The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Painting these old horn buttons

Amongst my stash of truck horn buttons I have this chromed one (upper in pic) which I would love to paint. My issue is figuring out how to wipe or scrape off the paint from on top of the “Chevrolet” and the 3 lines underneath. Lightly dampen a fine sponge or fine rag with a thinner and wipe off the freshly applied paint off the top? Before the paint sets up too much?

The lower button is just there in the pic for no real reason. Yes, I could consider painting it instead but it looks like way more work to remove the old paint first, etc.

If you have a steady hand, coat the letters and lines with vaseline on a Q tip or fine artist's brush before painting.

Along the lines of your first suggestion, I've scraped paint off raised emblems with my fingernails. No need to risk dripping thinner or whatever where it isn't wanted.

Spray your button at 90 degree angle so as not to get paint on the sides of the stripes or letters.

Paint it and let it sit until it loses tackiness, but well before it is totally cured, and use a Q-tip damp with solvent to carefully remove the paint from the high spots. If you use Rustoleum, use acetone.

What color is the button supposed to be? Same bronze-ish color as the cab interior?

My steering wheel and part of the interior is coated with Rust-Oleum's metallic dark bronze. Think I'll try 52Carl's suggestion since I have a bunch of acetone. This is just a practice, so if it doesn't work, no biggy since I already have a decent horn button on the turd's steering wheel.

This or do yard work for the wife......

I've had good luck painting the whole thing, letting it dry really well (a week to 10 days) and then using wet/dry 1000 grit paper wrapped around a piece of wood. Sand it gently (wet) until the silver appears. When the chrome has been worn off or isn't in good condition, I've painted the whole thing with silver epoxy paint (like appliance paint), let that dry really well and spraying the top coat later and sanding until I see the letters appear. It works but it takes patience and a light touch.

I recently repainted my horn button. I used sandpaper and a light touch to bring out the highlights. Takes patience but is doable.

There is no question there.

I read that the button is supposed to be painted the same color as the steering wheel.

A Google AI response told me that the 1947-1953 Steering wheels were brown. All of them apparently. This jives with the photo of an original horn button that someone else posted on a related post about steering wheel color.

All the ones sold after market are black but I suppose are meant to be painted.

My original wheel is black but I imagine all the original brown paint could have worn off.

C mayna's picture about shows an original brown button lending credence to the brown wheel as being correct.

Finished product……….for now Just used a razor blade to scrape the paint off the lettering, 3 stripes and the perimeter. Little blems here and there but waaay to awesome for the truck ,,,,,, yeah right

Thanks everyone

Tkat looks good.

I think whenever I get around to installing new brown seat vinyl, I'll paint the wheel and horn button in the correct brown/bronze/whatever they call it.

Dan, aka Gdads51, has books and diagrams for everything showing what color various accessories are to be painted. Maybe he has a diagram that definitively states how the wheel and horn are supposed to be painted.

Craig--

Very nice work. What did you do to strip the original finish to bare and prep before painting? You are an inspiration to restore my original horn.

LUKE

Luke, I have no idea how I originally stripped the old paint since I've had that horn button hanging up in the garage "as is" for a few years. I do plan to strip another crusty one in a few days and will report back. Will say if there's small amounts of rust in the chromed raised areas, that will add another challenge which would need attention before I paint.

Told my daughter about this truck project I was on and she said “Dad, what about my Chevy belt buckle?” I told her I didn’t think we still had it since it was many years ago. “Dad, look in you closet. Bet it’s there”

OMG!! Another button to restore?

Luke,
That is a great pic of the original paint on the horn button and what I assume is original paint on the steering wheel.
They look like a match.
As I have mentioned earlier, Rustoleum 7754 Anodized Bronze is as spot on of a match for the steering wheel, steering mast and apparently to my eyes, the horn button.

The horn button is an original. The steering wheel and column were painted using Jim Carter's PT 108 Steering Column Paint 47-53. It has a lavender hue to it. The horn button cap and the steering wheel appear to match.

Here’s the brought back to life, crunchy one I showed in my first posting of this thread. The one below the all chromed one. Still has a little crunchy chrome but good enough for my truck.

Luke,
On this more recent crunchy one, all I did was to sand down the old paint until it was nice and smooth using different grits of sandpaper. Then painted over it. Once nice and dry, used a single edge razor blade to scrape the new paint off of the stripes, lettering, etc. Looks like I could spend a little more time scraping the lettering.

Again, good enough for my daily beater.