Slot Mags etc.

[C9]

A little info on slots and cleaning up same.

We've talked about my foray into the world of WhiteWalls before, but the pics are up to show what some haven't seen.


One of the 10" x 15" American wheels bought new in 1985.


It's pretty much as it was when new.
A nice bright satin, not polished.
It gets hit with Mothers or Wenol once in a while, but mostly just washed.



A US Indy Mag 4 1/2" x 15" I'm working on now.


This is as found condition.



A pair of 7" x 15" in an after and before shot.

                     
The finish on the after wheel is about where I'm at with the narrow rims noted above.


The 7" x 15" wheels were part of the WhiteWall tire experiment I did on the 32 about the tail-end of last summer so they weren't brought to a high polish.



I did go back to the BlackWalls after a few weeks.



I ran the blue powdered steel wheels from the 31 on the 32 for a while, decided I liked the look of the narrow 5" x 15" steel wheel and scrounged up a set of 4 1/2" x 15" slots.



A head-on view of the 32 with the 5" x 15" steelies.



One thing about the blue powder color chosen, it's a heckuva lot brighter than I thought it would be.
I shoulda taken the sample out into the sunlight.
Geez, the blue is so bright that it makes red look not so bright.


The 4 ½" wheels are cleaning up ok and I'd like to get the high polish on them like the 32's 5 1/2" x 14" wheels have, but I'll probably do another pair later.

The 5 ½" wheels.


Polished at the chrome shop some years back and they still look good.




I buy the slot mags when I find them in the sizes I want.
Anything wider or narrower than 7" x 14" or 7" x 15" can be hard to find.
And like anything else, sometimes you just stumble across them.
So far, prices run from $5. each to $100. a pair for 10" x 15".

You really want to know your tire shop.
I searched for the second set 10" wides for five years, found a nice pair, had them "in stock" for 3-4 years and decided to dismount the roller tires since they took up too much room in my small shop.
Walmart had been doing a good job, but the new kid promptly screwed them up on the new tire machine by gripping the rim by the outside polished surface.
I can live with them and do have the gouges sanded flush, but they'll always be there.

Two stripped pan plugs and the chingered up wheels =
Walmart 4
C9 zero.


The kid down the street had a pair of 8 1/2" x 15" Uni-Lugs on a Chevy wagon he's putting together and decided that trading for a pair of 7" x 15" would work better for him.
I was happy to make the trade and I'd been looking for a pair of 8 1/2" wides for a while.



I have a couple of orphans I'm looking for a mate for.
An Ansen 8 1/2" x 15".
A Western 5 1/2" x 14".

The Western wheel will probably end up as a spare tire in the 31 since it has so much trunk room compared to the 32's pain in the backside rumble seat . . . unless I can find a mate.

Funny thing with the slots, you never know where or when you're gonna find them.


Fwiw cleaning up the 4 1/2" wheels went like this:

Washed with Simple Green and water.

Started sanding dry with medium grit looks like a form of emery cloth on a standard size sheet - gets ripped into quarters.

More sanding with fine grit emery cloth.

Nice thing about the larger sheets of emery is, it doesn't seem to lose a chunk of grit like the narrow rolls do and end up putting deep scratches in the aluminum surface.

Next up was sanding with a 220 grit foam sanding block, used wet with water that has a few drops of dishwashing liquid soap it it.
These foam blocks are finer grit than indicated and 220 is as fine as I could find.

Next up, a little power buffing with a small Scotch-Brite rotary disc.
These work great and so far it's all I've used on the 2nd wheel.
It's looking as good as the first one after all the hand sanding.



One thing you want to look for with the slog mags - and perhaps others - is the machining pattern from the lathe tool bit.
The 4 1/2" wheels look like they were finish cut with a dull or broken carbide tool.
Kinda stupid there, but I've seen a few wheels that looked ok, but close inspection showed machining marks.

I've found when machining aluminum that if the tool is sharp, speed fairly fast and if you don't run into harmonics the finish from the lathe cutting tool leaves a virtually polished surface.

Unless the wheel was polished, you'll see faint machining marks on most mags so don't turn down a desirable pair just cuz they do show marks.
They'll sand and polish out if desired.

And . . . fwiw, the 10" x 15" wheel shown at the top is in it's as-received, machined form and it shows a nice, bright satin almost shiny finish.

Once I get the tires on the 4 ½" wheels, I'll shoot some pics.
There are some very narrow radials out there and careful selection will net you a pair or four of them that are similar in size to bias plies....