Scabby Old Borrani 3801's WANTED

[Darren C]

I thought you might like to see an alternative method of restoring Borrani wheels.

I am on a very tight budget and since my car came without wheels I’m on a mission to find some, as wooden planks and heavy duty casters can only do for so long!

With a budget of £200 to spend on one wheel every 3 months (I gotta save up for each and every one of them!) I managed to find a nasty silver painted Borrani 3801.

I took it down to my local Tyre dealer and we spun it up with my dial clock gauge and sure enough it ran out of true. I’ve been here before so knew what to do. With a little tweaking and a just a couple of new spokes we got it running within 1.5mm.
Next it was paint stripped (previous owner had rattle caned it silver badly) to reveal some nasty pitting and corrosion.
This was Tig spot welded up and filed and sanded smooth.
Following many hours of sanding it was obvious the wheel was beyond polishing.
I have had this before on other wheels I’ve bought for little money or recovered from the scrap bin, so I knew exactly which way to go with this wheel.
Since I had sorted the run out, spokes and pitting the wheel was fundamentally sound, but looked awful.
This was an ideal candidate for powder coating. It was never going to be concours so I opted for a neat process I’ve used before.

Now I know some of you will dismiss this thread straight away, but bear with me on this. The wheel was ready for scrap when I got it, and I have invested about £50 in restoring it, and take a look at the pictures below and honestly tell me it wasn’t worth £50!

This IS NOT POLISHED ALLOY it is a very clever powder coating that mimics polished alloy or chrome.
It does not need any polishing or hard work to clean and maintain, it’s a painted finish that is as hard as nails and you just wash it off with soapy water when its dirty. The powder coating encapsulates the wheel and stops any further corrosion.

So all I need now is another 3 Borrani 3801’s.

I am appealing to anyone out there that may have a single wheel or a set of wheels in similar condition to how I bought this one.

Please, Please let me know if you have one or more.

Borrani as bought Front



Borrani as bought Rear



Coated Borrani Front



Coated Borrani Rear

[tyang]

Hi Darren,

I'm sure these wheels will pass at a quick glance for restored wheels. Pretty impressive. I'd be curious to see what the powder coating did at the joints between the spokes and the rim where there is flexing. As long as the spokes are not weakened from rust I think you'll be OK. These cars are capable of very high speeds, and any problem with the wheels is risky.

Tom

[Darren C]

Good point Tom,
It is not a cure to hide weaknesses in a wheel, it’s only an aesthetic cost effective solution.
With regard to where spokes meet rim, you need as I said earlier to check the wheel thoroughly before coating. To be fair it’s no different to a painted Borrani wheel, which is quite common especially on race cars where arguably they are put under more stress than in road use.
Obviously if money was no object I’d have them totally rebuilt with plated hubs and polished rims. Having had this process applied to several cars I own (one spoked wheeled car has been good so far for the last 10 years without problems) it’s a very good low cost solution. As you say, it would pass for a fully refurbished wheel easily and I think even under scrutiny it would fool most people.
I have seen may wheels machined or ground so thin in places to remove corrosion and wear that I would say in some respects it’s a safer option to traditional refurbishment.

[tyang]

Hi Darren,

All good points. We recently had a Borrani hub fail right where the splines meet the flange of the wheel. It looks like the hub was ground too much on the last rebuild, just as you described, and left too little material to keep the integrity of the hub. Just like most things on these cars, the question has to be asked, how many times can something be rebuilt? When my boss tells me he's never seen this before, I remind him he may not have seen some of these things go under their third or fourth rebuild. I'll post some pictures of this wheel soon.

Tom

[Michael Bayer]

Darren You are probably ahead of me but did you check the Boranni applications chart to see if maybe just the 3801 was used on any non F Car? We who own these cars profit when some lesser marque used the same bit (see heater shut off valves as an example) M

[tyang]

Hi Darren,

All good points. We recently had a Borrani hub fail right where the splines meet the flange of the wheel. It looks like the hub was ground too much on the last rebuild, just as you described, and left too little material to keep the integrity of the hub. Just like most things on these cars, the question has to be asked, how many times can something be rebuilt? When my boss tells me he's never seen this before, I remind him he may not have seen some of these things go under their third or fourth rebuild. I'll post some pictures of this wheel soon.

Tom

Hi Guys,

I said I was going to post pictures of a failed Borrani, and here it is. It came off a Maserati Mistrial. The car was towed to us with the wheel rubbing the brake caliper. On closer inspection, we found the hub sheared from the center section of the wheel! My only explanation was a previous rebuild must have removed too much material making the hub very weak. I'm just glad this wheel didn't fail while driving fast!

Tom

[Darren C]

Wow Tom,

I'd hate to think what might of happenned if it had given way at speed.

It does go to show exactly what I said earlier about over ground or re-machined wheels being thin and weaker. I have seen some scary wheel refurbishments in my time, ground thin, welded and even once stripped paint off an alloy wheel to find body filler over a cracked rim!
You really have to check secondhand wheels VERY carefully these days.
Thanks for sharing Tom.
Regards
Darren

[tyang]

Hi Darren,

A complete replacement wheel will cost about $2700 bucks from Borrani, so it won't be cheap.

Tom