My initial plans when rebuilding my Badlander was to use the wheels I'd had on it for the last 20+ years but decided to go for even older ones in the end.
However, I really liked these wheels and decided to rebuild them anyway and they're going on my Falcon Pro build now!
They are Sun Mistral rims on GT hubs.
They looked pretty bad to start with. The rims were scuffed and corroded and pretty worn but were straight and servicable but the hubs had seen better days. The chrome had all but come off completely from winter use and the thread on the front axle was damaged from an ill-fitting peg. It would've made a lot more sense to chuck the wheels and buy new ones but that's not what it's about, is it?
Here are the wheels before I started on the Badlander....
I stripped the wheels down and started on the hubs first as they were the worst offenders. At this stage I should've binned them and bought some NOS ones but I'm a glutten for punishment!
I got them chromed but the alloy was so porous they had to be chromed 4 times and even then the flanges weren't perfect. I then dispatched them to Dan to powder the flanges old school white; the same colour as the Badlander. I got some new GT decals off Del and tried to put them back together!
Unfortunately, I'd mashed up the rear seals quite badly removing them and they were a nightmare to get back in! They even damaged the new powder so I had to carefully cut a ring of powder off the end of the flange to get rid of the damage but luckily, the chrome was good beneath it and it turned out fine! I eventually got the seals back in with a lot of help from a hammer, socket and pliers!
I had no luck tracking down a new front axle to replace the thread damaged one but again came up trumps. I bought a 3/8ths die and wound it down the thread and it cleaned it up like new!
Next I turned my attention to the rims. After many hours rubbing down they started to look quite smart.
After I finished rubbing them down I polished them and took them to Malden Plating to get anodised. Unfortunately, they couldn't do it as the spoke holes had brass eyes and you can't anodise brass.
This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as there was corrosion around the spoke holes I couldn't completely get rid of which had caused crazing and that would've shown through the anodising.
I had a word with Dan and he did an amazing job powdering them in Raleigh Burner blue and an old school style red. I got some replica decals of Del which really finished them off nicely.
I then sent the whole lot off to my local bmx shop as I still can't lace wheels (wrapped in tons of bubble wrap!
) with a big list of what I wanted.
When they phoned to say they were ready, I was amazed when I saw them! Believe me, they look a lot better in the flesh than in these pics!
I also had some custom FP dice caps made up in red and blue too by scotty b!
I bought some Comp ST copy tyres off this site from Ed209 but wasn't sure at first if they suited the colour of the wheels but when I loose fitted them to the chrome frame and forks of the Falcon Pro, they looked perfect! Again, they look nowhere near as good in these photo's as they do in real life!
The colours are a lot more vibrant in real life but hopefully that'll show up when I take pics of the finished bike!
Hope you like them?
Cheers,
Giles
