Learn me: Refinishing Two Piece Wheels

Hey All,

I recently picked up a set of two piece wheels (Super Advan SA3) for my V6 MR2 project (shameless plug here) and they're in need of some refinishing.

I've painted one piece wheels, but taking apart the two piece ones is a bit more intimidating, mostly because I eventually have to put them back together and drive on them. So, I come to the hivemind with some questions:

1) Paint or powdercoat?

2)  Are replacement wheel bolts available? I've read that these bolts are one-time use and are torqued to yield, but I've also read people who say the opposite and that they're meant to be reused.

3) I can't find ANY torque specs for them, and reaching out to the wheel manufacturer (Advan/Yokohama) was zero help. Maybe their Japanese customer servie number could help, but I don't speak Japanese. What should I torque them to to be safe?

4) I assume blue loctite is a must?

Picture for posterity. Yes, they aren't everyone's cup of tea, but they fit the 90's MR2 so, so well. 

Give Black Forest Industries a call and see if they can be of any help. 

Just don't sandblast the wheels, but I'd lean toward powdercoat. 

Everything I've read about refinish 2-3 piece wheels, as far as reassembly, it's not that it's difficult, just very tedious and time consuming. Lots of how tos around the interwebs if you search.

In because I too have 2 piece wheel that need refinishing

Go poke around on the Stanceworks forum. There were a ton of threads chronicling multi piece wheel rebuilds back in the day. I am not sure how active the forum is now, but I bet someone on there could help you out or at least point you in the right direction. 

I rebarreled a set of 3 piece wheels last summer and it wasnt bad.  I was changing offsets and fixing a cracked lip at the same time.  These were Niche wheels but the process is the same.

Torque specs you can use the generic ones on the interwebs based on bolt size.  Measure the bolt to confirm, some wheels are 7mm and some are 8mm.

The gist of it is:

Remove all the bolts.  I broke them loose by hand and then used a battery impact to spin them out.  

Split the wheels.  Sometimes they just come apart, sometimes you need to give them some love.  I had to cut the existing sealant with a razor knife and they pulled apart

Clean off all the old sealant ALL OF IT. I also used a large flat file to remove any burrs on the mating face of the barrels since my wheels were assembled barrel to barrel on the back side of the center.

Chase all the thread holes on the wheels if they are not thru-bolted.  Get rid of all the old Loctite

Refinish the wheels as desired

Use some silicone caulk (regular good old GE Silicone is fine) on the mating faces and reassemble using blue loctite on the fasteners.

Tighten in a star pattern creeping up on the torque spec, I went in 3 steps.  1 to snug and then two finish torques, half way and final.  I used 3 different colors of marker to keep track of what bolt I had tightened. 

I used a speeder wrench to snug the bolts, and a 1/4" clicker torque wrench for the final torque.

Once your wheels are assembled, lay down a continuous fatty bead of silicone in the gap between the barrels on the inside.  Don't touch it and let it cure for a day or 2 before mounting your tires.  I found the easiest way to do this was to have a helper roll the wheels on my garage floor while I laid down the silicone.

Also - big wheels like 20s drink a lot of silicone so I always started with a fresh tube when laying the fatty bead.

They didnt leak, I didn't die, YMMV and IANAL.

I did my 2 piece BBS RS-GT II and installed them in 11/2015, been driving on them since with no issues.

Ran into the same problem you did, lots of conflicting info online about torque specs, bolt stretching, sealant, dire warnings to not remove the face from 2 piece wheels.

Reused bolts, soaked in acetone and wire brushed to clean as much old loctite off as possible. Used blue loctite and torqued to BBS specs found on Rennlist and here. Fresh blue loctite upon reassembly. No sealant. 

Scuffed and glazing putty for the chips in paint, mine weren't bad, no primer, no clear. 

Spray painted using Grimmspeed gold, did not powdercoat due to concerns about heat required.

93gsxturbo said:

I rebarreled a set of 3 piece wheels last summer and it wasnt bad.  I was changing offsets and fixing a cracked lip at the same time.  These were Niche wheels but the process is the same.

Good information, although for the OP's two piece wheels there's no sealing required.

Powdercoating isn’t an issues unless you have forged centers.  The torque for the bolts is usually pretty low and is measured in in/lbs.

I’ve reused bolts before, but I check them thoroughly for stretch and chase the threads with a dye.  If a bolt is deformed, I chuck it.  

I use blue thread locker sparingly, like only on the last 3 threads.  

Aside from that, I install the bolts “across-and-over-one” method until they are snug with a 1/4” ratchet.  Then I torque them down and then check them after 500 miles or so.

stuart in mn said:

93gsxturbo said:

I rebarreled a set of 3 piece wheels last summer and it wasnt bad.  I was changing offsets and fixing a cracked lip at the same time.  These were Niche wheels but the process is the same.

Good information, although for the OP's two piece wheels there's no sealing required.

Truf.com. 

Although there are some oddball 2pcs where the center and inner barrel are 1 pc and the outer barrel is the second piece.  There are also some made the other way, where the center and outer barrel are one piece and the inner barrel is a separate piece.  And then there are some Trololol wheels (IForged maybe?Forgelines?) where the 2 pc wheels look like they are bolted together but they are actually welded.  The old Boyd Coddington wheels, Billet Specialties, and some Centerlines were built that way too, spun 1 piece barrel welded to a billet center.  

Lots of great and helpful info, thanks everyone. Maybe I'll chronicle the rebuild. Witht he amount of bolts my wheels have, it's going to be a tedious process...

DuctTape&Bondo said:

I did my 2 piece BBS RS-GT II and installed them in 11/2015, been driving on them since with no issues.

Ran into the same problem you did, lots of conflicting info online about torque specs, bolt stretching, sealant, dire warnings to not remove the face from 2 piece wheels.

Reused bolts, soaked in acetone and wire brushed to clean as much old loctite off as possible. Used blue loctite and torqued to BBS specs found on Rennlist and here. Fresh blue loctite upon reassembly. No sealant. 

Scuffed and glazing putty for the chips in paint, mine weren't bad, no primer, no clear. 

Spray painted using Grimmspeed gold, did not powdercoat due to concerns about heat required.

Those turned out great. Painting is on the list, but it's more work for me vs powdercoating. Unsure what I'll do.

Now, where can I find the torque specs for the wheel bolts? Advan has been no help. Should I just go with the specs that I've found for other wheels with similarly sized bolts?