Tyre Removal/Replacing Equipment & Restoring Rims

familyman

I want to restore a set of 5 Virgos but need to remove the tyres first. Tyre guy around the corner wants $14 each ($70!). After I get the rims back from being restored, I don't trust 'she'll be right mate' tyre places to take care with the new paint either.

So I'm either going to make a manual bead breaker like this at about 0:38 seconds:

Or - maybe buy something like this: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/251626659504 - depending on price and quality. Then I can take my time getting the tyres to protect the new finish.

That ebay one ($135 AUD shipped) looks exactly like one sold in the USA for only $40 AUD! And it's not the first time I've seen something I could make myself for a fraction of the cost. And the USA (habourfreight) one isn't of a brilliant quality either. So if no-one can help with the questions below, maybe I'll go and buy the Lincoln welder I've been putting off.

Supercheap Auto don't have a manual tyre remover on their site. And a Repco search revealed nothing either. Where's all their gear? Don't they supply the trade!? Anyway...

I'm seeing you can also buy 'bubble balancers' in the USA to balance your own rims.

Q1: Can we buy this stuff in Australia? Where? i.e. Manual tyre remove/refit 'machine', bubble balancer, the lead weights with adhesive on the back (rather than ugly metal clips).

Q2: Can you buy tyre levers made of something other than metal, so they won't gouge the paint off the rim lips? I know I can just wrap metal ones with electric tape... But you only have cut through the tape at at the wrong moment and too late - damage done.

Q3: A manual bubble balance machine sounds like it would difficult to get the balance right - is it?

Q4: I know a mechanic with his own tyre balance machine... But can't remember exactly how wheels are mounted onto it. I think they get slid over a cone at the back, then a large 'wingnut' screwed against the face of the wheel. Does that have the potential to rip the paint from around the lip where the centre caps go? Any way to stop that happening? (If I cut a plastic washer out of an ice-cream container to go between the rim and that wingnut, will it prevent him properly securing the rim to the balance machine?

Q5: Can anyone recommend a place in Sydney that does a great job restoring wheels? Not just blasting and painting them, but whatever needs doing - without requiring me to take them to different businesses. Such as: removing gutter rash, giving them a bit of a twist/re-rolled (i.e. they have the ability to tell themselves if that's needed), and lathe the lip into a more curved appearance like this:

... rather than the squarish lip Virgos come with as seen here:

I'm undecided if I should spray paint the entire rim, or paint but polish the vertical outer lip face like that first picture above, or just powder coat the entire rim one colour. But probably leaning towards powder coat, if that makes a difference to the shop recommendation?

Spac

Haven't watched the vid yet, but even with good gear, you'll do a bad job the first dozen times.

$14 for strip only is outrageous. Make sure he understands that you're taking the old tyres away, and that the wheels aren't fitted to a car.
I can get strip, fit and balance for $12.50 at Transtate in Canberra. Local place will do strip and fit for $10, and balance for another $10.

Virgos are also difficult, thanks to their stupid reverse rim (the tyre goes onto the rim from the inside, where 99.9% of other wheels the tyre goes on from the outside).

Q2. No. Refitting tyres should require minimal grunt factor. A wrapped tyre lever poses very little risk to the rim for refitting.

Q4. Sounds feasible.

Q5. No idea, but flat spots aren't the end of the world. Despite all the talk about "rerolling", most flat spots are removed with a press.
I've tried pulling a 14" alloy in the big lathe at work, but could not avoid the chattering.
Most gutter rash can be fixed with file finishing by hand (possibly after welding). With some care, even a numpty like me can get a very good result.

Spac

Having watched the video:
That's a tyre off a ride-on mower or something. A modern car tyre will be much harder to remove - particularly the process of breaking the bead.

bigal

I tackled a tyre a couple of weeks ago. A tip - Use a jack and the weight of your car to break the bead. That bit is easy. Getting the loose tyre off is bloody hard! Took me hours. Never again.

Vee_Que

Don't. I've removed a tyre from a Virgo manually. Have the Tyre restoring place do the work start to finish.

familyman

bigal;75994 wroteI tackled a tyre a couple of weeks ago. A tip - Use a jack and the weight of your car to break the bead. That bit is easy. Getting the loose tyre off is bloody hard! Took me hours. Never again.

LOL, good idea. I was thinking earlier, what do I have in the garage I can use... (Not much without that welder.) Then I found this - watch when he goes to the bench too - who needs that ebay link!

familyman

Spac;75980 wrote$14 for strip only is outrageous. Make sure he understands that you're taking the old tyres away, and that the wheels aren't fitted to a car.

Oh, he does... Said it would be the same price either way. :-/

Virgos are also difficult, thanks to their stupid reverse rim...

So would that mean wheel face down - for the first tyre side off the rim - if removing a tyre manually? Or only when putting new tyres on??

I've tried pulling a 14" alloy in the big lathe at work, but could not avoid the chattering.

Yeah, I've often wondered how they get even the best used wheel straight enough to lathe its surface. I mean places like All Aluminium Welding... how they can do it is beyond me. A new block of metal sure. But they must use some laser-guided computerised lathe that continually adjusts the wheel as it spins, surely.

familyman

Vee_Que;76007 wroteDon't. I've removed a tyre from a Virgo manually. Have the Tyre restoring place do the work start to finish.

That would be my preference. Problem is with 5 shod rims, that's two Sydney trips. Unless I cover the back seat area with blankets to put a couple in the cabin. (I think I tried it once before and could only fit 3 in the boot for some reason. It should be four, but something prevented it I think.) So I'd need to remove at least two tyres to get them all in the boot. Or maybe only one if I risk going spareless on the drive home.

Keep forgetting I have another four tyres on Coronas to remove too. And the 5x nearly-bald steelies on the car atm. I'll probably keep those just in case. (Don't know what will turn up in the driveway tomorrow.)

For those with *really* nice wheels (or trust issues like me), I just found this:

Looks like rubber blocks underneath to protect the rims. And check out the lever/bar - particularly when he's putting the tyre back on. Their website is http://www.nomartyrechanger.com - and they sell the bar seperately. (More expensive than electrical tape though.)

Say, does anyone know... If I have the Coronas blasted, and what... clearcoated again I guess - will they then be easy to clean? They used to look great on the '78, but what a pain in the neck to clean them! Down on your knees with a toothbrush, and still couldn't get it all... I used to clean just one side each wash - then just one wheel - then stopped washing the car, LOL. So yeah, would all those sharp 90 degree angles just 'wash out' with a mag wheel spray product on a refurbed wheel?

Spac

familyman;76027 wrote
Oh, he does... Said it would be the same price either way. :-/

So would that mean wheel face down - for the first tyre side off the rim - if removing a tyre manually? Or only when putting new tyres on??

1. He's a dick. One of the local places used to say "Minimum of $20 per rim to do anything". They copped a big earful from The Wife for trying to charge $80 to fit four tyres to four bare rims, and I didn't go back until the business was taken over by non-dicks.
I get how the logic works if someone turns up with a flat or something, but it's highway robbery to charge $80 for 10 minutes of easy work. He tried to justify it by saying that the machine had t be paid for, and then I pointed out that theire machines are at least 20 years old...

2. A Virgo needs to be upside down for both removal and fitting of the tyre.

A_Volvo_Driver

Why can't you put three wheels in the boot, and two on the back seat?

familyman

I may also be taking the Corona wheels if I get positive feedback they'll be a lot easier to clean once refurbed (in those little 3-corner cube areas in the slots).

carnut1100

Q3 on the bubble balancer.
That will give you a static balance. Better than nothing but not as good as a dynamic balance.
Dynamic balancing works out both the inner and outer sides of the wheel and how they interact with each other and will give a much closer balance when the wheel is actually spinning, which is when you need the wheel to actually be in balance....

Re the lip machining, you would want the wheel trued to within a mm or two anyway.
That's quite possible, and the lathe can be set up so the wobble is at its smallest pretty easily.
Then the face is skimmed until it is running true. There will probably be 3mm of material removed anyway.

Vee_Que

It would be two trips anyway to get Virgos refurbished. Tyre shop machines deal with far better rims then crappy Virgos all day long, low profile tyres need more force and better machines than 15s, why do you need to remove these tyres from the other rims? Plan to fit the new tyres yourself? Let a tyre place do it. Way less hassle.

Lots of American things are not here for good reason. Mostly as they are dodgy.

familyman

@Vee_Que

Sorry, why were two trips necessary for the Virgos?

The reason I wanted to remove the tyres was to easily fit 5 Virgos in the boot - but I was also considering taking the 4x Coronas to be done at the same time. Or if you meant why do I want to remove any of them myself - just the expense... $14 per tyre x 9 = $126.

@carnut1100

Thanks. I was thinking about that today - how sometimes weights are positioned on the front, sometimes on the back.

Wow, 3mm seems a lot to remove.

familyman

Still trying to decide what to do with regards to wheels - but...

When you go to one of these places that restores wheels, do they usually place them into some kind of box? i.e. If you're pick them up in person, did you just carry them out to your car - or do they routinely box them up anyway? If so, anyone know if you're paying some crazy amount (> $10 ea) for the boxes?

Ovlover

The only place I have ever been involved with is Virgin Wheel Repairs in Sydney. I don't have their number but they do showroom quality work. We sent $8000 20" BBS wheels to them....twice (customer hit a gutter less than a week after putting them back on the car) and the quality of work is amazing. We've sent 20+ sets to them. You're looking at $250/wheel minimum.

familyman

$8000 in wheels. Just - wow.

Ovlover

They were on a $250,000 car. $8000 means nothing