painted wheels?

[LauraS]

Has anyone seen firsthand (or own) a car with wheels that are painted in another color other than silver? A search on Forum did not yield results but I may have done it wrong. My Sprite is freshly painted in a version of OEW and I'm considering painting the wheels in same. She does not have wire wheels or whitewall tires. Same wheel as shown in attachment. Wondering how the paint holds up to road conditions. Is there a particular paint or process that is recommended?



Going for his look...



~Laura

 

[Jim_Gruber]

You just need some of that same color paint. Possible to get OEWpaint in Spray Cans or but you need same brand and formulation for and exact match. Was car painted sincle stage or with a clear coat. Also possible to get a do it yourself kit with separate propellant can and container for paint. Persinally I would clean up wheels, degrease, and send over to the painter who did the car. Will involve unmounting the wheels before painting or a lot of careful masking.

 

[LauraS]

Thanks Jim. Very helpful.

Additionally, I'm taking a straw poll on pros vs cons opinions on wheel painting in general. I love the continuity of the look, extending the body paint to the wheels, but husband feels it looks a little too "tricky" and will appear amateurish. He's more of a purist than I, at least for this particular car. IMHO, Square body Sprites are just asking for special touches to help them stand out a bit from their inherent plain Janeness. Any photos or images reinforcing my preference (ammunition) would be appreciated!

~Laura

 

[SaxMan]

There's a couple of Square Sprites floating around with painted wheels. There's a picture of a Mark II Sprite in the Wikipedia entry with painted wheels:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin-Healey_Sprite

I'm on the fence on this one. I do like the painted wheel / dogpan hubcap look on certain cars, such as 60s muscle cars. It gives them that "all business" look, IMHO. I don't think it works as well on the Sprite. The silver painted wheels look right. I added chrome beauty rings to mine, as I thought it gave the wheels a bit more "pop".
DSC_0021 by David Cohen, on Flickr

 

[Gerard]

Powder coat is also an option. It's more durable and with the amount involved to prep each wheel, you might find it's worth the money to have them sand blasted and powder coated. I recently did a set of 5 Morris Minor wheels in OEW, and they were even brand new wheels. I don't recall exactly, but I don't think cost was more than $50 each.

Thanks Jim. Very helpful.

Additionally, I'm taking a straw poll on pros vs cons opinions on wheel painting in general. I love the continuity of the look, extending the body paint to the wheels, but husband feels it looks a little too "tricky" and will appear amateurish. He's more of a purist than I, at least for this particular car. IMHO, Square body Sprites are just asking for special touches to help them stand out a bit from their inherent plain Janeness. Any photos or images reinforcing my preference (ammunition) would be appreciated!

~Laura

 

[LauraS]

What a beautiful color of blue, SaxMan! Wish I'd seen this BEFORE I painted! I agree, blue body color wouldn't have looked nearly as nice as the chrome on your car. A beauty for sure!

 

[LauraS]

Thanks for the input, Gerald. Such a cool looking vehicle! OK, I'll look into powder coating. Price is certainly reasonable.

 

[65_BRG_Sprite]

Way back when, I had a 64 TR4, black w/red interior, steel disc wheels were a baby blue w/stock hub caps. I know it doesn't sound like it but IMHO very pleasing. Wish I had photos. Wish I still had the car. Upon getting drafted my car payments were twice what Army paid me per month.

 

[SaxMan]

What a beautiful color of blue, SaxMan! Wish I'd seen this BEFORE I painted! I agree, blue body color wouldn't have looked nearly as nice as the chrome on your car. A beauty for sure!

Thank you! It's supposed to be Glacier Blue, but on the respray that a previous owner did in the 1990s by my guess, it's a slightly lighter hue. It's definitely a "10 footer" paint job. Once you get close, the imperfections really start to stick out. Right now, I have no plans to do another repaint on the car. The nice thing about having a slightly rough finish is that you don't have heart failure when rock chips the paint.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

There was a much deeper blue that came on '68's. My Buddy had a brand new one he got as a HS Graduation Present. My first experience with Sprites and the car that almost caused me to flunk out Freshman Year at Univ. of Cincinnati. We had too much fun romping in that '68 Sprite. Two transmissions and 3 axleshafts later car was sold in less than 2 years. Unfortunately this was not the car to turn an 18 y.o. loose in. Chirping the tires was what Tony wanted to do. He inherited his Mom's '66 Buick Rivera. Talk about a change in cruising vehicles. Gold, White Leather Buckets, 425 Cubes 340 HP. Definitely riding in style. everywhere except past the gas pumps.

 

[CLEAH]

Laura,

Wheels are a very important element of the design aesthetic of a car. In my opinion, they should contrast the body of the car. If not, you lose some of the personality of the car because the wheels tend to disappear. On your white car, silver would look great. My Sprite is orange (it was that way when I bought it). It had orange wheels with trim rings and it looked awful. I ditched the trim rings, painted the wheels silver, and it looked right.

 

[LauraS]

Thanks Hugh. Agreed about the trim rings...reminds me of rim around an electric coil burner on a range. But I really can picture that little section of cream on the wheel. Doesn't show much anyway with the AH cap over it. And I may not put the chrome bumper back on either. Just a badge bar and fog lights. A bit renegade I know.

 

[LauraS]

Brought home baby yesterday!
This was meant to be a winter project so we could be driving now. Ahh well, she'll be ready for beautiful fall drives in the Bluegrass.

PS. In case it was misleading, the lovely white Healey pictured in my earliest post is just an example of painted wheels, it's not my car.

 

[JPSmit]

Honestly you could paint those wheels sky blue pink with a finiaty border and it would look amazing!

 

[SaxMan]

Nice! Looking at the car, I don't think white wheels would complement the look. I'd either stick with the silver, or, call me crazy, but painting the wheels the same color red as the racing stripe would give the car more of a "race car" look and help complement the red stripe.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

And trim rings really look sharp as well. Not sure though if they would work with those rims but I think so.

 

[glemon]

I agree with Saxman, I am not too big on wheels painted the same color as the car, but if you did do something besides traditional silver I would go with the contrasting stripe color too.

 

[hcallaway]

I have gone both routes, powder coat and paint. Wheels hold up better than about any other item on a car. They don't seem to take direct hits like other parts.
This is the paint on my Bugeye.

They were blasted and then I primed them with an acid etch. Then baked them in my homemade oven.

The only way to really paint them is to have the tires removed. I have sanded and painted and they had a nice finish as well.
I have bought the red paint and a pin stripping brush once I have them on a spindle to rotate.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Can you say "Necessity Is..." Now if I hadn't thrown out that old Weber two weeks ago. This does me ideas for powder coating other than using the spare oven in the basement and the resulting smells that would permanently reside in my house.

 

[number6]

I am not a fan of painted wheels either. Case in point, a local British car shop has a Spitfire in BRG, with ( BRIGHT YELLOW ) wheels. It looks ridiculous. If it must be done, then less is more.
I am just a fan of contrast that silver wheels give. But ( there always is one ) it's yours to do with what you wish. I have seen too many British cars that were " improved " by owners who have no
clue. I believe we have all seen that Jag on Barn Finds, that has shocked most of us. Admittedly this opinion is coming from one who has no sense of proportion, can't dress himself, is unable to make reasonable color coordination and is unable to understand why people do strange things to cars.