GTO Text Topics

One-stop RallyII wheel info     Everything you ever wanted to know about Rally II wheels

Ooops.  You have encountered a document that is under construction.  Excuse 
the primer dust that's choking your lungs.







When this article is finished it will be all-encompassing about:


  
Rally II size codes and meanings.

  
Trim ring differences with photos

  
Rally II restoration methods including
  (a) Paint codes and brands that match
  (b) Sandblasting, sanding
  (c) How to mask them, masking kit sources
  (d) Pics of wheels being restored

  
My experience restoring them

  
Sources where you can buy restored Rally II wheels, nuts, trim rings.

Looking for contributors to the article.  Email me!




Here are some messages I received on the Rally II wheel subject so far:

From John (Framair@aol.com) - There have been several attempts over 
the years to reproduce a correct in fit and appearance Trim Ring for the 
early Rally II applications. (Including some Rally I's)

I do know that the original GM Part was discontinued years ago. I've seen
people asking as much as $500 for a set of (4) of these Trim Rings. 
(Part #9781480). This is the 'Brushed' finish.  

There was a 2nd Type (Part #475019) that was the same except it had a 
'Polished' finish.  These were both 4 clip, 14x6 Trim Rings.

As far as reproductions, I've seen different versions.... Clip design, outer
ridge design, finish and fit are all variations.

I'd be interested in hearing from others on this subject and what is 
currently available.. from who... and how they rate (appearance/fit).

-------
From Phil Shaffer (pshaffer@ecicnet.org) - 

I have a set of 15" rally II's.  When I restored the Tempest I decided to 
sand blast the wheels (as well as the frame) and put new cooper cobra's 
(236 60R15) on them.  I painted them with DupliColor paint (silver and Dark 
Met Gray).  The masking kit I used was the one from The Paddock and I've been 
very happy with everything except when I torqued the lug nuts.  When I put 
the nuts on, the paint around them peeled/crushed somewhat, I had the tires 
mounted and the wheels on the car within 24 hours of painting...   

-------

Sean speaks:
My experience with restoring Rally II wheels was time-consuming.  But you 
can learn from my mistakes.  Here are the steps I used:

(1) Took all four unsightly old wheels off car.  No need to dismount the 
    tires from the rims.
(2) Hand-sanded the old paint and rust off each rim.  This was a very 
    laborious task because these wheels have a lot of little crevices and 
    raised details. (The sanding was a mistake because I should have 
    sandblasted the rims.)
(3) Cleaned the wheels.  Blew them dry with compressed air.
(4) Masked off the tire with masking tape and newspaper.
(5) Primed the wheels with Rust-Oleum spray cans from the hardware store. 
    Choked on the fumes since I wasn't wearing a respirator mask!
(6) Custom-mixed a batch of gray.  My Dad had a good eye for tinting colors. 
    He improvised a formula.  He mixed black, white, silver, and blue as I 
    remember.  Applied the gray to the wheels with an expensive sable sign 
    painter's brush.  Cooked the paint dry under a 150 watt heat lamp for 
    a few hours.
(7) Got a roll of thin 1/4 inch masking tape.  Easily and carefully 
    masked around the the edges of the parts that were to be silver.
(8) Mixed up a special can of silver color-matched paint in my Dad's sign 
    shop.  We threw in whatever looked good.  Some silver base, some white, 
    shook in some aluminum flakes out of a tall can, threw in some tiny 
    reflective "glow bead" particles for flash.  Mixed it all up.  Applied 
    paint to the raised "spoke" area with a fine sable brush.  This takes 
    time to do it right.  There were NO brush marks!  Cooked the paint dry 
    under a 150 watt heat lamp overnight.
(9) Installed centers on the wheels.  Cussed a lot because they like to 
    slide around in the center hole a lot.  It's easy to scratch up the fresh 
    paint during this step!
(10) Installed finished wheels on the car.  They looked very nice!
(11) Went down to my friendly Auto Works discount parts store.  They advised 
    me not to buy their cheap-o trim rings.  I did anyway because they looked 
    very very shiny.  Three months later those trim rings were rusting 
    like a penny left out in the rain.  Unsightly!  A year later I tossed those 
    cheap trim rings in the trash.
(12) Two years later the wheels were starting to rust again. I should have done 
    two things to prevent rust.  The first is SANDBLASTING the wheels 
    instead of hand-sanding them.  I also could have CLEAR-COATED the 
    wheels before I installed them on the car.  That would have added more 
    life to them.

Attention GTO newsletter editors! Go ahead and reprint any of these Text Topics articles. Just give me credit as Sean Mattingly (Sean@UltimateGTO.com) at The Ultimate GTO Picture Site located at http://UltimateGTO.com