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I have saw a steam cleaner do some good work. Not the little take a wrinkle out of curtains type but the gas fired water hose type. Back in 73 I worked at a creamery; they had 2 boilers the size of locomotives plenty of water and steam lines everywhere for cleaning. That steam was hot, really hot. We would park inside on night shift and steam clean under our cars, worked great and the steam would make a white letter or whitewall tire look like new. Maybe check with a rental place for a portable steam cleaner, industrial type.
440 what no before / after pictures?
No pictures it did not happen LOL
Someone painted the truck and wheels flat black and that would not work with the new paint.
Some paint remover a green pad and scrubbing got them looking good enough.
Dave ----
The best I've found is to go to a restaurant supply store and order a kitchen grade degreaser. It's made to remove all kinds of various oils. Be sure to check if it etches though as they can only be on a surface for a short time.
I tried gas, paint thinner, paint remover you name it gave up. got my power brushes and buffers out and went to work. took me all afternoon to do one wheel and get the coves painted but it basically looks new.
Sometimes there just isn't an easy way and I think this is one of them.
I didn't take any before pictures but I can get some during and after.
I tried everything, and finally broke out an assortment of wire brushes on drills and grinders. it took some effort even with power tools to get it off if a degreaser that would do it without destroying aluminum exists I have no idea what it would be.
got them cleaned up good and I'll be able to save some on the machine marks from production. polishing and painting the coves should make them look like new. I planned on painting the coves anyway they were always impossible to keep clean with the raw cast.
That old style Hydro Seal carb cleaner would do it. Local transmission shop used to get it in 55gallon drums, would dip the transmissions overnight. Came out looking like new. Not sure what that stuff was but if you put your hand in to pull a part out your hand would tingle for an hour. Probably best we don't have that stuff around anymore. last transmission I did a C4, put it through a couple of cycle in the dishwasher while wife was gone. Yes I did a cleanup cycle after that. Nobody died?
The best I've found is to go to a restaurant supply store and order a kitchen grade degreaser. It's made to remove all kinds of various oils. Be sure to check if it etches though as they can only be on a surface for a short time.
The stuff I used when I worked in the HVAC dept of a hospital that we got from the kitchen we used it as a paint remover on Tstat covers when re-modeling rooms before repainting them.
The covers were I believe pot metal and they would turn a dark gray so thinking they would turn ALUM. gray also.
But that stuff would remove everything! It was pink in color wish I could remember the name now.
Dave ----
Wasn't a lot of fun but I got them done. date code is June of 1979 and this wheel came out in '76 from what I can find in catalogs. so it's period correct for these pickups.
They were in nice condition so it wasn't as bad as you'd think.
I wire brushed the backsides with a 5/8 grinder. then used an assortment of wire brushes on a drill to clean the coves. followed by 1000 grit sanding of the polished areas and several stages of buffing compound and final high speed polish. then painted the coves with a urethane silver.
I thought about paining the coves body color like everyone used to do but I decided to stay original looking .
Now if I had some BFG's rather than the crappy Interco 16.5 tires I had to buy I'd be thrilled.
16.5's? Aren't the options limited? I unloaded some very cool mag style rims because I could not find any decent rubber for 16.5's as of about 5 yrs ago. You are going to make me feel really bad if you say there are still good options out there.
16.5's? Aren't the options limited? I unloaded some very cool mag style rims because I could not find any decent rubber for 16.5's as of about 5 yrs ago. You are going to make me feel really bad if you say there are still good options out there.
Not ‘easy’ to find , Nor much selection or cheap for that matter, but you can definitely still buy 3 or 4 different 16.5” tires. I think Firestone and BF Goodrich are the two name brands. Then there’s Deestone or Linglong whatever…
16.5 rubber is extremely limited. I contacted BFG and they said they have no plans to ever make it again. right not Iveco or whatever it is are the only new tires you can buy in 33/12.50-16.5 . they're okay, but they're no BFG.
Rezvani's Latest Post-Apocalytic Monster Is a Ford F-150 Raptor Underneath
Slideshow: Called the Fortress, the 850-horsepower pickup combines Raptor underpinnings with military-inspired features, survival equipment, and a starting price of $285,000.
