Found the paint, starting on wheels

[austinsailor]

Well, I finally found the paint for my '53. Long story, but the local guy finally found a lead to a guy who had all the old paint stuff and could cross it to something modern. Some guy in a little town in Arkansas. They used to have all the old stuff here, but the Orielys Auto Parts, where the paint shop was, burned to the ground last spring.

Got the old tires sawed off. Safest way, the local guys with their power tire changers bent too many of my wheels. I can get 4 off in about half an hour, saves $20 and no bent wheels. And no disposal fees for the tires.

And got half the wheels sandblasted, will finish and paint them this weekend. I guess I'll know then if I really like this San Pedro Blue color.

[40P10touring sedan]

Cool, nice thing about paint is if you don't quite like it you simply respray them. Hope to see the results soon!

[55 Fargo]

I would also make sure the rims are "true", before finishing them, been there, done that...

[Plymouthy Adams]

Good point Fred...bolt them up and check the run out on them lateral and radial planes...you want the radial to be less than .040 total (some say to .060 but I would use this only on a larger wheel) lateral runout should nil but we know this is nt a perfect world..most like to see no more than .045 and at the very max .100 now that is a lot of movement but could still ride good at the below 60 MPH range...check this at the seating bead of the rim..not the outer lip..they get damaged all the time and may be very hard to check anything at this point..do not check with tire on unless you know first your rim is true and you are stuffing a set of out -of-round tires down the dealers throat..yes this happens all the time..and they will call your car at fault unless you show them the runout...they will not do this test on their own initative..

[austinsailor]

Got them sandblasted and painted. I now see that my shop isn't going to work for painting - too much crap in the air. The wheels will work fine, not much will show from under the hubcaps.

As to checking to see if they are true, I didn't notice any bend, not a complete check, but the only time I've had problems with untrue wheels is after some jerk in shops uses their tire machine get old tires off. They'll just keep on forcing until the wheel is bent.

I was getting ready to primer them and called to town to find those valve stems that will fit the oblong holes in these wheels. Couldn't locate anything, so I welded them up and drilled new standard valve stem sized. Solved that problem.

Hope to mount my new Diamondback Wide whites tomorrow.

[thrashingcows]

Thanks for the great advice there guys...I'm doing a set f rims for my wagon and was thinking about doing something similar to check for trueness..