<VV> Wire wheel care

[Steven J. Serenska]

Ralph:
> I just received some NICE wire wheel covers.   :-)
> Would you kind folks respond with suggestions for the care and feeding of these beauties.
If your covers are nice, then Seth's dishwasher approach will work just 
fine.

I put together a set for my Corsa by buying them on eBay in odd lots 
(ones, twos, threes).  Some of the ones I got were cheap, but they were 
a little rough.  I kept going until I had a decent set of four and then 
cleaned up and sold the rest as two driver-quality sets.

The approach I took was to take them apart and detail them.  It's not 
hard -- it just takes time.  Disassembling them offers a few advantages:

1) It's the only way you can truly get at everything.

2) If the flat black paint is chipped or peeling, it's also the only way 
you can repaint.  Just wash the wheel thoroughly, mask it off, and get a 
can of aerosol flat or matte black.

3) When the spokes are off, you can wax the snot out of all surfaces 
under the wires to preserve them and make sure water beads up and washes 
away.

4) The biggest reason for this approach, which might not be necessary if 
yours are nice, is if the wires themselves have any curb rash from 
getting scraped while parking, you can turn the wires around and put the 
dinged surfaces on the inside.  I had one wheel where a few of the 
spokes were actually bent from grinding into a curb.  I pounded them 
flat with a hammer on a piece of wood on my workbench, turned them 
around with the scraped side in, and they looked just fine.

Taking them apart is as easy as removing the handful of hex head screws 
on the back that hold on the spinners, taking off the spinners, and then 
taking off the spokes.  There are two sizes of spokes, but they are all 
put in there the same way and it's pretty obvious how it all goes, even 
if you don't pay too much attention while taking them apart.  Put all 
the spokes in a bucket of warm soapy water while you wash/paint/wax the 
stamped steel wheels and the crud just wipes off.  As I say, it's not 
hard, it just takes a little time.

Here's my 1966 Corsa just after I finished the wires, about 10-11 years ago:

http://www.serenska.com/IdealGarage/assets/images/LargeImages/66CorsaSideViewLarge.jpg

http://www.serenska.com/IdealGarage/assets/images/LargeImages/66CorsaSideView2Large.jpg

http://www.serenska.com/IdealGarage/assets/images/LargeImages/66CorsaRearViewLarge.jpg

Good luck with them.  I think they make Corvairs look sharp as all get-out.

Steven "neither my daily driver Corsa nor I look quite as good as we did 
10-11 years ago" Serenska

'65 Monza Convertible, 110/4, wire wheels
'66 Corse Coupe, 140/4, wire wheels