Some folks at the track were asking me what the best procedure is for stripping and reusing offroad wheels. This practice is a great way to save some cash! RcEvilEmpire is here to help! Follow along to learn the secrets of the Jedi Wheel Trick.
Before you begin you will need a gallon of acetone (the arch enemy of CA glue) and a suitable container to soak your wheels in. I cruised over to my local hardware store and grabbed a bare 1 gallon paint bucket. The paint bucket comes with a standard metal lid but these are a little annoying to deal with so I grabbed a plastic lid to go with it. Total cost for these items–about $20 bucks.
On to the fun part! Cutting your tires off. Grab a tire and some scissors. I used some curved lexan scissors. Cut around the bead of the tire on both sides.
Once you have finished cutting, pull the tire off the wheel.
You should then end up with a wheel with two rubber rings around it where the tire was glued to the wheel. I suppose at this point you could get a screwdriver or a chisel and attempt to pry these rings off the wheel…but that would probably just end up destroying the wheel and wasting a lot of time!
Instead, we are going to soak these wheels in acetone overnight and watch in amazement as the tire beads simply fall off in our hands! Yay!
Here’s a pic of some wheels soaking. The acetone has turned black because these wheels had been blacked out with a sharpie.
Here’s a shot of the tire beads coming off.
And here are some wheels that have been processed and are ready to be used again! At $6.50 or so a pair this adds up to a decent chunk of change! I reconditioned somewhere around 30 pairs of wheels. This adds up to a total savings of about $200 bucks! That’s almost enough to pay for a car kit!
