Steel Rim Pitting

Good morning all,

Was out on a long, beautiful ride with my brother yesterday and ended up on a path that that goes around a cobble beach. I was on my Commando and he was on some kind of a non-Norton, the makers name I can't recall . A portion of the path turns out to have been washed away long ago and has naturally filled back in with small cobbles. When we reached this section we stopped and considered whether to turn around or try to carry on. The area in question was probably somewhere between 50 and 100 meters across. After hemming and hawing for a few minutes I (foolishly) decided to give it go. Within a few meters my back wheel was sinking into the cobbles, spitting rocks around and the bike was threatening to bottom out. By this point stopping no longer seemed to be an option since it felt like a nightmare version of one of those kids pools filled with plastic balls, except in this case it was rocks. I felt like if I stopped, I would dig in badly trying to move again and would have become a permanent beach fixture. So I kept going.

I made it to the other end, under the watchful eye of an older, very concerned looking gentleman sitting nearby, while my brother quietly turned around and explored his options for meeting me later. I parked on a nice flat surface after the ordeal, and my brother found me before long and we decided to stop for a lunch at that point. I had a good look at the bike, and to my great relief there was no sign that I had scraped anything on the bottom of the machine. There were a few small pebbles here and there to pick out, but no new related scratches.

Unfortunately, my rear rim did get some new pitting from the cobbles. I am fairly rotted about it since I bought this rim brand new a few years ago when I was rebuilding the bike. My daughter and I laced it by hand. The pitting is not super bad or anything, but it is annoying since that rim was pretty pristine up to that point.

So, I am now wondering if I can sand that rim back to spotless perfection, or should I just accept that I have some new patina?

Thanks!

J

You definitely do NOT want to sand chrome . You will ruin the finish . My suggestion would be to try using Autosol metal polish either by hand or with a cloth buffing wheel . I have used Autosol for many years without any issues . Be careful of any " snake oil " products that claim " better than new " ..

Is it chromed or polished alloy?

Thanks folks. It came from the UK, I thought it was solid steel? I could be wrong. Pretty sure it's not chrome.

Supercat said:

I thought it was solid steel?

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Yes it probably is.

Supercat said:

Pretty sure it's not chrome

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That's just the plating assuming it is chrome plated.

If the rim is magnetic, it is chromed steel and there is not much you can do.
If it isn't magnetic, the rim is aluminum and you can probably reduce the damage.
Essentially you need to sand down the surface to the lower level of the dents. You will go through a range of sandpaper grits, probably stopping around 1000 grit, then aluminum polish. Not easy to avoid scratches in the final finish.
This will entail a fair amount of work and you can't quit halfway or it will look worse than when you started.
If the rim has a clearcoat on it, the task is a lot bigger.

If it is polished stainless steel or chrome, I would use a brass brush and WD40 in an area and see if it actually cleans up. Chrome is very hard to dent. Stainless is almost as hard to dent. Very unlikely that you would do actual damage to either. Others have already covered aluminum. Stainless steel is non-magnetic or mildly magnetic depending on the alloy - but in any case much less magnetic than plain steel.

If you can't figure out what it's made of, a picture will let us help you better.

Good points Greg. The rim could also be stainless steel. Which is hard to dent, but not plated, so it could be sanded and polished if need be. The first task is to determine what the rim is made of. Or, just call it patina and move on......

Thanks everyone! The rim has a couple of things stamped into it. On one side it says 'Valtru" if I am reading it correctly. On the other side it has "WM2 1.85 x 19".

I ordered it from the UK a few years ago, and the invoice says: "Options: Rim Quality: Budget Stainless".

Does that help? Thanks again,

J

Supercat said:

Does that help?

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Yes, as it's stainless Valtru you can polish it.

Awesome, thanks! Does this mean I can sand and polish? Or should I just stick to the Autosol mentioned above?

Supercat said:

Does this mean I can sand and polish?

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Yes.

Be careful with sanding as you'll likely need machine polishing afterwards to get the finish back.
If it were me I'd start with polish and give it a try and if necessary get more aggressive afterwards.
Fingers crossed.

Obviously sanding varies tremendously depending on the type and grade of abrasive used ... Lol !!

This is what can be accomplished with Stainless.
These holes in the Stainless mudguard were filled with weld .
Welds dressed off with files and then wet sanded with various grades of silicone carbide sandpaper in soapy water.
Lastly buffed in two stages on the buffer .

A nice job ^^^ and your description shows the extent of the work required even with the right tooling.

Supercat said:

Awesome, thanks! Does this mean I can sand and polish? Or should I just stick to the Autosol mentioned above?

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Practice on an old stainless kitchen pot first.
Bitch it up on rocks & gravel.
Perfect your technique.

As mentioned, there is a lot to it.

Was the rim originally satin? Or brightly polished?

We like images here, to help us help you.

Supercat said:

Awesome, thanks! Does this mean I can sand and polish? Or should I just stick to the Autosol mentioned above?

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I would use a brass brush and WD40 to see what actually needs to be done. Then metal polish if not happy. Then black buffing compound and a small hand-held buffer if still not happy. Only then would I consider sandpaper and I would start with 1000. When you take metal off stainless, it's a bitch to get the scratches out unless you have real buffing tools and you'll never be able to use those with the tire mounted. Like I said before, seems unlikely that you have actual dents in stainless steel.

#0000 steel wool and WD40 is my preferred way to revive chrome before a polish.

in

maaseyracer said:

#0000 steel wool and WD40 is my preferred way to revive chrome before a polish.

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never use steel wool on non ferrous metals.

Wow! Thanks all for the detailed info! This forum is a wealth of information and I really appreciate it.

Richard, those fender shots give me lots of hope. The fender looks amazing. I took a couple of photos, but I can't remember how to post them here, but I can probably figure it out again this evening when I have more time.