My O.Z Split Rim Rebuild

My O.Z Split Rim Rebuild

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Discussion

Russell Mc

Original Poster:

573 posts

150 months

Thursday 20th October 2011
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Decided it was time to give the old split rims a refresh as they were looking pretty tired. Just thought I would post a few pictures and pointers so it might help anyone else who is thinking of having a go at their own set.

The wheels themselves although straight were showing signs of be 20 years old. The lacquer had started to lift and was letting in water which causes more corrosion. The paint on the centres was pretty tired too and the bolts had all gone dull.




I started to remove all the bolts with the special tools I managed to borrow from someone off of TVRCC. O.Z wheels use an unusual and hard to find 10 point socket so unless you can get hold of these tools you've got no hope of getting them apart.



After removing all the nuts and bolts you'll see the rim is sealed onto the wheel to keep it air tight with mastic. This can be cut away with a sharp knife. The outer lip can now be removed from the wheel. A few hits with a rubber mallet will soon have it away.





I repeated this process three other times and ended up with a pile of bits like this


Next steps are to send the lips off to be polished. The centres will be blasted and powder coated in the original silver with the centre caps to match except the centre nut will be polished to match the lips. I'll also be replacing the nuts and bolts with new ones but will go for the more conventional 12 point sockets so if i need to take them apart again I can do so without the special tools.

Mr MoJo

4,698 posts

215 months

Thursday 20th October 2011
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Worth every penny you spend yes

My favourite Griff wheels, would love to get my hands on a set of 4 16's for my car eventually.

MPoxon

5,329 posts

172 months

Sunday 23rd October 2011
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Looking forward to seeing some shots of the finished refurb. O.Z. wheels do look very special on a griff.

I was chatting to Simon at the Growl this year about is black precat griff and his O.Z wheels. I believe he said they were refurbished a few years ago but they still look brand new.

And of course a picture had to be taken:


TVR Griffith by Matthew Poxon, on Flickr

5.0ltr

2,750 posts

198 months

Sunday 23rd October 2011
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MPoxon said:
....I was chatting to Simon at the Growl this year about is black precat griff and his O.Z wheels. I believe he said they were refurbished a few years ago but they still look brand new.........
Indeed, one Growl I can see Simon finding his car on bricks!laugh

FlipFlopGriff

7,144 posts

246 months

Monday 24th October 2011
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MPoxon said:
Looking forward to seeing some shots of the finished refurb. O.Z. wheels do look very special on a griff.

I was chatting to Simon at the Growl this year about is black precat griff and his O.Z wheels. I believe he said they were refurbished a few years ago but they still look brand new.

And of course a picture had to be taken:


TVR Griffith by Matthew Poxon, on Flickr
He does seem to polish the wheels (and the car) a lot.
FFG

Griffer

267 posts

281 months

Monday 24th October 2011
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I did my original OZ wheels at home a couple of years ago,they were not in as bad condition as the Op's though, mine had slight laquer lift but my rear wheels had been assembled from new with black rim bolts with chrome on the fronts which was always a bit annoying, apparently this was due to some supply problems at the time and I have indeed seen another Griff like this.

After stripping the rims I removed the laquer with Nitromors which did not attack the surface finish. A slight 1/2" long kerb scrape was linished out of one rim lip with an air sander by going 360 deg around the rim untill it was gone, then checked for run out, and polished back with 1200 paper and Solvol. All the rims mirror polished up beautifully using a combination of drill mop and hand polishing as none of the etching was very deep even around the bolt holes. The black bolts I had chrome plated, the fronts were in perfect order.

I decided not to re-laquer the rims, the baskets were still excellent so were merely deep cleaned, the centre caps I resprayed to match with the centre nut section re-polished as original.

After careful reassembly with new valve units and fitting a set of new tyres, there have been no issues with wheel balance or air leaks. Use a high quality mastic and and pay careful attention to torquing the rim bolts. All in all well worth having a go, I spent well under £100.00 using borrowed rim bolt tools and that included old tyre removal, new valves, plating and consumables. The new tyres were financed by the sale of my set of spare Estorils.

I keep the rims polished with Belgom Alu which I highly recommend and 2 years on still look as good as ever.

I was never able to source replacement OZ Racing rim stickers of the correct style and shape, would anyone know a supplier?

Good luck with your project Russell MC.
Steve

FlipFlopGriff

7,144 posts

246 months

Monday 24th October 2011
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You can't get the proper stickers but you can get stickers, but as the text is printed on the top of the sticker it comes off when you polish so I'd leave them off TBH.
FFG

leerdam23

606 posts

260 months

Monday 24th October 2011
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Anyone know where to get the wheel centre 'theft proof' bolt from, or better still, one with a allen key type hole?

Hoover.

5,988 posts

241 months

Monday 24th October 2011
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leerdam23 said:
Anyone know where to get the wheel centre 'theft proof' bolt from, or better still, one with a allen key type hole?
After damaging mine by removing them without the right key I searched high and low for the retaining bolts.... came to the conclusion that these were OZ specific...... I ended up getting a some new ones and a tool machineed, by an enegineering workshop who used the old damaged ones as a template.

SV8Predator

2,102 posts

164 months

Wednesday 9th November 2011
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Russell Mc. said:
I started to remove all the bolts with the special tools I managed to borrow from someone off of TVRCC. O.Z wheels use an unusual and hard to find 10 point socket so unless you can get hold of these tools you've got no hope of getting them apart.
I found the 10 point sockets here:

http://www.lasertools.co.uk/item.aspx?item=5359

part no 5132 is the 8mm socket, 5133 the 10mm socket.

Cheap as chips.


Griffer

267 posts

281 months

Thursday 10th November 2011
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Good call SV8Predator, thank you. At that price a no brainer.
Just ordered a set of both sizes for future peace of mind in case I ever need to split mine again. I kept to the standard bolts due to the extremely high 12.9 rating marked on the bolt heads.

cavebloke

640 posts

226 months

Friday 11th November 2011
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SV8Predator said:
I found the 10 point sockets here:

http://www.lasertools.co.uk/item.aspx?item=5359

part no 5132 is the 8mm socket, 5133 the 10mm socket.

Cheap as chips.
Is there a need to buy both for a split-rim rebuild? Aren't all the bolts one size? Never done it, but I want to so forgive me if this is a stupid question.

Russell Mc

Original Poster:

573 posts

150 months

Friday 11th November 2011
quotequote all
You will need both. The bolts are smaller than the nuts.

Russell Mc

Original Poster:

573 posts

150 months

Monday 16th January 2012
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Progress has been a little slow on these what with xmas and the new year plus I helped my parents and sister move recently.
I was messing about trying to get the lacquer off the rims so I could send them off to be polished. I didn't want to use sand papers as this would make more work for the polishers so the only option was paint stripper. Due to a change in the law back in 2010 the stuff that makes paint stripper work so well has been banned confused so basically it doesn't work anymore on lacquer.
Anyway an old school friend has recently set up his own wheel refurbishment place so this afternoon I took the wheels, rims and the centre caps down there to his place http://www.premierwheelrepairs.com/
He is going to acid dip all the parts to remove the old lacquer and paint. Powder coat the wheels and centre caps in silver and give the rims back so I can send them off to be polished.
Should have some pictures of the fresh looking centres by the weekend.

cavebloke

640 posts

226 months

Tuesday 17th January 2012
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Russell Mc said:
Powder coat the wheels and centre caps in silver
What are you going to do about the polished sections of the centre caps? It looks like they were originally machined back after the powder coat was applied but it is very difficult to recreate this effect. Will you just powder coat over the lot?


Russell Mc

Original Poster:

573 posts

150 months

Tuesday 17th January 2012
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At the moment it's all going to be powder coated. I may though take polish the whole 'nut' depending on how it looks

Russell Mc

Original Poster:

573 posts

150 months

Sunday 22nd January 2012
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Got the centres back from the powder coaters Saturday. Pleased with how they came out. Rims have been dipped too so just have to get them off to the polishers this week if I have some spare time.






carsy

3,018 posts

164 months

Sunday 22nd January 2012
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Very Nice. thumbup

SILICONEKID340HP

14,997 posts

230 months

Sunday 22nd January 2012
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Plenty of aftermarket split rims around and value for money,15" to 18" any offset







Loads of copies around,no one puts there nose up at copy minilites..



Edited by SILICONEKID340HP on Sunday 22 January 23:12

Russell Mc

Original Poster:

573 posts

150 months

Sunday 22nd January 2012
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Fake splits hurl