Axles & Wheels

AXLES

Now you need to straighten your axles so that the car will roll straight and the wheels will sit right.  Do this before you put the wheels on.  A very small, jewelers pair of needle nose pliers seems to work best.  I use groveless pliers so that no marks are left on the axle itself.  You need to be sure that the axle is vertically and horizontally straight.  Be sure not to damage the wheel hubs, or backing plate of the wheel if it is a two piece wheel.  After straightening the axles place the wheels back on temporarily.  Look at the wheels to see if they line up good and straight.  Also, roll the chassis to see if it rolls straight.  Often you will need to make minor adjustments to the axles to get the car to roll straight.  Be sure to remove the wheels when you get through.  If you happen to have the original tune up wrench from the Hot Wheels Tune Up Tower this works well too, as Mattel designed it to be used to straighten bent axles/wheels.  This is a very simple tool to use and the axle must be in the chassis and the wheel needs to be on the axle.  I do not care for the reproduction tune up wrenches that a number of peple are making, the original is the best

Sometimes axles need to be replaced.  Sometimes this is easy as many early redline axles are just snapped in and they can be easily snapped out.  But then you need to have an indentical axle from a donor car to put back in place.  On many '70-'72 cars the wheels were molded into a plastic piece.  If this plastic piece has come loose or has broken then just glue it back in place using  some Liquid Nails Perfect Glue #2.  Now a few spectraflame cars and most all cars after 1973 have axles that are crimped in place.  If these need to be replaced then you will have to use a small cutter wheel in a Dremel to grind down the crimped area until the old axle comes out.  Then once the old axle is out use the cutter wheel to cut a nice open groove for a new axle to be put in.  Once you have a replacement axle, put a small amount of JB Weld in the groove, then place the axle in the JB Weld, make sure it is straight  & centered, then let dry for a day or two.  To put a replacement axle in using this method the chassis must be suspended so that the wheels can't touch anything.  I usually tape the chassis to the top of a pill bottle or something similiar and let the ends of the chassis extend out.

WHEELS

There are a number options for wheel restoration.  

1 - You can polish the rolling surface with Novus Plastic Polish #2, do not get Novus on the face of the wheel, it will rub the redline off.  Now use Testors Silver Chrome Paint with a fine tip artists paint brush to carefully redo the chrome mag.  This is a fair option at best.  I don't like this personally.  Doesn't look chromey & shiny.  This is the best option for retouching open center wheels on 1973 and later year cars. 

2 - You can polish the rolling surface with Novus, do not get Novus on the face of the wheel, it will rub the redline off. You can now use bare metal foil to carefully redo the chrome mag.  This is an OK option.  Its is mind numbingly slow and tedious.  Also requires a sharp eye and a VERY steady hand.  Bare Metal foil is much brighter, but is more time consuming and frustrating, than brush painting.  Bare Metal foil isn't as easy as painting.  To use this, I cut a small piece of foil, just big enough to cover the wheel.  I then use a cloth of some kind and press firmly on the wheel to get the foil to conform to the contour of the mag center.  Next I use a sharp toothpic to go around the edges of the center to firmly get the foil in place.  I then use my hobby knife to slowly and carefully cut the around the center.  Remove the excess foil.  Now I use my toothpick to gently press the foil in place in the center of the wheel.  I use my sharpest and smallest knife to remove the foil from the areas of the center that should not be chrome.  After this, I again use my cloth to press the foil down and then very lightly rub the foil with the rag to remove any fingerprints or anything else that may be on the foil.  Now we have completed a wheel.  When re-chroming wheels you MUST have patience. This is very time consuming and difficult.  The first 20 or so wheels you do will probably not look exactly right, but you will get better and quicker as you do more wheels. 

Before       After   

3 - You can buy sets of reproduction wheels from Jon at The Redline Shop.  They cost about $10 per set of 4 + shipping.  I do this often, the ease & superior appearance far outweigh the cost.  $10 for 4 wheels seems expensive at first, it did to me.  Try doing a few sets of wheels with bare metal foil and believe me then $10 a set doesn't seem that expensive.  In my opinion this is the best option.

4 - You can use a set of excellent condition original wheels.  Finding clean original wheels can be difficult.  I have bought so many junk redlines over the years that I have a small stash of clean original wheels that I use on occasion.  

Once your wheels are done go ahead and put them on the chassis.  Make sure the wheels all sit straight and roll freely.  You may have to play with the axles, tweaking them etc, to get the wheels to all sit level, look good, & roll straight.