It wouldn't stay on chrome plating - it was clear lacquer with some toner added. He did sell a lot of it in bomb cans with his picture on it ...
I tried using "Color-Chrome" paint on my 60 T-Bird, looked great for awhile but didn't stand up to daily driving very well. Didn't seem to adhere to the chrome and looked pretty sad. Mick
Seems like anytime I paint anything in the shop and get some on chrome, it's a pain to get off. Maybe if I pretended to paint some candy on something else near my hubcaps it would stick and look good. LOL I really like the look and think it would be cool. Wonder how today's candies would do so far as sticking to chrome and holding up to daily driving.
I like them questioning if the manufacturers will start doing it - that reminder of how influential the custom car industry was on the big 3 is awesome.
Many hubcaps of that era were actually polished stainless and would accept paint fairly well. The big three all had hubcap designs that were accented with paint. Chrysler used a translucent gold, solid blacks and reds for years on their Desoto, Plymouth and Chrysler lines. Great look. Would love to see it executed now with newer style custom paints.
What would be a good paint to use. My merc had painted hubcaps back in th 50's and I would like to paint the 56 olds starfire hubcaps I have for it to match.
Hello, Nice story on an old technique that was cool, but not so popular with hot rod teenagers. We saw some custom spray items at those early car shows, but never on the streets when we were driving around. It might have been that road grime and flying debris usually did a number on those painted wheels, despite the color or design. But, one thing was, if you found a large paint store in your neighborhood (ours was the huge Standard Brands Company, Yellow color paint store a couple of miles away from our house) then you had access to any spray paint that was translucent in color. Imagine this whole building painted a bright yellow color highlighting the company name. Our local store offered small and normal size paint cans for any project. The translucent spray color blue and red were the most popular. But we did not spray them on chrome, but on our small plastic model hot rods and dragsters we built. First, we had to spray everything silver. Then sand and prep for the color spray of translucent red or blue. A light spray gave off the best coloring, but experimenting with more layers gave some different looks to the original color. So Cal residents will instantly recognize those eye popping signs and locations...Similar in Yellow, "Location Attraction" paint on the buildings all over So Cal. When we started driving and my brother’s friends had their hot rods and sedans, no one used the color for their wheels. It was a pure show car “trick” item to draw the judges’ attention for more points. Jnaki But, our experiments with the silver base layer and then the translucent sprays did look nice on our plastic models. Yes, we did spray our welding cart silver and translucent blue. But, it did not come out quite well. So, we repainted it a bright normal red color and it helped the drab backyard garage looks with the Red upright cart and two silver tanks “standing in/on the corner.” But, not in Winslow, Arizona.
Painting chrome or stainless requires careful prep similar to bare steel or aluminum. If you commit to painting chrome or stainless then sand it with 600. Depending on the color desired a very light coat of etching primer would be a good idea followed with color. The color coats should be kept as thin as possible.
The Jalopy Journal
