My New Whitewalls and painted wheels

[Houdini]

As I just updated my avatar, I thought I would post a couple of pictures of my new Goodyear Whitewall tires and newly painted wheels. When I bought the car last June, the previous owner had installed 16 inch wheels but also had the 19 inch wheels. Both sets of tires were old and cracked, so I struggled for a while as to which new tires to buy.,

In the end, I decided on 19 inch Goodyears. I'm glad I did, they not only look nice in my opinion, but handle nicely too. I bought them directly from Kelsey and was very pleased with their service. One of the 5 tires, had a blemish on the whitewall, and they replaced it quickly for me.

Attached is a picture with the 16 inch wheels/tires. The wheels were painted a dark green. The 19 inch wheels were apple green, but not in great shape, so we decided to go with the straw color.

We ended up painting them ourselves. At first we could not find the straw color in a rattle can, but eventually found a close match with Rustoleum Painter's Touch 2X, in a color called "warm yellow". I'm referencing it here, for anyone that might be interested. I realize it's not up to the standards of powder coating, but we're pleased with the way it turned out.

My wife sanded the old wheels as best she could, focusing on flattening old drips, as the old wheels had at least 3 different colors of paint on them.
I made a disk to fit the rear of the wheel, with bolts holes lined up to matched the wheels. I also made a hub out of wood to fit the front of the wheels. I drilled a 1 inch hole in the center of each and put a 3/4 pipe through it to hold the wheel while painting. It was placed between two saw horses and I was able to slowly rotate the wheel as I sprayed. I did the backside first, and then the front, giving time between each coat for drying. I slowly rotated after each spraying for a few minutes to prevent runs. It took about one can of spray paint per wheel, maybe just a little more in some cases. I did one wheel at a time and let it dry overnight before removing it from the pipe and wooden plates.

I realize that this paint is not as durable as powder coating, so I need to be careful with them, as you can easily scratch them, but they seem rugged enough with care. I didn't use any tools to mount the tires, but did it by hand with a plastic bag and some soapy water. Getting them off to change a flat might be a different story.

Hope some of this info can help others, but I also wanted to show off my new tires. Oh, my car as mentioned before is a 31 slant windshield. And as mentioned in the car naming thread, its Houdini, because it magically makes money disappear.

Frank

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