Topic: OEM finish for 68 styled steel argent wheels ?

[68 S Code]

Just trying to get a consensus o the proper way to refinish a 68 argent style steel wheel. After lightly sanding the steel wheel I found that the wheel was painted entirely semigloss black and then a light coat of argent was sprayed across the entire face and oversprayed 1/2 way across the rim depth. It also appears that they must have had some sort of mask for the 12 cutouts and where the grease cap went. That area looks to have been touched up with a brush as it has s ragged finish on the back side. Also found a silver paint daub/slash on reverse side. Does this sound correct?

[mustang.biz]

I'd like to see this answered, if possible with photos of a properly restored or perfect original wheel.

I have a set of wheels that I'm restoring and I want to get it right...

Thanks!

[68 S Code]

Pic one shows small silver paint daub and the sloppy touch-up of the center as done by the wheel plant. Two of the four had a daub but as expected they wee diffeent. next pic shows the process of painting back side and sides of wheels. Next is the restored wheel.  It was my experiance to do it differently. First I did them all black. Followed by argent. Then i taped out the front and resprayed black on the back. This way you get the correct black on the inside of the holes. Ford must have had some sort of piece they put in the slots to prevent the argent from going in there. I found that taping them from the front was the only way to do it correctly. Last pic shows that you have to add argent with a brush to touch up the center hole. Found that it was kind of a sloppy job by the guys at the wheel factory see first pic of this set. Then add the silver daub.

[68 S Code]

These two pics are what I found during investigative phase. The argent was over black. The reason why I added a sanding and painting step is because i found that if you use 2" 3M blue painters tape and stick it down on an edge of a slot you then pull on the tape to stretch it and it really bites down on the remaining edges. The taping is actually pretty easy if you use this meathod. Just run your finger around the edge to finish it off. Took me less than half an hour to tape out 5 wheels. The center holes took the majority of the time. Having done all 5 wheels this way I didnt get any bleeding of the black onto the face. Thats a lot of openings to not have any problems.

[mustang.biz]

Awesome, thanks for the images and info.

The black looks glossier than I expected. I thought it was more of a Krylon 1613 (semi-flat) type black. What paint did you use?

Also curious about the argent paint, I have some of the rattle can motorcraft argent, am surprised at how 'thick' it seems to be.

[68 S Code]

I dont use any rattle cans. The black is Dupont Pitch Black Acrylic Enamel with 40% flattener, then 8 parts paint, to 2 parts mid temp reducer and 1 part hardner/gloss catalyst.  The flattener is not figured into the ratio for other two components. I can dull it down but prefered the look of this as it will dull naturally with time. This wheel was probably 3 hours old after painting. Wanted to make sure that I didn't get any bleeding of black on the argent due to taping. Came out perfect so I added the daub and snapped a pic.

[J_Speegle]

Here is a set of pictures of an original to help the discussion\

[svo2scj]

Great thread great job !

I too had to do ten wheels for my car - one of the things that got me (I wrote this before somewhere 428CJ.org?) was.........


One of these is a NOS (service) 1968 wheel and it had what I would call a "brownish" tint to the black.  Almost "enameled" very similar to the trim ring on a shaker IMO !  Now I don't know it that is a service thing or if there was fade - but I used it as is.  Very interesting to me.

Mark

[68 S Code]

Biggest difference I see with copying the service replacement is the extra black on the face/rim edge. Haven't run across this on a factory original. Did factory originals come both ways?

[mustang.biz]

Biggest difference I see with copying the service replacement is the extra black on the face/rim edge. Haven't run across this on a factory original. Did factory originals come both ways?

I have a ton of wheels and they all seem to have argent around the rim. This service replacement resembles the chrome ones more, where only the center is chromed.

[68 S Code]

I agree with that. Chrome centers had black rims. I assume on a chrome center the rivits would be natural where on the argent rim they would be painted black. Chromed would have been painted and then assembled would be my guess?

[cjmustangman]

Note" This post and the following 2012 responses were merged from another thread in a effort to keep related information together

How should the finish be on a 68 styled steel argent wheel be ?
Should it be a flat finish silver argent with flat black inside and on the reverse side , or should they be
semi gloss silver finish with semi gloss black inside and reverse ?   
Thanks
Arild

[J_Speegle]

Reported to be an original

[rockhouse66]

I used VHT Wheel Paint in Argent Silver and I think it turned out very close to original.  It is a little flatter than SG and a little duller than "aluminum" silver.

[Murf]

I also found the VHT paint to be a close match to the original.