VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Update on my progress

The good weather has me fired up to work faster/harder on the 31 4DR Sedan. Rims are painted and new wide whites tires are installed. The Hampton interior kit is in the garage still boxed up. I am attempting to register it well in advance of going on the road since NYDMV is known to be notoriously difficult at times. The rear doors were kicking out on the bottom when closed. I found some of Bubbas wood repair had left the lower rear edge longer than it should be. Therefore it hit the jamb causing kick out. I ripped it all out and will fabricate new wood in my shop. Ill be preparing it for new paint soon. Thanks for listening, Al W.

Al
If you wouldn't mind..... what did you do to prep your rims ? Dipped or blasted ? Price point for what you did and which primer and paint(colour) did you use ?

Gonna get mine done in the next week or so.... I'm thinking dipped with a non etching primer and medium cream paint. Gonna be wrapped with a set of Lester's, black that is....

Thanks,
Cliff

Here is what I did. I sandblasted my rims myself using my 7.5 hp compressor and pot. Then I sprayed with a hypoxy primer. Then applied a primer surfacer, then a color coat, then a two part clear coat. Looks pretty good, and will hold up for quite some time. If you need suggestions regarding guns to use or techniques, give me a call at 720 232 4664 Jim

Jim
Thanks for the info.... If I go the way of sandblasting I might give you a shout. I have access to a blaster but plan on painting myself.
Cliff

[quote=lbpuppy]Al
If you wouldn't mind..... what did you do to prep your rims ? Dipped or blasted ? Price point for what you did and which primer and paint(colour) did you use ?

Gonna get mine done in the next week or so.... I'm thinking dipped with a non etching primer and medium cream paint. Gonna be wrapped with a set of Lester's, black that is....

Thanks,
Cliff [/qu

Cliff, I used "000" sand,(It is very fine and leaves a really nice smooth surface), to sand blast my rims myself. (I have access to a commercial blaster). I placed the rims on a sturdy steel bar by threading through center hole. The bar was supported on saw horses. Then the Rims were blown off with air, washed with Lacquer Thinners sprayed from the Spray Gun. Since the Rims are able to rotate you really can flush them off good. Next I coated them with PPG Epoxy Primer, rotating them around during the spraying so you see everything, and let it set for two hours, (Temp was 70 Degrees and I worked outside) and coated the Rims with PPG Urethane, single stage with hardener. The trick with any spray on paint is to do the first coat as a lightly applied "Tack" coat. Don't get hungry for that lustrious shine till the last coat. Good Luck and don't hesitate to ask or email. Al W. PS: As for cost I would guesstimate around $300.00 for sand and other materials. PPS: Be sure to look and look and look for spots you may have missed.

Out of curiosity have you looked at powder coating them? I have painted so many sets of wire wheels over the years that on my 32 I decided to try and have them powder coated. I took them to the company here he blasted and coated them in the proper red for 250.00. I would of spent that in materials and a couple of days of my time on top and they look amazing. Just food for thought.

I routinely have wire wheels powder coated. It is same or less cost than doing it myself and the uniformity of the coating is not matched by spraying. The problem is finding a powder coater that can match the colors.

I guess I'm just a little too old school for Powder Coating some things not to mention doing it yourself. IMHO a base coat of Epoxy primer and a second coat of Hardened Urethane is superior to Powder Coat. Also, these wire rims are difficult at best to cover all the Nooks and Cranny's which is important for longevity. Al W.

Hey
I checked a few places with regards to getting my 5 rims powder coated = $100.00 ea + . That didn't include cleaning of the rims. 5 rims = + $500.00. A little to rich for my blood. Dipping will be $50 ea + tax and then I will prime and paint on my own with only mat'l costs. I'm going to check out a few more places tomorrow but don't hold out much hope.

Had the spare tire removed from the rim today and found the tube to be an orange colour made by royal dominion. Anyone else seen an orange tube ? Still holds air.

Thanks for the info.....

Cliff

Hey Cliff,

Here in Washington State the going rate for powder coating wire wheels is from $65 to $85 per wheel and that includes sandblasting them.

I have also found quite a few reddish/orange inner tubes in the tires I have dismounted.

Roger

Like Al, my rims are painted. They've held up well and look great. I had the body shop paint the rims, they had a spray booth and equipment so i wouldn't have to breath the fumes. $150 for six wheels. The guys at the cemetery sand blasted the wheels $150. They use the sand blaster to etch tomb stones, so the wheels are a side job. They also sand blasted some of my antique toys.

I remember the red inertubes when I was a kid. We would look for them in junk yards because they made good slingshots. They were real rubber! When world war two started,they needed the rubber. So the synthetice tube was invented.

Of the seven tires and rims that came with my rescued car, two had rotted red tubes. I hated to put them in the dumpster but what else could I do? Even the old tires pained me to throw them away.

Cliff, Try thinking outside the box before jumping into your Rims. Isn't there any place to get a fair deal on a sandblast cleaning? It's a shame how much some of this simple stuff costs these days. Al W

Hi
I do have the option to sandblast them myself but I'm afraid that I will miss or not do a good enough job. I would hate to have my rims show corrosion next year.

I have time on my side for my rims/tires as I have modern rims/tires to use in the mean time. I will spend more time searching for options that will lead to the result that I desire.

My spare tire is showing some nasty cracking on the walls and I will probably pick up a new one at hershey in the fall. I will also pick up a new tube and archive the red one in my tickle trunk. *S*

If anyone has any ideas who might also do sandblasting besides the obvious please send the ideas my way and I will take the time to check it out.

Thank you everyone,
Cliff

As far a powder coat colors go it used to be you had to use what they have but now you can get custom colors ordered.

Don't throw those old tires away. Next time you go to a little show wrap one up in a tire bag from a local dealer and include an old rope. You can sell it for $5.00 or so, someone will probably buy it if even for a joke. For marketing you can say "Yes you too can have an ORIGINAL TIRE SWING. Why have a tire swing that only an anorexick (sp) teenager can use when you can have an ORIGINAL TIRE SWING. Includes heavy duty installation material (rope)". This can defray your outlay for gas or show addmission. It definately will get people talking. I set up a little tire changing display at some places with my rim spreader slightly colapsing a spare rim with an old tube, tire, and a patch kit. It is a living history display and gets people telling their kids about how they did their bike tires or ? before there was Triple A.

Dupont is a major supplier of Powder Coat materials. They havd a large selection of available colors. I did a custom job on some boat props and they were very helpful to the point of having a special pre-coat (primer) before color application. Al w

Well....
Without having to travel a million miles ( with gas costing over $5.00/gal(us)), I decided to sandblast the rims myself.
I had 5 to do and over the past 3 weeks I have worked on them and today I completed my last two. Of the 5, 3 have been primed and of those 3, 2 have 2 coats of paint on them. I plan on at least 4 coats of paint. The blasting was tedious sometimes, taking the rim in and out of the cabinet to check more thoroughly my work. I have access to a drying cabinet and have been using that to dry the primer/paint process and will hopefully finish all 5 tomorrow.

I truly appreciate everyone's help and suggestions. It has been an interesting process.
thanks again,
Cliff

Thanks for the update!

Hey
Well.... all the rims are done. I have 4 coats of paint on them and and they were all baked in a dryer for 3 hours. Last saturday they sat outside in the really warm sunshhine baking some more. I'm already to mount them and plan on doing them by hand. Gonna pick up some tire soap and start on them this weekend.
Thanks everyone for your input. Might take the car to the it's first car show this weekend aswell.
Cliff

Just back from Darlington and starting to catch up. Did you mount the tires? Mine went on fairly easy if you have decent tire irons.

Well....
got my tires mounted today. I did them myself and they were fairly easy to do once I got the hang of it. I did booboo a couple of times but nothing a little touch up paint won't hide.
I like the look and find it easier to steer.
Thanks again for everyones help.
Happy motoring.....

Cliff