The wheels on my bike were very dirty- covered with thick black grime. My usual first line degreasing option (WD-40 and a toothbrush) didn’t make a dent on it so I switched to some acetone. It was then that I discovered that it wasn’t exactly grime- more like melted black paint.
The addition of acetone changed my black wheels to pure gold in front of my eyes! Had I discovered the ancient secret of Alchemy?? No- in fact I think the R65LS wheels were only available in white or gold so I should have known that the black was not stock.
Actually preparing the wheels for spraying properly was a very time consuming job (maybe as long as prepping the tank). I used a lot of acetone and rags and then dremel scotchbrite attachements to scuff everything up and get the last bits of paint out of the tight corners.
Once they were prepped I cleaned with oil and wax remover and then applied a coat of Rustoleum primer. The wheels were all masked off with newspaper and tape and i used the old bearings wrapped in tape to mask the hub. I followed this up with multiple coats of Rustoleum Gloss Enamel Black. We will see if this lasts longer than the previous paint job.
The wheel bearings were replaced as well. On the R65LS the front bearings are a more modern sealed unit and the rear bearings are the conventional airhead tapered bearing arrangement. I heated the up the hub with a heat gun and had the new bearings nice and icy cold from the freezer. I was then able to drive the front bearings in with a standard bearing driver.
These wheels took me a very long time. Many months. The prep time was long. Then I had numerous problems with the enamel paint. Mostly it seemed very prone to blistering between coats. I think the dry times were greatly extended during the cold months. The result is good- not quite perfect but definitely an enormous improvement. If I was to do this again I would outsource this job and get the wheels powdercoated.
