Rally Wheel Painting AGAIN?!!!!

[Neil S.]

I have a 69, ready to paint the wheels, and what I think I understand from ALL of the previous threads that I read, is that the wheels were dipped in a flat black paint, THEN the black on the back was painted semigloss, THEN argent silver on the front side? Am I correct on the black? or was the black dipped then NO semigloss paint over the primer? Just a little confused, NOT the first time!! Thanks for any info......Neil

[Joe L.]

Re: Rally Wheel Painting AGAIN?!!!!

I have a 69, ready to paint the wheels, and what I think I understand from ALL of the previous threads that I read, is that the wheels were dipped in a flat black paint, THEN the black on the back was painted semigloss, THEN argent silver on the front side? Am I correct on the black? or was the black dipped then NO semigloss paint over the primer? Just a little confused, NOT the first time!! Thanks for any info......Neil

Neil------


I don't think the black paint was a 2 step process. The wheels were painted by the supplier using a semi-gloss black paint or primer. This may have been a dip painting process; I'm not sure about that.

The wheels were then spray painted argent silver at the assembly plant and some overspray got through the slots and holes in the wheels and was deposited on the rear side of the wheels. The 1969 argent silver had a slight greenish tint.

[Chuck G.]

Re: Rally Wheel Painting AGAIN?!!!!

OEM Paint, I believe in California, sells a correct "Argent Silver-Green" in rattle cans.

I used their paint on my 69 wheels, and received no deducts, etc.

As Joe says, it definitely has a green tint, unlike the "regular" Argent Silver.

Chuck

[Joe L.]

Re: Rally Wheel Painting AGAIN?!!!!

OEM Paint, I believe in California, sells a correct "Argent Silver-Green" in rattle cans.

Chuck------


OEM paint used to offer such a paint, but don't anymore. I called them about 6-8 months ago and they told me they no longer produce it. In fact, then I asked them about just regular, non-tint argent silver and they told me they didn't even have that, although they told me it was not permanently discontinued. I don't know what's going on there.

[Richard T.]

Re: Rally Wheel Painting AGAIN?!!!!

Neil: The wheels were hung on hooks and sprayed semi gloss black by KC. When the wheels arrived at the assembly plant they were sprayed argent silver on the outside no masking so there is over spray on the back side. I am not sure if they were hung on hooks at St. Louis or just shot on the floor. There were several shades of silver used on C3 Corvettes over the years some brighter silver, some darker some looked like a hammer tone finish on the spare wheel. The green tint does show on some 69 to early 70 wheels; this green tint faded away over time once they were exposed to sun light. I have not used the finish mentioned in the post. I have not had success for a match with any other currently sold finishes by the parts suppliers. I recently shot a set of wheels with Rust-Oleum Metallic Brilliant Metal Finish with good results compared to a pair of late 69 AZ wheels with factory finish. The painting process is intensive though. I also do not advise blasting the rims with sand to remove old finish; chemical or sanding only. Once good bare metal or good factory black primer is achieved apply two light coats of silver over two coats of black primer; four coats total. Wet sand after; the wheel edge below the trim ring and the slotted area of the wheels, than apply two more coats; the final coat wetter on the slotted area. The final step in the process is two light coats of clear coat but not two much because the factory finish had just a light shine to it that appeared matt to some degree. Your call on what to do but this is what I did. Rich

[Joe L.]

Re: Rally Wheel Painting AGAIN?!!!!

Neil: The wheels were hung on hooks and sprayed semi gloss black by KC. When the wheels arrived at the assembly plant they were sprayed argent silver on the outside no masking so there is over spray on the back side. I am not sure if they were hung on hooks at St. Louis or just shot on the floor. There were several shades of silver used on C3 Corvettes over the years some brighter silver, some darker some looked like a hammer tone finish on the spare wheel. The green tint does show on some 69 to early 70 wheels; this green tint faded away over time once they were exposed to sun light. I have not used the finish mentioned in the post. I have not had success for a match with any other currently sold finishes by the parts suppliers. I recently shot a set of wheels with Rust-Oleum Metallic Brilliant Metal Finish with good results compared to a pair of late 69 AZ wheels with factory finish. The painting process is intensive though. I also do not advise blasting the rims with sand to remove old finish; chemical or sanding only. Once good bare metal or good factory black primer is achieved apply two light coats of silver over two coats of black primer; four coats total. Wet sand after; the wheel edge below the trim ring and the slotted area of the wheels, than apply two more coats; the final coat wetter on the slotted area. The final step in the process is two light coats of clear coat but not two much because the factory finish had just a light shine to it that appeared matt to some degree. Your call on what to do but this is what I did. Rich

Rich------

My 1969 originally had an additional wheel paint element that was impossible to obtain in any "off-the-shelf" paint product. Namely, the argent silver originally used on my wheels was considerably darker than ANY of the commercially available argent silver paints I purchased and sprayed test panels. It also, of course, had the distinctive greenish tint (which had faded out from all of the exposed painted areas of the wheels but was still well preserved in the area under the hub caps).

I ended up taking an original tire and wheel from my car which still had near-perfect greenish tint argent silver under the hub cap to a local automotive paint store. They tried to use their computer matching to generate a formula but there was not enough flat surface in the under hub cap area for the camera.

Fortunately, there was an "old-timer" in the employ of this shop and he was able to match the original paint using "old time methods". While the whole process ended up being pretty expensive, it came out PERFECT. I was 100% pleased with the results. Unfortunately, when I asked him for a paint code so that others could reproduce the same paint, he said that, using his methods, he had not generated any sort of code, so he could not provide one. Plus, the way I figured, most folks would consider the argent silver on my wheels to be too dark to be original, anyway.

By the way, I did not go to the above trouble with the primary intention of 100% correctness in the wheel paint (as I say, most folks would not consider this color to be correct even though it is 100% correct for my car). My primary motivating factor was that I always liked the original darker-than-usual shade of argent silver with greenish tint that was used on my car. To my eye, it "works" much better than the normal shade of argent silver when used on a car of Riverside Gold exterior color.

[Patrick N.]

Re: Rally Wheel Painting AGAIN?!!!!

[quote=Richard Taylor (49172);467511]Neil: The wheels were hung on hooks and sprayed semi gloss black by KC.

My understanding is that KC hung the rims by the valve stem hole when painting the black and considerable runs on the opposite side are not uncommon. My original rims have this characteristic.

Pat
68 427/400
88

[Erv M.]

Re: Rally Wheel Painting AGAIN?!!!!

I usaed this on my 69 and had no deduction at the Lone Star Regional.

Hope it helps.

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']RALLY ARGENT GREEN 1969 PAINT FORMULA.[/FONT]

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']used the following formula:

Makes 1 qt

Color Units (non-cumulative)
DMR 433 416
DMR 435 420
DXR 495 20
DMR 499 160

Had Tower paint in Oshkosh, WI mix it and put it in an Aerosol can for me as it could not be done in California due to air quality restrictions.

I have painted the spare wheel of my 69 with this paint. It has only been judged at the local level in Southern California without a deduct but never at a higher level of competition. It has now been judged at the Lone Star Regional without any deduct in points.

Argent Silver is a color that has changed through the years.

I hope this helped.[/FONT]

[Neil S.]

Re: Rally Wheel Painting AGAIN?!!!!

Thanks to all of you for your generous replies......Neil

[Kurt B.]

Re: Rally Wheel Painting AGAIN?!!!!

I recall that Quanta also sells (or did) an Argent Silver Rally Paint in rattle cans.
I used it on my 68 but don't know if they still sell it.
Kurt

[Joe L.]

Re: Rally Wheel Painting AGAIN?!!!!

I recall that Quanta also sells (or did) an Argent Silver Rally Paint in rattle cans.
I used it on my 68 but don't know if they still sell it.
Kurt

Kurt------


As far as I know, they still have the "regular" argent silver whel paint. However, they no longer sell the "greenish tint" version.

[Mark D.]

Re: Rally Wheel Painting AGAIN?!!!!

As a follow up to what Joe has already said, the greenish tint rattle can had too little green in it. Although I'm sure the amount of green did vary originally, the unmolested original cars I've seen had a bunch of green in the paint. In FL last week, Tom Marcucci had his 69 L88 there for Bowtie sign-off and the wheels on that car had a lot of green in the paint.
I (my restorer) took a color shot off an original paint wheel I purchased for my 69 restoration project and it had a LOT of green in it.
I'll post a PIC when I can.
Regards,
Mark

[Mark D.]

Re: Rally Wheel Painting AGAIN?!!!!

This PIC is from a restored wheel for my 69. This paint formula is a color match from a wheel with original paint. It has a lot of green in it.