How can protect wheels from rusting in the seems? is it safe to put waxoil on the back of them - that would make handling them unpleasant.

Any suggestions?

A good thick layer of grease on the back of my wheels has'nt [did'nt] stop them rusting .....so I dont see how waxoyle is gonna stop 'em rusting.
I'd suggest the rot starts from the inside too,so a coat of waxoyle on the inside seam [before the tyre is fitted] and outside back seam might stop the rot.
Then again ......having treated a new front bumper to waxoyle along the welded seams [both on the "outside" and "inside" ] .....and still having rust bubble through after about three years .......I'd suggest that the rot is prob'ly built into both wheels and bumpers.

T.

I used the grease that is used on the kingpins, just a light covering will suffice. Also used it on seam on the front bumper, again a light covering and it been on the car since I bought it from ECAS at Kelso 2005.

there's no seam under the tyre, only the other sides of the spotwelds. Even the worst wheels I've seen the part of the rim hidden by the tyre hasn't been too bad. I think the rot begins in the seams between the joins.

I can't offer any better advice to stop it rotting mind...

With mine I gave them a ton of waxoyl laid on there backs thined some and pored into the seam from front of wheel then left to dry and wiped off excess then turned over painted it around the seam and left to dry then another coat all over the backs. Not to sure how well it will work but it seems to have kept them good so far but only did it about 9 months ago.

Waxoyl - yes!

I'm with Russ on this - I've had wheels where the seam has been utterly "blown", hitting on the kingpins, but when you take the tyre off, the inside of the well is still shiny paint.

Think about the construction of the wheel. You've got two parts - the centre, and the rim.

Broadly speaking, it looks a bit like this :-



So the welded seam is exposed to the atmosphere in two places - the front face, and the rear. The rear's where it's most visible, especially the "after effects", but the front is probably the bit where it suffers most. Few people bother to keep the inside of the wheels clean, and they're usually well slathered in grease from the kingpins. OTOH, the front is usually washed regularly, and the thin coat of paint which forms the only barrier to moisture getting in is usually cracked at that point, even if it ever properly sealed the joint - the thin black line at the deepest point...

I was advised ,when asking about my wheels, to throw them away and replace with new as they are so cheap anyway. Not wanting to automatically follow (good) advice, I cleaned up the wheels as best as I could, then sprayed lots of that rust preventative liquid which comes with the POR15 paint, then a few coats of red oxide, then primer and paint. Time will tell whether or not I've wasted my time or not.

Forgot to mention that I bought my wheels with tyres, from ECAS in 2003. Apart from a section on the rim on the front off-side wheel(where I unfortunately hit a curb in France this January, due to ice and lights going red ) all wheels are in very good condition.

Hi all .....a very interesting discussion.....
Last year [late 2009] ....I tired of pumping a "slow" puncture up [it was lasting about a week] .....I took the wheel & tyre to my local back street tyre emporium and left it with them to fix..... [I know the owner,he's an old schoolmate]
When I returned my pal said he'd had the tyre off & cleaned the rim up [thinking it was the rim/bead area where it was leaking] ......but then he found that the inside of the rim was actually leaking from where it had rusted.
He was reluctant to put a tube into it [as per my suggestion] .....and he asked me to have a look if I had a spare rim in my "shed-full of bits" ......[I had,and the problem was solved].
But that "leaky" wheel was one of the original ones fitted to my car in 1988 .....[the spare is still in the boot,as new,totally unused].
Needless to say .....four new wheels are on my shopping list @ the next big meet I attend ....[this years registers day ]

best regards
Terry