Re: 1924 Sport 136

Posted by Karl On 2024/4/28 5:23:15

After the unpleasant experience of having a professional tire service remove the snap rings from the rims, I tried to find answers through intensive internet research that could help solve the problems when the rings are levered into the joint with the usual tire irons. There is a risk that the paint on the edges of the rim will chip off. Little by little I found some answers, but never a completely unproblematic solution. I found some of the options through guys at AACA. Surprise .... and by the way, the same bad experiences with the “professionals” that I had were described there. Here in Germany, too, today only the companies that deal with snap ring wheels are mounted on trucks, possibly also on agricultural vehicles or other special vehicles such as forklifts, etc. ... Gross motor skills are sufficient for these tires. “Fine” snap rings can become a problem, as the boss of one of these companies explained to me.
My research has shown..... yes, there can be problems when attaching these snap rings. The spring steel of these rings, which is now 100 years old, is most likely showing material fatigue. In addition, the chrome plating and the acid required may have led to an unfavorable hydrogen enrichment in parts of these rings, which could have made the steel even more brittle. Even after so many years, these rings should be levered over the edges of the rim with a lot of sensitivity and suitable tools/assembly aids and should be stretched as little as possible. But enough for them to get into your seat/joint without damaging the edges. I also decided to do this work myself.
After I had freed the rims from all the generously applied layers of filler and paint, I carefully removed all rust, paint and other deposits from the joint in the rim where the ring must then sit. To do this, I prepared a narrow rotary brush for the flex and cleaned and then sanded these important joints. All of this is important because this snap ring is the only component that needs to hold the tire on the rim after inflation (55-60 psi) -!!! …. and to do this it must definitely find the intended hold in the groove/joint. I didn't have the rims sandblasted or dipped because I don't want the paint that sat in the deep rust pits for years to be removed and the new Putty/Paint to get back into the rust pits and shrink then again, creating new imperfections in the surface. This creates a good basis for the new paint structure. This required many additional hours of work, but the paint on the rims also had to have the same surface quality as the other components, because the rims are also an essential part of the overall picture.
In order to achieve an optimal new paint build-up, I bought an older balancing machine that I can use to rotate the rims to achieve an even surface when sanding. I would also like to see how far the rims are warped and how big the imbalance is in the rims alone. After mounting the tires, I would like to compensate for most of the resulting imbalance by gluing in lead plates. Just like David Mc described in an article I read a while ago. As I recall, he did this with the tires on his sedans. Given the speed the vehicle can reach, that should definitely be enough. The rotation of the balancer also helps mark the positions for pin striping.
I only had to manipulate the balancer slightly electrically to keep it running continuously and avoid the pre-programmed stop when balancing after 4-6 seconds. Once this work is completed, the machines will be put back on the used market.
Maybe it will cost me €100 in the end, but I can save myself the long trip to the assembly companies for appointments, transport and costs. And ultimately the hassle because damage or other inexplicable damage has to be complained about again. I have now purchased some tools and assembly aids that I think could be crucial in attaching the rings without causing damage. I will show and describe the work when the painting of the rims is complete. But that will still take some time.