John,
The original finish was some sort of plastic or epoxy base material that was
impervious to any paint remover and I ended up chipping it off flake by flake.
I then used a UV inhibited polyurethane and put on a number of coats and used
very fine steel wool in between to build up a coating that was similar to the
thick finish used by the factory. Thin the last coat and let it flow out nice
and smooth in a dust free location and it will look great.
If the wood is split, as mine was, I used a very slow cure epoxy and filled the
inside with the material and then I took some strong cotton string and wound it
all around the wheel nice and tight, just like whipping a rope. It takes a lot
of time to do this so slow cure (I used 12 hour)
is important. It is a mess as the stuff oozes out when you snug it down. Just
unwind the string after it cures and sand it down and you are ready to topcoat.
Mine looks great after 17 years.
If you have hub cracks open them up and fill them. With any crack one trick is
to drill a hole at the end of the crack and this will stop it from spreading. I
had some major shrinkage and had to reconstruct the end of the hub closest to
the dash as it looked like a flat tire. I used epoxy putty and built up the
gap, shaped it with a wood file and sanded it smooth. I painted the hub black
and it still looks great too and you would never know the wheel was a basket
case.
Bob Melusky
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