Bringing Back A Set of PYO's From The Dead

[Ed HD]

Wasn't there a member White Knight or something that had those PYO's?

 

[btfarm]

I must be doing something right. Here are some pics I took today while I was rotating tires and lubing the truck. These have 155k miles, 5 salty N. Illinois winters and 3 sets of tires on them. I have never allowed wheel weights on the outside though...

Of course if these were black, I wouldn't have the WL out...



And here's what I mean about not liking powder coat.

 

[CtChevy427]

Mike, those look great....:thumbsup:

No wheel weights definitely kept the finish from having voids. This is where the road salt would have started it's assault on them. I wish mine looks that nice.

 

[83GMCK2500]

Mike, those look unbelievable. I need to clean mine up and post shots of them, no where near that nice. I run steel wheels in the winter so the only exposure mine have are from the cold snaps that hit early in fall or late in spring and they still spray de-icer.

EDIT: I do have outside weights and they are peeling a little there, but most of the peeling on mine is from the backside around the holes towards the outer face.

 

[88gmctruck]

don't know about superior...but my early 01's are stamped Hungary for sure...

My PYO's are stamped Hungary.

BTW Hungary on mine too and my '05 the same

Weird. I don't know what year the PY0s I have came from, but they say "Alcoa" and "USA" on the back of them. I feel a little special now....

Black powder coating or Black Teflon coating would be even better...

American Racing actually makes a Teflon coated set very similar to the PYO style

As cool as teflon wheels are, I will tell you right now they are not very scratch resistant. Brandon (07HDclassic) destroyed a wheel in some mud on his truck. I personally like finished I can either re-polish or easily touch up/re-apply.

http://www.brownells.com/1/1/5079-teflon-moly-oven-cure-gun-finish-black-brownells.html

$32.99

The Next Generation Of Durable, Spray-On, Professional Gun Finishes

My dad uses that stuff all the time, it does work well if you want a durable finish. Now, seeing as he has only used it on gun parts, I don't know what something in a much harsher environment would do to it. I think it would hold up better than regular paint at least.

At this point ,the wheels are looking much better than they did to start out with. All the polishing on them has turned them more gray and not as bright as they normally are. I had a spray bottle of some eagle ! mag wheel cleaner for unfinished aluminum wheels. I sprayed them down and then rinsed them off again[I had thoroughly washed and rinsed them after every application of stripper] It brightened them up but left them a little cloudy looking. A light polish with fine steel wool took that off.
Since i'm going through all this work with these I want to put some color highlighting on them before clear coating them again. The only paint I had that was any where close to the truck color was in a spray can of touch-up paint. I attempted to mask off all that I didn't want paint on and gave up on that idea about half way through the first wheel.So i sprayed some of the paint in the cap for the can and tried brushing it on. :nonod: Strike 2. The spray can paint is way too thin to even try to brush on.
Off to the parts store to try to get some color matching paint. Most parts stores don't mix paint any more. The parts store I went to was able to get me a pint from their supplier the next day:thumbsup: I ordered acrylic enamal because it.s too hard to mix the 2 part paints and use them up before they turn hard as a rock. A pint of the Hawaiian Orchid paint cost $35
I got 2 coats on the wheels where I wanted highlights and then went after the center caps and lug nut covers. I'm letting the paint cure on the wheels before I spray the clear on. I did a test on the back side of one of the wheels to see if the clear dulled the brightness of the aluminum. Not at all. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Wheels look like they came back to their former beauty quite well. Good job Barry.

I must be doing something right. Here are some pics I took today while I was rotating tires and lubing the truck. These have 155k miles, 5 salty N. Illinois winters and 3 sets of tires on them. I have never allowed wheel weights on the outside though...

And here's what I mean about not liking powder coat.

Mike, those look amazing for being used in the winter. You must keep up on washing them. I know having the weights on the front kills a lot of wheels. When my dad bought his 09 first thing I told him to to was take it and have the weights removed from the front lip. Oh, and I hate powdercoat too, for the same reasons.

Mike, those look unbelievable. I need to clean mine up and post shots of them, no where near that nice. I run steel wheels in the winter so the only exposure mine have are from the cold snaps that hit early in fall or late in spring and they still spray de-icer.

EDIT: I do have outside weights and they are peeling a little there, but most of the peeling on mine is from the backside around the holes towards the outer face.

Dev, we just need to get you a new set of tires on order and peel the rims off and shine them up like mine.

---------------------------

Just for reference for the thread, the set of PY0s that I picked up were in MUCH better shape than Barry's were. They still would have looked OK with the clear on them however the clear was destroyed behind the weights and in some areas around the holes.

Quite the opposite of Barry, I choose to leave my wheels raw aluminum, and will just polish them semi annually.

 

[RI Chevy Silveradoman]

WOW. That is quite the reply! :rof:

How did you polish the wheels? What did you use on the drill? What polish did you use? I like the finish. :thumbsup:

 

[88gmctruck]

Well, I have a lot to say! I was gone this weekend.

I actually didn't have to polish them really at all, they were shiny to begin with. The dremel I used has a cloth polishing bit on it and I used steel wool, then the polishing bit with some 3M marine aluminum polish to clean up where the clear was bad, as it had begun pitting in those areas.

When the wheels are really oxidized, starting out with a heavy duty cutting polish like the 3m Marine is best. Then I usually finish it off with a finer polish, I have some from Adams polishes that works well. When I do polish my wheels, I do it by hand typically. I found the mothers powerballs don't work as well and can't really get the luster you can with a good hand polish.

 

[RI Chevy Silveradoman]

Ah. The dremel tool.

 

[Detroit Dan]

Still following this thread, thought I'd interject here, because of the talk about wheel weights damaging the rims. I am a firm believer in internal balancing. I ran dynabeads for years in a set of Interco mud tires, I know I wouldn't have gotten half the mileage I did with regular weights. My last couple sets of dually tires I used a product called counteract. Along the same lines as dyna beads but has a static to it so it tends to stay in the area its needed instead of dropping to the bottom of the tire when you stop. Anyway, after reading up on this, and trying it myself, I don't think I'd ever go back to the old way. Number one reason? The internal balance balances the tire for the life of the tire. The balance doesnt change as the tire wears, requiring a re-balance every time you turn around. Makes the tire last longer because it's always perfectly balanced, and you dont have ugly weights scarring your wheels or falling off.
Just my .02

 

[88gmctruck]

Good to know about the dynabeads actually working. Devin has looked into them, and I have also. The local tire shop here didn't think they would work...

 

[NVW]

Good to know about the dynabeads actually working. Devin has looked into them, and I have also. The local tire shop here didn't think they would work...

They know it will cut into their profits. $18 a tire

 

[bk95td]

The reason the weights eat the finish is the idiot tire monkeys that don't use the plastic coated weights for aluminum wheels. Lead and aluminum don't mix well with salt added. Electrolysis, same as steel and aluminum . Dissimilar metals need to have isolators/plastic to prevent corrosion. Unfinished aluminum wheels wouldn't last a month of winter here with the salt and even worse the pretreater. New copper radiators don't last a year with this crap they put on the roads. Example:35w bridge collapse. Road chemicals ate the rebar and steel beams/supports away. Yet they still use it.
Powdercoating is like paint in that it is only as good as the prep that was done before the finish is applied. Oven temp and time is critical. There are many different grades of powder coat also, just like paint. You can bet the trailer hitch companies cut every corner possible. Yes, it's powdercoat but it's the cheapest they can get and little to no prep work done.
I believe these wheels had too high of a polish on them before they were clear coated. Paint and powdercoat won't stick well to a smooth surface. Blasted,sanded or chemically etched is the way it should be done. I left these wheels somewhat rough. I'll sand between the coats of clear to level the paint.

 

[88gmctruck]

Yeah, I understand why some people want to coat their wheels. I'm glad the stuff they put on the roads here isn't THAT bad. The wheels on my 88 are raw aluminum, I give them a good polish every spring and they hold up well for the year... I really like the high luster shine on my wheels, which is why I decided to not clear them. I agree, the GM clearcoats generally don't last because the wheels were initially polished to such a high luster that really, the clear doesn't stick to them. Honestly, i hardly touched my wheels after stripping them, they were that shiny to begin with.

The main problem I've had with outside wheel weights is dirt/sand getting behind them (going to the dunes or beach) and it destroys the clear and allows crap in to corrode the aluminum.

 

[btfarm]

Thread now shined up just like all the pretty PYO wheels...:hihi:

 

[Ed HD]

Mike, are you sure that was powder-coating? Looks a lot like paint, most hitches I've ever seen look painted...

 

[ak diesel driver]

pwder coating can be applied in various thicknesses and a really thin coat along with a smooth surface = quick failure. manf like to be able to advertise PC but are trying to save $s on manufacturing

 

[btfarm]

Mike, are you sure that was powder-coating? Looks a lot like paint, most hitches I've ever seen look painted...

Yeah, Putnam bragged about their powder coated products. But it's pretty crappy coating. It was starting to peel off the hitch rails in one year.

 

[Pepperidge]

Yeah, Putnam bragged about their powder coated products. But it's pretty crappy coating. It was starting to peel off the hitch rails in one year.

I don't even live in the North and my putnam XDR was riddled with surface rust in less than a year...

This may be mainly a Putnam problem...

 

[RI Chevy Silveradoman]

I took my Putnam Hitch, sanded it down, and rolled on a Herculean type bedliner type finish to it. It has held up very well since then.

 

[btfarm]

I don't even live in the North and my putnam XDR was riddled with surface rust in less than a year...

This may be mainly a Putnam problem...

I'm not surprised as bad as mine was. But I did mean other powdercoated items lead me to not trust it as well as a good paint job. Maybe all I've dealt with is cheap powdercoating.

I took my Putnam Hitch, sanded it down, and rolled on a Herculean type bedliner type finish to it. It has held up very well since then.

Been meaning to ask you in another thread how your Putnam held up. Think I'll start a hitch finish/refurbish thread then.