Claening up the orginal wheels.

[Boozy Creek Beast]

I have a 1980 GS1100ET and have been restoring it for some time. The wheels that I have are fine but are old, dirty and the more I try to clean them the more the Orginal Black paint comes off. I would like to make the bike as orginal as possible but am not against painting or Chromeing them. Is there anyone out there that has Chromed there wheels and do you have a photo? Dose any one know how dofficult the process is to repaint the wheels a different color or back to the orginal Black.

The Beast :twisted:

[Ghostgs1]

No real help here, I'm in the same boat but haven't decided what I'll do. Maybe a powder coat? I think I remember one of the bike of the months had chromed wheels and they looked nice, but maybe a little pricey.

[renobruce]

Great topic. I have two sets of wheels for my 78 GS1000, both in good shape but faded black paint. I was thinking of playing with one set by stripping all the black off and completely polishing them. I'm not sure how they will look or how much work it would be. Has anyone done this to their wheels? They would also look great if they were back to original black in the centers. Maybe carefully mask and paint with a spray can or by hand??

[riff-raff]

Cool bike
I reckon the easiest way would be to have the wheels powder-coated and then ,if you wanted ,to repolish the rims.

[graham harron]

I dont have pics but i polished the aluminum on mine then masked and painted the faded black paint and the last step i did was spray eastwoods diamond clear on them They look perfect (to me anyway)

[renobruce]

I dont have pics but i polished the aluminum on mine then masked and painted the faded black paint and the last step i did was spray eastwoods diamond clear on them They look perfect (to me anyway)

What kind of paint did you use?

[graham harron]

The paint i used was SEMS semi flat black enamal as the real protection from the elements comes from the eastwood diamond clear. One note i highly recommend using eastwood diamond clear as it seems to be the only clear that REALLY sticks to aluminum.

[Boozy Creek Beast]

This might be a silly question but where did you get the paint and do they have the SEMS in different colors.

How did you prep the wheels? Did you have to use a primer? How long ago did you do the work? If it has been a while have you had any problems with flakeing or chips?

The Beast :twisted:

[graham harron]

I think any quality paint will work for the color coat. I tried to leave as much of the black on there as i could as it would be a good base for the black paint i used no primer but i did clean it up with scotch brite type pads. They also do wonders for the aluminum to restore a shine without taking off too much matl. I did get sems paint a a local auto body supply store.

[KEITH KRAUSE]

I powdercoated and polished mine. I'm very happy with how they came out. Still have an original look but with more flash. They look great in motion. You do have to re-polish once in awhile to retain the shine. Pic' doesn't do it justice really.

[Road_Clam]

Are the stock GS wheels clear coated also?

[Boozy Creek Beast]

Wow nice wheels!!!!! I hope I can get mine to look as nice.

The Beast :twisted:

[Ghostgs1]

WOW!!! Keith those are incredible. Ray

[luc8421]

for mine I used that heavy industrial paint remover, and then spray painted. powder coat would definetly be better, but in my case more expensive and I wouldn't of been able to do it in my garage. I did however paint the entire wheel black, so your masking job would be more difficult. If at all possible it would make your masking job much easier to have the tire off the wheel, masking the tire was very difficult and I could not use the paint remover too close to the tire in fear that I got some on the rubber. email me if you'd like a picture