Hello All:

1967 Volvo 122S Wagon. My father and I have begun what will probably be a three-year restoration project on Virginia, which I have now owned for seven years. I do most of the mechanical work myself and my father is the body and fender guy.

Since some of us are getting a little long in the tooth I fear that we will eventually lose expertise in restoring these beasts. For that reason, I am posting each major project under 'Restoring Virginia - ' followed by a step-by-step of the project.

Much of what I write is going to sound simplistic to most of you but I figure it will help someone. I hope to include photos at some point when appropriate. When I use a vendor to do part of the work I will include those costs as well as costs for parts, etc. Needless to say, others should feel free to chime in with advice, corrections, better sources, etc.

Enough intro, here is Tires and Wheels...

Tools needed:
Lugnut wrench
Four jack stands
One hydraulic jack
Some cardboard
A good orbital or otherwise vibrating hand sander
A shop vacuum with brush attachment
A sawhorse whose cross board width is narrower than the rim width

Supplies needed:
Four new tires (I bought four Nexen SB802 165/80R15 from Tirebuyer.com, $262.07 with shipping)
Five tire valves that will fit the larger holes found on Volvo wheels (My local garage provided these at $2 per valve)
80-grit sandpaper
80-grit sandpaper disks that will fit your electric sander
220-grit sandpaper
400-grit sandpaper
2 cans of lacquer automotive "scratch filler" primer (less than $10.00 each)
3 cans of silver wheel paint (I bought item #883654 from IPD.com, $64.41 with shipping) *Allow five days for delivery, these must be sent UPS Ground

Outside Vendors needed:
Any competent auto shop that can dismount, remount and balance tires. Some folks perform these steps themselves. Good move - my cost for five wheels and tires came to $172.00 at Straub Auto Repair in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY

1) Remove hubcaps.

2) Loosen lugnuts on all four wheels, enough to remove them by hand once wheels are in the air but do not remove them just yet.

3) Jack up all four corners of the car using your hydraulic jack and jack stands. Be sure to put some cardboard between the jack stands and your precious vehicle.

4) Remove the lugnuts and remove all four wheels.

5) Take your spare tire out of the rear bed.

6) Dismount all five tires from the wheels. I had a shop do this, but some folks have access to a good tire buster - and the patience to do it themselves. Keep the best of the five tires for use as your spare and recycle the other four.

7) Once you have your unencumbered wheels, use 80-grit sandpaper disks on your orbital sander and remove as much rust and corrosion as you can without "flatting" any of the curves. Ensure you hit the entire outside of the rim, including the thin surface that sits 90-degrees with respect to the mounted tire. You must do this on the inside and outside of the wheel.

8) Now, using the 80-grit sandpaper, fold it once of twice and shape it around your fingers to fit the various curvatures of the wheel. I start on the outside and work my way inward, keeping track of where I started and once I make the full rotation, jumping inward to the next surface. It takes me about 15 minutes to sand both the inside and the outside of the wheel.

9) Set up your sawhorse, place a rag over the center of it, place your wheel vertically on the rag so the inner and outer rims are straddling the sawhorse. Take each end of the rag and ball it up against the rim to prevent it from rolling off the sawhorse.

10) Prime the inside and outside of the wheels. No need to prime the inner surface where the tire lives, but make sure you hit the entire outer narrow band of both sides of the wheel. This surface makes a huge impact visually. Strokes should be reasonably short and coats should be reasonably heavy without allowing runs.

11) The primer sets up fast and you should be able to shoot each coat about 15 minutes apart. Before you shoot each subsequent coat, rotate the wheel one-third. Three coats should do the trick.

12) Once you prime all five wheels, allow them to dry overnight if you can.

13) Starting with 220-grit sandpaper, give a LIGHT sanding to the entire wheel, including the outer bands. Try to avoid going through straight to metal, leaving primer on all surfaces. The surface should start to feel quite smooth so check with your hand. Again, start on the outside and work your way in. Although the area that lives below the hubcap is never seen, make sure you hit as many of the surfaces as you can.

14) Now do the same sanding routine, this time with the 400-grit sandpaper. The wheel should feel extremely smooth at this point.

15) Use your shop vacuum with a brush attachment and vacuum each wheel very thoroughly, front and back.

16) Return your wheels one-by-one to your sawhorse with the rag as mentioned above. Paint each wheel with even strokes - go lightly here, runs are unacceptable unless you want to start over. Make sure you hit the outer bands of the rim, front and back. IPD claims that one can will paint four wheels but I had a different experience. I needed the entirety of three cans to paint five wheels front and back. Again, allow about 15 minutes between coats and remember to turn the wheel one-third turn before you shoot each coat.

17) Allow your wheels to dry overnight if possible.

18) Mount your tires on your wheels, including balancing. If you use a vendor like I did, point out how pretty your new wheels look and ask them to take extra care with the mounting process. Also, ensure you have your spare mounted on the rim in the worst condition.

19) Place the wheels on the car and hand-tighten all nuts in a star pattern to ensure the wheels is properly centered. Ensure that the rounded side of the lug nuts are away from you, pushing into the wheel's lug nut holes. Use your lug nut wrench and - again in a star-pattern - tighten the lug nuts as much as you can with the wheel in the air.

20) One-by-one, lower each corner of the car and give each lug nut the full torque with your lug nut wrench (remember the star-pattern) before moving onto the next corner.

21) Place your hubcaps on the wheels and your spare tire back in the rear bed.

22) Check all air pressures to the tire manufacturers recommendation.

23) Perform a front-end alignment. (I will cover this in a separate post).

24) Take your baby out dancing in her new shoes.

Cheers,

Pooch