The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop wheel rim paint and primer

any suggestions on something durable for use on wheel rims , my truck is a '53 and I'd like to go back to the original color (Sahara Beige) for the wheels , cab and box. and I really would like the wheels to look good for as long as possible and not be a mismatched colour. thanks

I'm having mine powder coated. It's much more durable than paint. I don't know if the color can be matched exactly. I'm using gloss black on mine.

Sahara Beige wasn't a original color for the 53 Chevy trucks, the 53 colors are...

Transport Blue
Mariner Blue
Juniper Green
Ocean Green
Commercial Red
Burgundy Maroon
Coppertone
Omaha Orange
Autumn Brown
Cream Medium
Yukon Yellow

I think the stock color of the rims on the 47-53 1/2 ton trucks was white. I believe they were all white regardless of the color of the body.

Hopefully someone will chime in to correct me or confirm...

Anyhow...if they were all white it would be easy to get the rims sandblasted and powdercoated, and that would be much more durable than any paint.

I believe the stock rims were black. I will check my documentation at home this evening to confirm.

As AD points out, Sahara Beige was a car color, not a truck color.

AD_Pickup and Jeff , I neglected to specify that I am in Canada and my truck is also Canadian and according to the restoration package from GM my truck was originally Sahara Beige (338) and came with a 235cid 108hp engine and was a model 1314 (3104 in the US). I also realise that the wheels were not originally the body colour but I wanted to change that as I thought it would look better because I'm planning on painting the fenders , running boards , Fulton visor and top of the cab in Navy Blue.

Sorry, my bad. I don't know a thing about Canadian ADs.

According to Patrick Dykes something is also different with the carrier in the rear end but those are the only differences that I'm aware of. So far anyways , I haven't started the re-assembly yet , just waiting for a couple of parts orders to arrive.

I didn't know you were in Canada either, sorry. I think the wheels on a deluxe cab (US) were painted the same color as the truck and they were pinstriped on the 16" wheel only. At least that is what my restoration packet for the 53 US tells me.

I agree with AD. Deluxe Cab had body colored wheels. All others had black, (I think).
Steve O

My bad- I don't know where I came up with white and now I'm gonna go look at my restoration pack to be sure.

My 2 cents worth!!
I have several old 16 inch rims off various years of AD trucks and the colors are... Red with stripes, Blue with stripes and Black with stripes. Also some so rusty I can't be sure what color but the stripes are still barely visable!!!
Not much help but... at least we know they were not all black!!
Ter

I just bought four rims from a guy here locally as the truck only came with two when I bought it , one is green , one red and one black all with striping . I saw a truck on Barrett-Jacksons website http://www.barrett-jackson.com/images/carjpg/2004bjcca/2/319/2004BJCCA2_319_34.jpg

and I kind of had the same idea in my head up until that point except with navy blue instead of brown and original wheels of course. Also using Patricks lowered springs on all four corners.

The treatment I have used for my rims on several different vehicles is , sandblasting, epoxy primer, (DP-40) then I usually topcoat with heavy equipment paint, CAT black or white. While powder coating is great I use my trucks and if I want to touch up my rims for any reason I can do just that without it looking tacky.

What I've done is used 'aircraft paint remover' to get the paint of, then used rustoleum rattle can primer, then rustoleom paint- for the same reasons as you- when they need touching up I can do it with the rattle can.

On the other side of things, I think that with powdercoating they wouldn't need touching up so much cause its a more durable coating.