3pc rims

[kouness]

Alright, im in the process of removing my 3 pc rims and i gotten all the bolts off, but now i am tryoing to seperate the 3 pieces. what is the best method to seperate them without doing harm. thanks

-kouvang

[!Zar!]

Depending on the wheel, some three piece wheels are welded together at the barrel.

[WoolyS14DET]

heat and alot of patience !!!

[kouness]

Doesnt seem like they are welded at the barrel..

so im gonna need heat huh? how would i go about doing so.. torch?? how much heat is considered unsafe?

[GT240R]

When I pulled my 3pc Work Rezax II apart I just used a razor blade to cut/seperate the silicone that is sealing them together. I ran it all the way around and then just pulled them apart with a thin rubber tipped pri bar. It didn't take much pressure to pull them apart after running the razor blade around them.

[kouness]

i will have to try that.. i already ran a razor blade around taking off the silicone...

any other suggestions would be great!!

[!Zar!]

Heat gun .

[kouness]

Cool thanks for all the quick responses.. i will try these ideas out and see what happens.. thanks
-kouvang

[GT240R]

i will have to try that.. i already ran a razor blade around taking off the silicone...

any other suggestions would be great!!


Not just around it, but inbetween each piece to help seperate them.

[usajdm]

Yeah....... if its not welded, then its just the silicone holding it together.
Polyester cord works well too.
It'll saw through it all the way down the creases of the joining parts.

[soreballz]

Perhaps you could try some light tapping with a rubber mallet?

[nisracer]

we just did some 3 piece wheels and if u see cawk, usually clear, heat it up with a heat gun or torch (lightly and start tapping the sides down. dont jam stuff in there. just get a mallet and tap the inside barrel on the edges so it forces the barrels to seperate. key is to heat the adhesive

[kouness]

thanks its been very helpful with all the great suggestions.. it seems like the heat gun will be the best way to dael with this issue.. i will try them out and see whats work and give everyone an update.. thanks again ZILVIA..

-kouvang

[Fred Allen Burge]

Mine turned out to be welded together on the barrel. Anyway, the best way for me was to turn them upside down and drop them on padded carpet (living room!) from about 1 foot high, worked like a charm to get them apart and again together. The banging effect kind of resonated the barrel and made the center disk fall right out/in.

Fred

[kouness]

Ok... i would like to thank you all for the help.. i finally got them separated... I just took a rubber hammer to the bottom half of the barrel and it came off. Then for the center piece and the lip, i separated it by using a chisel and the rubber hammer to split it open.. it worked like a charm. thanks

- kouvang

[GT240R]

Cool, let us know how they turn out.

[ixfxi]

mallet + razor, shit comes apart.

[kouness]

will do.. i will put up pictures once i get them powder coated gold..

[95KA-Turbo]

When I was taking my RSs apart I put them in the oven at like 375 degrees for ~15 mins. Then flipped them upside down and hit them with a mallet really hard all around the back of the face. They were a pain in the ass to do because the lip and face popped off together on each of them, so I'd have to take them outside to my wooden porch, turn the face around and stomp on it to separate it from the lip.

Scraping all of the silicone off sucks ass. A word of advice, get a cleaning wheel and use an air dremel tool.

Also, if you get the faces powdercoated, make sure you scuff up all of the surfaces where you will be re-siliconing them. RSs make a ~1/2 inch trough that I filled with silicone, but on one of the wheels I had forgotten to scuff it up really good and it ended up leaking air. So I had to take the tire off and scrape all of the silicone back out and redo it all! It sucked ass, I'd say I put about 15 hours in those damn wheels, at least.

Also, you can get cheap silicone caulk from Home Depot that is made for aluminum. It is ~1/3 the price of buying RTV in the caulk gun size.

The finished product is nice though:

http://fatlace.com/hellaflush/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/silvia4.jpg


Good luck!

[kouness]

damn that is sick... i was also contemplating on going all around black too.. i have alwasy wanted to have a set of flat black rims..

I will definitely post up the results after im done polishing the lip and powdercoating the rims.. yours are motivating me to hurry up and finish it

[!Zar!]

Please no black.

Looks bland and boring.

If you want black wheels, rock steelies.