My husband, Ed, and I wanted a car to fix up and drive around for a while. Although I really didn't want this car, I've now become very attached and would like to do a few things. We are striving for driver quality (showing is not in our budget). With the great wealth of knowledge on this forum I figured asking you guys would be the best thing. Ed is great with the mechanical end and he is teaching me some of that but I've taken on the cleaning and touch up part of things. First question...we have the aluminum wheels that used to have the black painted ring around them. What is the best way to prep and repaint that stripe? What paint would you recommend? In that same vein, the wheel centers we have, plastic with the silver pony and they should have a red color background, need work. They are in fair condition and we only have 3 (looking for one or four). Is there an easy way to remove them? What is the best thing to use to repaint them? Also, out of curiosity, were all the wheel centers the same size back then? Is there a place to go to see what centers were offered? Our car is a '78 hatchback, red on red. I would love to find pictures of inside and outside to see what it is supposed to look like (yes I love details!). The car seems pretty original but a few things are not and some interior things are missing. I would just like to get it as close to right as I can. Thanks for any help, suggestions, etc. Amanda
Wow! Great pictures! I sincerely appreciate it! I just need one thing cleared up. Would the center shown in the top left picture fit into the center of the wheel shown in the top right picture. Are all the centers from any type of wheel interchangeable?
No...the plastic ones on the left are used with the factory steel wheels, and clip into the wheel center. Your wheels are aluminum slotted, which require the (large) one piece metal (chrome plated assembly) seen in the pic on the right. These have four small screws that hold the assembly to the wheel hub, in between the lug nut holes. The plastic centers on both are removable however, and interchangeable. They are not too hard to find. The aluminum wheel center hole will not accept the plastic clip in style cap assembly used on the other wheels. The clips aren't long enough. Both wheels are 13" diameter. Any auto parts store should have a paint that will work for that stripe. I would expect a primer would help provide better and longer lasting adhesion.
I used Testors model paint to restore the black ring on my wheels. Use the paint pen instead of the bottle and brush. The paint seemed to layout quite well. It has been 3 years and 10,000 miles and the ring has not discolored or peeled off yet.
