Vintage racers:
As I freeze in this winter weather, my thought began to turn toward the
upcoming race season, and I began to contemplate my rims for the race car.
I run an MG Midget in SVRA (primarily). I bought the car with a set of
Cosworth Vega aluminum rims and have been very happy for several years using
these rims. But last year, the rims began to give me some trouble with leaks
that developed at the valve stem and at the tire bead. Seemed that at just
about each event I was dragging a tire and rim over to Bob Woodman's rig and
each time the issue was either leaking around the valve stem where it was
supposed to seal to the rim, or leaking at the tire bead where it was supposed
to seal to the rim. Each time the rim had started to oxidize at that
interface (confirmed by a white powdery residue at the interface). The short
term solution each time was using some emery paper to clean up the interface,
a bit of tire bead sealant applied, back together, and I would be good for the
remainder of the weekend.
So now comes my appeal for some sage advice and opinions:
Is there a spray paint or other sealing material where I could dismount the
tires over the winter, clean up the sealing surfaces, and apply said material
to the rims to rid myself of this annoyance? Is there a material I can apply
that is able to withstand the rigors of mounting fresh tires? Or now that the
rims have started to oxidize at these interfaces do I need to be thinking new
rims?
If I were to be buying new rims, there are probably 3 or 4 possible rims to
consider:
Minilites (British)
Panasports (Torrance California, are these US Made?)
Superlites (Australian - sold by Pack Racing Products in Arizona.)
Others???
Has anyone got a recommendation on these rim choices? Will these rims develop
the same issues after several tire changes? I think the Superlites are the
best priced, but feedback on pricing would be appreciated as well.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Dick Rzepkowski
|