cylinders

I bought this beautiful Momo Indy wheel the other day and it needs restoring, so I'm going to fix it up and show off the end results.

This is Peanut, and the motivating factor in today's sanding.

Got it for $59 off trademe, it's built in 1979 according to the stamp on the back. Here's why it was not $150 like the other nice wheels.

And this at each join between alloy spokes and wooden rim...

The plan is to sand it back to clean blonde wood, fill the cracks with wood filler or gel-type superglue, brush the alloy back to brightness, mask off, spray varnish towards previous glory, and drive into sunset with one hand on my lucky 7 ball column shift knob and the other gripping fine Italian wood. Fuck that sounds yuck haha.

My old man occasionally mixes saw dust (of the same timber as being repaired) in with clear resin for a matching colour when repairing furniture.

Helps to hide cracks etc.

Don't use superglue or anything excessively harder than the wood... It will leave hard to sand ridges

this will be the best tip if you have cracks you want to fill. mix the original wood dust with pva or something and fill the cracks. just be sure to scrape off excess before it dries otherwise it will take forever to sand. it may take a couple of goes too fill if the cracks are large due to sawdust sumping.

Been working on the wheel for the last couple days.

I ended up sanding the urethane coating off as I found it pretty easy once I bought some decent norton 60 grit paper.

Detail of the cracked wood.

Sanding the finger grooves.

Close up of finger grooves after sanding through grits 60, 100, 150 and 400.

Starting to look good.

After this I figured it's as smooth as I need while still leaving some grain for the varnish to grab onto. Cleaned out the cracks by using a slim craft knife to cut any dags splintered into the cracks and blowing the dust out.

Using a Kauri coloured wood filler as it was as close as I could find at Bunnings, so once the urethane was off I started saving all the sawdust from the sanding process. Mixed it with the filler to provide something a bit closer to the hue of the wood. I spatulaed the filler into the cracks using a shaved down chopstick, and a skewer to push the filler further into the crack. It was messy, but it should do. Waiting for the filler to dry now before sanding it smooth again. More photo's and progress to come, time spent so far about 6 hours over two days and 24 standard drinks.

The filling in of cracks was a bit of a fail. Here's my advice, unless your filler material matches your wood colour perfectly, be very careful when applying it!

I thought I had a good match, but it turned out a lot lighter once it had dried and been sanded. Since I just spooged it on with my finger, this was a bit of horror show. I had to sand extra wood away to clear the lighter filler from large finger sized swathes of wheel. I managed to do this without misshaping it by sanding the entire damn wheel again..

Here's that goddamn filler...

First coat of varnish after 24hrs drying, wet sanding with 800, and a meth rub down. Not much there as I sanded really well to leave only the filled grain. Next one was pretty much the same.

Exciting varnish close up!!

My wrist's are all good now, I chucked some of the filler on them and they look sweet.

Finally got the wheel to a point where I think it'll last a while, and it looks fucking mint!

Before...

After!

Fitted it to the momo boss kit I scored off tm and slapped it on the ute.

I still have a few little things to do, one of which is to paint in the logo on the centre spoke, it has remnants of yellow paint in the creases of the stamp so I think I'll go for a bright primary yellow. Horn and indicator stalks work perfect, and the wheel centred is straight ahead.

The final stage it is at now is 6 coats of aerosol varnish (1 can from Bunnings). I allowed each coat to dry for at least 12 hours before wet sanding with 800 grit wet/dry paper. After sanding and immediately before a new coat, I would give it a thorough rub down with a clean rag and meths. 6 coats is actually a much thinner finish than I was hoping for, but I think for now it will do. One option I didn't consider until now would have been to ask the marine industry guys about urethane coating the wheel, which might have allowed a more consistent even finish. There are areas on the wheel with a mirror smooth gloss, but only where the grain is very long and running parallel to the surface, most areas have a slight orange peel texture, but not bad enough to make me keep going.

Worse comes to worse I can always take it off and do it all over again if I want a smoother finish or nicer transitions into the spokes.

After the masking came off I gave the alloy a quick brushing with scotchbrite, making sure to go in the same direction as the machining marks.

Tell me what you think!

Looks great k-trips thanks!

Bobdylann can you pm me a photo?

Thanks for the great feedback guys. I'd be honoured to have it cleaned up and made part of the tech section!

My wrist's are all good now, I chucked some of the filler on them and they look sweet.

Finally got the wheel to a point where I think it'll last a while, and it looks fucking mint!

Before...

After!

 

 

I still have a few little things to do, one of which is to paint in the logo on the centre spoke, it has remnants of yellow paint in the creases of the stamp so I think I'll go for a bright primary yellow. Horn and indicator stalks work perfect, and the wheel centred is straight ahead.

 

The final stage it is at now is 6 coats of aerosol varnish (1 can from Bunnings). I allowed each coat to dry for at least 12 hours before wet sanding with 800 grit wet/dry paper. After sanding and immediately before a new coat, I would give it a thorough rub down with a clean rag and meths. 6 coats is actually a much thinner finish than I was hoping for, but I think for now it will do. One option I didn't consider until now would have been to ask the marine industry guys about urethane coating the wheel, which might have allowed a more consistent even finish. There are areas on the wheel with a mirror smooth gloss, but only where the grain is very long and running parallel to the surface, most areas have a slight orange peel texture, but not bad enough to make me keep going.

 

Worse comes to worse I can always take it off and do it all over again if I want a smoother finish or nicer transitions into the spokes.

 

After the masking came off I gave the alloy a quick brushing with scotchbrite, making sure to go in the same direction as the machining marks.

 

Tell me what you think!

 

Ah fuck my wrists!

Sorry about the lack of updates guys, it's been a slooow process as I'm waiting 24 hrs between coats, and travelling out of town for work a bit.

The filling in of cracks was a bit of a fail. Here's my advice, unless your filler material matches your wood colour perfectly, be very careful when applying it!

I thought I had a good match, but it turned out a lot lighter once it had dried and been sanded. Since I just spooged it on with my finger, this was a bit of horror show. I had to sand extra wood away to clear the lighter filler from large finger sized swathes of wheel. I managed to do this without misshaping it by sanding the entire damn wheel again..

Here's that goddamn filler...

 

First coat of varnish after 24hrs drying, wet sanding with 800, and a meth rub down. Not much there as I sanded really well to leave only the filled grain. Next one was pretty much the same.

 

 

Exciting varnish close up!!

 

 

I know this is a boring update, so what. More to come as the coats get juicier. Looking forward to the before and after shot.

 

 

where do you live bud? surely someone round here can pick ya up?

Oh this filler material seems to be a bit of a fuckup

Been working on the wheel for the last couple days.

I ended up sanding the urethane coating off as I found it pretty easy once I bought some decent norton 60 grit paper.

 

Sanding the finger grooves.

 

Close up of finger grooves after sanding through grits 60, 100, 150 and 400.

 

Starting to look good.

 

After this I figured it's as smooth as I need while still leaving some grain for the varnish to grab onto. Cleaned out the cracks by using a slim craft knife to cut any dags splintered into the cracks and blowing the dust out.

 

 

Using a Kauri coloured wood filler as it was as close as I could find at Bunnings, so once the urethane was off I started saving all the sawdust from the sanding process. Mixed it with the filler to provide something a bit closer to the hue of the wood. I spatulaed the filler into the cracks using a shaved down chopstick, and a skewer to push the filler further into the crack. It was messy, but it should do. Waiting for the filler to dry now before sanding it smooth again. More photo's and progress to come, time spent so far about 6 hours over two days and 24 standard drinks.

 

 

so close, it's on the te puke end of the equation.

I have loads of Sola-rez surfboard repair resin around that could work? I've been told to use wood filler as apparently it expands with the wood when things move.

Will this varnish stripper affect the alloy spokes?

thanks for steering me in the right direction with all the knowledgeable advices!

Paint stripper? I'm keen for some way to shorten this sanding adventure... it's fucken gay balls, and i'm too drunk now.

Googlnig the solution

that is quite possibly the worst thing i have ever seen done to a celica. And that's a HUGE call.

I was hoping that HUGE was going to link me to something equally terrible

Been working at this guy's workshop recently... has old shit everywhere, is grumpy. The last photo is an Aussie built International AA110 Wagon. Want to rescue it so badly but he's using it for "storage"!

I bought this beautiful Momo Indy wheel the other day and it needs restoring, so I'm going to fix it up and show off the end results.

This is Peanut, and the motivating factor in today's sanding.

 

And this at each join between alloy spokes and wooden rim...

 

The plan is to sand it back to clean blonde wood, fill the cracks with wood filler or gel-type superglue, brush the alloy back to brightness, mask off, spray varnish towards previous glory, and drive into sunset with one hand on my lucky 7 ball column shift knob and the other gripping fine Italian wood. Fuck that sounds yuck haha.

Here's a badass repair manual for early (75-87) Toyota Hilux trucks. The title pretty much says it all... follow the link to the piratebay torrent page and get yourself some knowledge!

How To Keep Your Toyota Pickup Alive, A Step By Step Guide For Compleat Idiots (not sure why complete is spelled wrong but meh)

I'm seeding this holy document on bittorrent at the moment, so it's there if you want it.

With the increasing popularity of "Hustle Live" and similar social media based "swap/deal/need gone" websites, it is becoming easier for thieves to move your stuff on after it is stolen. I know it's not the only reason, what with the increasing popularity of 80's rides, and the need to feed such part consuming past times as drifting, amongst others, but it does stick out to me as one of the enabling factors of the current situation.

So, to keep the stolen cars thread on topic, perhaps here we can discuss ways that we try to discourage or sabotage the sticky five fingered discounters and the people who keep them in business. As with the stolen cars thread please keep your threats of violence and gruesome suggestions to the GTA V thread (here...).

What do you do to prevent the theft of your car?

Have you had a car recovered after it was stolen? If so, what did you do to help that process and how did it come about?

I have a little restoration project now with this recently bought Momo Indy. It was built in '79 so the wood needs tidying up and cracks filled but it should come up a beauty.

Sh!t i hope they fit right! Excited for visuals

sack of hilux will be brought, only change from a few months ago would be a fey new dash and a cubic bastard load of rust. exciteexcite

but actually probably this one     http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/mazda/rx7/auction-518770644.htm

That's the one, I have the landline if anyone is really interested, you can pm me. 22k though... insane!

They would have to be the nicest wreckers I've ever dealt with so far. Didn't have any, but he's got me details for when he come across em. Thanks kirk!

Just thought I'd say... been communicating with Alex for a couple weeks now regarding wheels. The price is very sharp and his replies are always in my inbox the next day. Thing is a goer!

I wish I was a hooked up Gaijin in Japan... but this will do nicely for this life at least.