Painting wire wheels

Its my understanding that E types normally came with painted ww , except in the US where chrome was the standard…How hard is it to actually paint one and what woud it take to paint a chrome WW?

Here is one paint company’s recommendations.

I’d guess sandblasting would be required to prep the chrome surface, because you will never be able to sand all surfaces of the wheel rim, hub and spokes without disassembling the wheel. Maybe start with used wheels that are sound but with bad chrome.

Not a good idea to sandblast, the particles can get into the area between the spokes and hub/rim and start fretting.

You can remove chrome with muriatic acid. Google it and be very safety conscious. Follow the procedures for neutralizing the acid after. Not sure if hydrogen embrittlement is a concern with doing this to wire wheels. Perhaps someone with more knowledge can comment.

I just had a set powder coated shiny black. I was going to take them to a chrome shop and have the chrome removed but the shop I used said they have done a few before, they sandblast them lightly to get some tooth and then coat. Worked beautifully. I filled the spoke ends in the wheel well with urethane, went tubeless and 6 months later all is well.
Chrome wires were described by Jaguar as an option, but in reality all E Types to N.A. came with them.

I’ve painted several sets of wire wheels, it’s easy just light coats. I made a tree to hang them on, primer, scuff sand and paint.

But if I was to do them for an E type, I’d do what Terry did and get them powder coated as they stand up to the weather much better than paint.

Take them to a chrome shop and get them to dip them to remove the chrome, super easy and fast. Then off to a media blaster, probably glass bead as it’s not as course as sand, then powder coating.
Pat

I had a set of painted wire wheels blasted and epoxy primed about 5 years ago. While the epoxy was still fresh, I painted them with VHT Ford Argent Silver, and was very happy with how they came out.

Because they’re painted over a high-quality primer, they’ve held up remarkably well, and can be touched up easily.

I don’t see why the process would be any different if you were starting with chrome wheel, except the guy running the blaster might need to push the ‘try harder’ button compared to my wheels.

Once powder coated there is no spoke adjusting, isn’t that correct? I would think paint to be easier for the I inevitable touch up.

Yes, for sure good point. But that said my counter point would be realistically, how many wheels have will need to be tuned up, not to mention not a lot of people can do it these days. As nice as properly painted wheels can look, after a few years rust seems to creep out of the nipples of the spokes to show it’s ugliness, not badly, but visible.
Pat

In reality most cars’ spokes and nipples have long rusted together. Tying to turn the nipple usually results in a rounded nipple, and/or a busted spoke. I’ve tried believe me. But to your question - yes it would make it more difficult. Before you waste your money on painting or powder coating etc you need to see how good/bad the wheel is.

Agree. When my uncle had his shop in Phoenix years ago, a guy used to come around, and collect old, dead wire wheels as donors for repairs he would do. My uncle would lay them in a pile, and he’d come around every few months, and take whatever he could get.

His approach was to dunk them in trash cans FULL of some sort of penetrating oil concoction, and leave them in there for days or weeks to get them apart.

Keep in mind, these were wheels taken off Arizona cars…

I had a shop in Houston true my wire wheels; shop’s probably long gone by now. Anyway, they had a 55 gallon drum of heated oil they dropped them in and let them sit for a week or so. I’ve no idea what kind of oil was in the drum but I got the idea it was used motor oil; maybe with some lighter petroleum product mixed in.