Wheels

It's been a busy couple of months for me at work, so I haven't had much chance to do any work on the puku. The weather, of course, not helping either.

I had to use the wheels from my sable, to bring the puku back from Scotland and it's been sitting on them ever since. So I thought it was about time i got it some boots of its own.

With the puku's wheels back home I gave them a good clean and inspection. One of them had quite a bit of surface rust but seemed ok. The other, initially seemed in better condition but then I noticed that at one point on the rim, on both sides, the metal had become very thin presumably from sitting in mud, with a flat tyre. So unfortunately I think this wheel will be for the scrappers. 

I took the other wheel to a local garage to have the old tyre removed.

Back home I started cleaning the rust from the rim with some 80 grit sand paper. After many hours of sanding, most of the worst rust was gone. A quick going over with 250 grit wet and dry and it was ready to paint.

For ease, I used white Hammerite spray paint, as it can be applied directly to barely metal and goes on reasonably thick to help hide some of the pitting. It is also reasonably resistant to stone chipping. I had intended to use the smooth finish but picked up the hammered finish by mistake. As it turned out, the hammered finish worked quite well to hide some of the pitting. I then went over the front face with a few coats of the smooth finished paint. 

 I'm very pleased with the finish. Now just to get a tyre fitted and find another wheel!