rescue161
New member
I've been looking for an old go kart like I used to ride when I was younger (70's/80's). Come to find out, you can find them, but 9 times out of 10, the wheels have been replaced. So, I went on a mad search to find just the wheels. Much to my surprise, the wheels that I was searching for have been discontinued. A search on Ebay turned up that these wheels that I wanted were fetching around $30-$60.00 a PIECE.
Needless to say, I played the waiting game and found a whole cart (less engine) for $60.00 and it had the wheels that I wanted so badly! The kart itself is in horrible shape. The floor pan was completely rusted through and was almost detached from the frame, which was also rusted pretty bad. I didn't really care about the frame as I had the infamous discontinued wheels!
Well, I stripped the kart down and took the wheels apart. I was a little nervous at first, because the idiot that had it before me tried to just use the kart without wheel bearings on two of the wheels. Luckily, the outer part of the wheel bearing was still pressed into the wheel, so only that part was damaged and the wheel survived. I removed all of the bearings and parts of bearings and want to put them back into original shape.
They have some red paint on them (not original), a LOT of grease and some corrosion. What do you guys recommend for taking the paint and corrosion off? I guess if I have to, I can bead-blast them, but I would rather not. I don't know if an aluminum wheel cleaner would be okay and if it would even take the old paint off. It took a while to get my hands on these wheels and I don't want to mess them up.
What do you guys think?
Needless to say, I played the waiting game and found a whole cart (less engine) for $60.00 and it had the wheels that I wanted so badly! The kart itself is in horrible shape. The floor pan was completely rusted through and was almost detached from the frame, which was also rusted pretty bad. I didn't really care about the frame as I had the infamous discontinued wheels!
Well, I stripped the kart down and took the wheels apart. I was a little nervous at first, because the idiot that had it before me tried to just use the kart without wheel bearings on two of the wheels. Luckily, the outer part of the wheel bearing was still pressed into the wheel, so only that part was damaged and the wheel survived. I removed all of the bearings and parts of bearings and want to put them back into original shape.
They have some red paint on them (not original), a LOT of grease and some corrosion. What do you guys recommend for taking the paint and corrosion off? I guess if I have to, I can bead-blast them, but I would rather not. I don't know if an aluminum wheel cleaner would be okay and if it would even take the old paint off. It took a while to get my hands on these wheels and I don't want to mess them up.
What do you guys think?
