use small brush like what you would use for crafts or model kits. I am brainstorming ideas for the color and want some other opinions. Here are my choices. 1) bergundy or maroon to possibly match my 95th Anniversary color. May look funky though. 2) Silver with dark red metalflake if I can find it! This may look sharp, may also look gawdy. 3) Silver with silver metalflake. Might be too flashy during the day, but at night I bet it would stand out. 4) Silver Metallic. This is probably what I will use.

Has any one out there tried this?
Any suggestions out there for type of paint or colors?
Throw me some ideas. When I start I will post pics as I go along so any one interested can see the results.

Yea I know it will get nicksin it and flake off, but then I will just touch it up.

 

try powder coating them.

 

I was actually looking at spokes last night and the website I was on had some painted spokes. They had some examples that looked cool and what they did was alternating colors on the spokes. So basically if you took example one and example three and alternate those two colors from one spoke to the next would look cool in my opinion. However, you're right, this is a fine line between looking really sharp and looking really gawdy.

Here is the link to the website I saw: http://www.hdwheels.com/Bikes.htm

There is a Softail Springer Standard down towards the bottom w/ black spokes on a chrome rim that look good and maybe all maroon would work but look at some of the other bikes for the alternating spoke colors.

 

If the spokes are rusted where you can see them, they are also rusted inside where they attach. Add to that the sanding and you have produced an accident waiting to happen. The spokes are designed to handle the stresses at full dimension and I can only guess how they have been weakened.

Powder coating or painting new spokes is one thing...this is another.

Spokes and the time it takes to redo them are a lot cheaper and quicker than healing bones or worse.

 

Don't bother going down to bare metal; just rough the surface a bit, and that only where the rust is. Clean 'em with some 409 or something similar to get all the grease, oil, and heavy crud off. Mask off an edge of the rim that you want to remain chrome, then hit 'em with some Rustoleum primer, followed by whatever color Rustoleum you want. I like the Rustoleum 'cause it will stop and prevent further rust, it's easily available, and inexpensive. Here's a pic; not the best, but the only one I could scrounge up. Works on both spokes & mag-type wheels.

[IMG]local://upfiles/670/7C7A68CD320B4F7CB37E5861C80337CD.jpg[/IMG]

 

If he uses acrylic enamel then he can just bake it in a electric oven.

If you keep the wheel on the rim I suggest the following: Spread Vasaline onto the tire, if you get any on the rim make sure you remove it ALL.

That way, if you get paint onthe rubber you can just wipe iut off, the pain stays on top of the layer of vasaline.

These is also a great way to coat part of a spoke, paint it, remove the vasaline, let dry, and then paint the rest of the spoke.

Which results in a 2-toine efect

Try it on a old wheel rim first to get used to it, but it is pretty easy to do.

And of course, painting anything is 90% preperation, so mke sure everything is sanded REALLY good and really clean.

Good luck, can't wait for pics.

 

Not neccessarily. If you take the wheel off the rim you can get much better result. After paint, stick the rim into a electric oven at 350 degrees. I suggest getting a cheap $50 one from a garage sale and hooking it up into the garage. This will be your "porr man's paint curing booth".

And since you are gonna take the rims to bare metal I HIGHLY suggest you treat them with a Rustolium Brand Primer. It comes in spray cans and works very well. Use grey and spray on very lite with a few layer, heat in the oven till dry between each layer.

Then spray on your other colors.

If you take your time you can actually get great results this way.

Again, you might want to practice on some other metal part first.

 

Hey guys Thanks,
They are not rusted so bad that they are weakened in any way. Most of the rust is just surface rust in the middle of the spokes. I thought of powder coating also, but I don't want the hassle of shipping the wheel off. And if I spent any money on the wheel I will just buy what I want. (I cant' stand to have my bike down for very long. I ride it almost every day as a stress reliever from work even if it is just a half hour or so.) I am just looking to do something temporary to get me by for a year or so.

Dynamite that is good website. I like the idea of the rotation of color. I am now thinking maybe silver for 3 groups of spokes , then 1 group of maroon, then 3 groups of silver, then 1 group of maroon etc.Like you see on the Peacemaker bike on the website.That should break up the pattern just enough thatnot having too much maroon should not look gawdy.

Pococj and Kolni. Yes Rustoleum does have pretty good products. To not worry about overspray, What do you think about using the can Rustoleum and brushing it on with a small brush? Primer first of course.

Here are some pics. Now I am thinking to paint a group of 4 spokes maroon, next group of 4 silver, and rotaing colors. They will come out even. What do you guys think? gawdy or not?

Thanks again.
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...h/DSC00288.jpg
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...h/DSC00292.jpg
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...h/DSC00290.jpg
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...h/DSC00289.jpg

 

I would welcome this as an opportunity to buy a nice, new cast front wheel. An added advantage would be that your tire would now be tubeless for easier roadside repairs in case of a flat.

 

Just my opinion, but the groups of painted spokes would be way too gaudy.

The way I envision a bike, any bike, is that it should be a totality. Everything should flow together, and nothing should immediately draw the eye away from the whole. If something does immediately draw my eye to it, chances are it just doesn't quite belong. Once the whole is taken in to the brain, then allowed to ferment a bit,it'll be apparent that there are interest points that make up the whole. Only then canI appreciate these points, because now I have to know the whys and whats of the pieces, and especially what makes them fit together.

Sounds like a buncha hippyjunk from the '60s, or some whacked artsy-fartsy critic-crap. And I've yet to build a bike that hits it on every point, but the target is still there.

When I do the wheels on my Sloptail again, they won't be red,but a more subtle contrast to the bike's color.

Stick with something simple.