Hubcentric rings fused to hubs?

My Konig Rewinds require the use of hubcentric rings. They came with cheap plastic rings but I decided to buy the more durable aluminum ones because I autocross and change my wheels often. I have a set of holies for autocross and in January when I went to change my wheels I discovered the aluminum rings had fused to my rusty and corroded hubs. I whacked on them with a hammer and screwdriver for over an hour and they would not come off. I ended up running with my Rewinds and street tires for the January autocross but was determined to fix the problem for February.

This is what I did:

First I bought a bottle of “Fabulous Blaster” spray at Wal Mart and sprayed it between the rings and the hub to loosen things up. I let them soak for about 15 minutes and then was able to get the rings off with a hammer and screwdriver.

Then I used a piece of fine steel wool to clean off most of the rust and corrosion. The wheel studs, center of the hub and the rotor were masked off for painting.

A friend had once suggested that I paint my hubs. In addition to making them look nicer, I figured the paint would fend off corrosion and help keep the rings from getting stuck again. So I used Rustoleum black paint to paint the hubs.

I put a thin layer of anti-seize on the ring surfaces that touch the hub and the wheel. I did not put anti-seize on the hub. There was some interesting discussion about the use of anti-seize in a thread that I started on NAM. Some folks seemed to think the anti-seize would make the lug nuts get loose over time but that has not happened.

When I went to take my wheels off for autocross the rings came right off. And the added benefit is that I have nice, black hubs showing through the spokes of my wheels instead crappy-looking corroded ones. This would look even nicer for those of you who have large wheels with really open spokes.