Refurbishing Alloy Wheel nuts and centres

[MikeRotherham]

I'm looking for a little advice regarding refurbishing the factory alloy wheel nuts and the wheel centre cups.

Can the wheel nuts be re plated or treated in some way.

Can the wheel centres have the bumps and scratches removed.

I gather the wheel centres are NLA is there a modern equivalent?

Regards

Mike.

[mak]

I think Rimmer bros have now got some centres. (was thinking about getting a batch spun from stainless)

for the nuts, imho plating is never great on wheel nuts, but places can do this pretty easily. Stainless nuts were available a few years ago and I'm sure someone on here will have some info.

[whitenviro]

I had some pretty beat up center caps and was able to get them looking good enough to use. They are soft aluminum, so a combination of pounding out the bumps and sanding down the rough surfaces worked, then I had them powder coated along with the wheels.

I guess this doesn't show them too well, but trust me, they look good!




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1980 Pageant Blue DHC with removable hardtop.

[MikeRotherham]

Thanks for your replies.

Those wheels look pretty good!

Mike.

[Chris Turner]

Mike, just had 2 sets of wheels powder coated, come and see the results if your in Sheffield.

www.triumphtrs.co.uk
THE Coca Cola car
The C+C Conversions rally car JDG 941V
TR7 Sprint SJW 530S on the road for the 1st time since 1984
TR7 Sprint SJW 539S

[supercass]

Depends how keen you are on originality. I always thought the original alloy centre pieces lacked a Triumph logo so I purchased some, cleaned up the centres, applied the logo and clear coated them. They look quite reasonable. In respect of the nuts I really think you are on a losing battle. Whatever finish you put on them it will almost certainly be damaged the next time you remove the nuts to take the wheel off. In the end I just used some wheel nut covers. supercass

[FI Spyder]

I wire brush (on a bench grinder) the rust off, soak them with Metalready, install and torque 88 ft. lb. , make a cone out of a sheet of paper, with it in the wheel nut hole spray some wax oil in there (on them). You can experiment with clear coat or what ever water resistant thing you want to minimize the rust until next time you remove them as in the next tire rotation etc. Would like to go to stainless steel at some point, definitely when I get the alloys powder coated as they are getting a little long in the tooth.

- - -TR7 Spider - - - 1978 Spitfire- - - - 1976 Spitfire - - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - Yellow TCT

[Chris Turner]

I always use stainless steel wheel nuts, more expensive but trouble free.

www.triumphtrs.co.uk
THE Coca Cola car
The C+C Conversions rally car JDG 941V
TR7 Sprint SJW 530S on the road for the 1st time since 1984
TR7 Sprint SJW 539S

[MikeRotherham]

Thanks again for all your input.

The wheel nut covers are a good compromise.

Regards
Mike.