RE>Stag Alloys

[Bret Cravens <bcravens@domain.elided>]

                      RE>Stag Alloys                               12/7/97
This last summer I spent a terrific amount of time and money restoring/polishing my alloy rims.  After some experimentation on my spare wheel rim I undertook to strip, have lathed, polish, and paint my rims, and I've been delighted by the results.  Now that my rims have been lathed and balanced, curious air leaks I could never eliminate have gone away.

After the rims were done, my original lug nuts and wheel centers just looked wrong beside the near-chrome appearance of the rims.   I've never been a fan of the extremely lightweight lug nuts that came with the wheels and always drive with a continuous paranoid fantasy about one of the wheels coming off, so I thought it would be a good idea to purchase some steel nuts, perhaps chromed to match the 'new' wheels.  Unfortunately, I could locate no replacement nuts that matched the originals in appearance or fit, so undertook to polish my existing nuts myself.  Many, many hours with rouge sticks, steel wool, and eventually a Dremel mototool which I purchased for the project.  Hopefully will someday use it for something else.  I polished the aluminum centers to match the rims.

The alloy used on the Stag wheels isn't of a quality to match true chrome, no matter how extensively polished.  But in mentioning the alloy I'll finally get around to my query.  Several polishing shops I contacted about this project wouldn't apply a protective coating to the wheels even if they did all of the restoration, stating that it would be unnecessary and the finish wouldn't stick to a polished surface.  Obviously, a sealant could stick to the original roughed-up surface, but we've all seen how it yellows and peels, esp. in the black portions.

So even after spending many hundreds of dollars on the wheels and thousands of dollars worth of my time on the silly lug nuts, I'm driving around with them completely unprotected.  I do find that they develop water spots immediately when wetted, but a little elbow grease and some Mother's Aluminum Polish usually cleans them back up.  What do y'all think about the merits of a sealant on polished wheels?  Any way to make a sealant really stick and really last?  I get tired of continually repolishing the rims and nuts.  At the same time, I've seen some hotrod suspension parts in both varnished and unvarnished states, and the varnished pieces do lose some of their shine.  Someday the finish will probably flake, and then the repolishing process would be a complete repeat of what I recently went through.

I'd love to hear some related stories from others.

--------------------------------------
Date: 12/4/97 4:50 PM
To: Bret Cravens
From: Kevin Harrop
Hey Guys,

Any comments on cleaning Stag Alloys?  Mine are ok, but the varnish is
long since failed.  Very patchy.  The black likewise.  I haven't found
any easy way to remove the varnish.  Perhaps there isn't any easy way.

Also.  The dratted things won't hold air.  Have the rims been chewed up
by the tire shop?  Should the tires be removed and the rims dressed?

Kevin
'73 w/ Datsun Z motor
Los Angeles



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