I bought four pre-metric 16x7" 8 lug aluminum wheels that I want to install on my '73 F250. These are Ford wheels with numbers F5TA-1007-JA7700 J030796 and 16x7KDOT-T stamped on the back side. The tires were poor but all held air and were being driven daily. When I removed the tires I found two of the wheels had corrosion at the beads and had bead sealer in place. So I do what most of us do, googled "aluminum wheel bead repair." And I find out that repairs and sealers seem to be a short lived fix. Of course, most of the wheels discussed are not truck wheels and perhaps the aluminum is of lesser quality. No real discussion on the OTR truck wheel repairs. Or is the problem that folks did not clean the bead surface correctly?

I have polished the wheels, removed all the brake dust from the backside, finish from the face and the bead and the corrosion from the beads. Lug holes are not beat out and the rest of the wheels appear good.
So somewhere here we have someone who has been through what I am starting into. Or perhaps we have a tire / wheel expert. What bead sealer works. What does not work? Any tips from someone who has been through this?
tia

 

At the shop I work at we used a grinder with a cleaning wheel on it to clean up the bead and I have never had an aluminum wheel that didnt hold air correctly after that.