16x7 Racing Hart C2 Resto

[bsweitzer99]

So I just joined here finally after looking around for a few months, and after I picked up a set of 16x7 Racing Hart C2's I figured I'd finally join.

So I picked them up off craigslist relatively cheap, with nice tires, all the center caps, spray painted black with two leaky wheels. Promptly went ahead and started tearing them apart. the first wheel had silicone all over everything, PO must have goobered it on all the bolts and trying to get it to seal without remounting the tires. What a MESS. After using aircraft stripper there is still some mystery green coating on the lips and faces, maybe a strong primer or powder coat. Here are some pics I snapped along the way. Also wanted to know any suggestions you guys had for getting everything off the bolts but to keep the chrome thats underneath. Vinegar bath? Any suggestions on how to get everything off the wheels too would be great!
Sorry about some of them being crappy cell pics, its all i had at the time.

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[244Brick]

Looks stripped now sand your finger nails off

[bsweitzer99]

Still can't get the last coating left on the faces and lips and aerosol gasket remover isn't available anymore. Suggestions anyone? Short of having them media blasted.

[Crankey]

maybe take them to a plating shop and have them strip the parts...? aside from that...sand them... may as well if your going to polish the lips. for the centers, if you plan on painting the centers, I don't think you need to get them to raw aluminum everywhere. if it's that stuck on, your new primer should stick fine.

[Khemiicalz]

what your stripping is real honest to goodness, environment killing; chrome coating.
genuine racing harts were made by work wheels, cost about 800-900 a wheel back in the day. they were chrome dipped and then polished.
only the 16' where split, 18' are welded shut.
some licensing issues came up and they changed makers, original rh wheels came in 4 and 5 bolt configurations, later wheels came in dual 4 or dual 5 bolt patterns (4x100/ 5x100 vs 4x100/ 4x114)

i made an account on this forum to watch progress

keep it up.

[bsweitzer99]

So it's been a while since I got to work on these, mostly due to not having the funds/time to work on them. Thinking of bringing the lips to a plating place to have them stripped and chromed if possible, as well as all the bolts. I would really like to bring them back to their former glory, seeing as they are pretty rare wheels.

[sleeps]

If it is indeed "chrome plating" good luck. I started a thread on this a while ago, and there are some good answers on there, I ended up just have them blasted down to the chrome and painting over them.

[bsweitzer99]

Yeah I'm just trying to get the centers so there is no more flaking paint, and I'll have to get the lips and bolts chemically stripped, it is most definitely not plating, just a really thick primer.