Rostyle Wheels

Rostyle Restoration

Question:

Is there a 'correct' paint color for the gray paint? Has anyone had experience with powder coatings? Costs? Etc.?

Answers:

I'm in the middle of painting mine now. I'm using a can of wire wheel paint from Moss Motors to spray the whole wheel and then using a camel hair artist brush to paint on flat black. They look not too bad. There is plenty of paint in the can for all four wheels and the spare! It may not be authentic but the price is right. Incidentally, I've heard the wheel masks are not worth bothering with.
Check out my web page for what I believe are the correct colors. Use Yahoo! and search for NC MG CC

I just did my Rostyles also.
I used Moss Paint for that purpose Moss part # 220-560 (Classic-Color Silver)
From my experiences so far I'd suggest avoiding the Rostyle Paint mask.
If anyone can offer suggestions on how to get the mask to stay flush
I'll try again, but I think i'm just going to tape 'em off.

Hi, I would like to offer up a way to paint rostyles with both ease and accuracy. Having been a commercial artist for the last twenty five years, I have used both paint brush and airbrush enough to have come accross several illustrative challanges and my rostyles were met met with that experience in mind.

The mask is a good tool, but you need to finish the kit with a common artist's compliment.

First you need to head down to your local art store and purchase a small can of rubber cement and a thinner called "Bestine". This is a agent used by airbrush artists for cutting the rubber cement to make "frisket". Frisket is a term used for a very accurate masking film.

Mix the ruber cement and Bestine in a glass jar until it is a little thicker than water.

Brush the inside of your mask with this and let it dry for just a couple of min.

When you place the mask on the wheel, press the mask down firmly, paying attention to all of the detailed areas. This will allow the mask to stick and not allow overspray.

The rubber cement will not make a mess on the wheels. If any happens to stick to the wheel, it rolls right off after you lift off the mask. This is a common artist's masking method and it works very well.

Good luck. Charlie Moore

I repainted my wheels using a paint mask and spray cans. The key, I found, is to be sure that the paint is sprayed perpendicular to the mask to reduce the blow by of paint. Mine turned out very good. I would recommend it to anyone over brushing.

Well, when I did my wheels I had some time on my hands, so I made it a 2.5 day ordeal. I drove to a parts store and had them match the silver to a paint chip (don't know the code off hand), and did the same for the black. After some fun with a wire brush and a thorough sanding and rinsing, I painted the entire wheel(s) with the silver, giving each wheel at least 6 (medium-thin) coats. The paint was a lead-based aerosol with Naptha (evaporator), so there was just a brief "flash time" between coats. After drying overnight, I used masking tape to cover up all the silver paint (yes, cutting tape with an X-Acto knife to cover the "spurs" precisely), and did the black portion with several coats. After another day or so of drying, I then put on several layers of clear coat (not too glossy) to finish it off.

The wheels turned out great, and the clear coat has protected the black & silver from rock chips (lots of construction on our highways here). The wheels also tend to look clean when they really aren't.

I did all of the painting with the tyres still on. If I were in a position to replace the tyres, I'd go with powder-coating or a paint shop who can "bake" the finish. I've seen powder-coated wheels and they look fabulous. However, some spare time and less than $40 did me well for now.

I just did a set on a 76 Midget. Krylon silver metalic spray paint, glossy black, again Krylon, and clear over everything when finished.
I saw the results with the mask so I painted the silver, taped off the wheel and spent some time with a razor knife cutting the tape, painted the black, removed the tape and cleared the whole wheel.
They look good as new. The clear dulls out the silver paint to just about the correct shade of gray.
Whole job cost about $10 US and took about 4 hours.

Having recently repainted the early style rostyles on my 71, I found a very good paint for the black sections. It is manufactured for repainting barbeque grills (I don't have the can in front of me, but it was Ace Hardware brand), and is sort of halfway between a gloss and a flat black. It is heat resistant, and seems to be holding up very well, although it has only been about a month. I wasn't happy with either a glossy black or a dull flat black, and this seems like a happy medium between the two. I also repainted my heater box and various other under hood items with it.