The plan is to keep the entire van the way it was designed back in the days with obviously some minor personal details. So, no wicked rims but plain original 14 inch wheels for this baby. They have proved to do the job pretty well for the past 40 years, so who am I to change this? Unfortunately, the rims have suffered from being around water and dirt to long for the past 40 years, which has definitely not improved their looks.
After sandblasting and a nice layer of primer, Hans Sprenkel used original rivets to install new hubcap claps on all of the rims. After this, my rims ended up in oblivion...
A while ago I did another one of my archaeological discoveries. All covered in dust, there they were, untouched for a year. I decided to throw myself into this seemingly unpleasant job. As you can see on the photos, the rims were seriously corroded. It seemed to complicated to fill up these irregularities with ordinary filler, because not all of the places are very accessible.
I chose to solve the problem with spray-filler, which should be available at your local DIY-store. There are two different types of spray-filler:
Heavy Filler (yellow), can be used for filling of irregularity up to 1 mm.
Fine Filler (grey), suitable for the finishing of shallow irregularities smaller than 0.5 mm. Also a good choice to finish your Heavy Filler work.
After the Heavy Filler had dried, I used rough sandpaper (grain 80) to sand until the steel becomes visible again; the photos clearly show the filled holes. Repeat until all holes are filled.
For the Fine Filler I used grain 180 for the first layers and finished with grain 240 on the last, preparing the rims for the spray-paint.
It's not one of the most fascinating jobs and definitely not a quick job. Looking back at the time I spend on those 5 rims... I must have spend over 15 hours. However, I'm sure I'll be satisfied when they’re spray-painted and ready to take me and the van out for a spin!
