Painting center caps?

[lhopp77]

Wrong color but letterless cap.

Lee

I still dont know what the burnished silver is from if its a specific manufacturer's color thats my problem

[Earthworm]

Fron the how-to and the SVXipedia Burnished Silver is available at Advance Auto or Autozone.

Originally Posted by Earthworm

Fron the how-to and the SVXipedia Burnished Silver is available at Advance Auto or Autozone.

Ya I got that part I need to know what car or a part # that burnished silver has

such as the Datsun paint recommended for the other rims on the how to docs
its not specific enough theres a bunch of cans of paint in the autozone paint aisle last I checked

I bought "graphite" at Autozone after not finding "burnished silver" in 3 autozones and 1 advanced auto parts

Maybe if it gets dirty it will match

[SSSVX]

Other than painting the center caps by yourself, is there someone trying to paint the whole wheels? Any process? How would it hold up?

[svxcess]

For durability, powdercoating is the only way to go. I've had my wheels done 4 years ago by Transwheel and they look as good as the day I put them on. Check out my post (#5 from the top) on THIS THREAD

.

?Burnished Silver? Crickets crickets ..........

[Black88GTA]

Ancient thread I know, but still relevant

I need to repaint the wheel caps for my (dark silver) 92 wheels, and was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for paint (available in 2021) that matches? The "Burnished Silver" everyone talks about when this comes up (and mentioned in the "How-To" docs) doesn't seem to exist on Pep Boys, Advance Auto, Amazon, or Autozone's website. I assume it's been discontinued. Figured I'd check if anyone here has any ideas before I go in there and guess

[theflystyle]

Yeah, would like to know as well. Wondering if we need to get a custom can made after matching to the wheels.

[Black88GTA]

Originally Posted by theflystyle

Yeah, would like to know as well. Wondering if we need to get a custom can made after matching to the wheels.

I don't think a custom can will be necessary...I went to Autozone with a cap in hand, and tried to match it with something they had on the shelf. Although I don't want to get too much Chrysler in my Subaru, I settled on some Chrysler paint that looks pretty close (if the cap is any indication).



Not fully vouching for this yet as life and other things have gotten in the way and I haven't actually gotten around to painting them and seeing how well it matches. Full information is below:

Duplicolor Perfect Match
BCC0331 Charcoal Gray Met (AA9, PA9)
Replaces DSCC331

https://www.amazon.com/Dupli-Color-B.../dp/B00407RSNG

Currently $7 on Amazon, if anyone wants to try it out. I'd get it there honestly, I think I paid something like $12 or so in the store. If anyone tries it before I get to it, I'd be interested in seeing how well it actually matches.

e: this is for the 92 and (I think) 93 dark silver wheels - the 94+ OEM wheels are lighter in color, so this paint won't work with those.

[Black88GTA]

OK, so I finally got around to this yesterday. For anyone considering painting these caps to match wheels, DO NOT use this paint. Despite the cap matching the wheels, it came out way too dark, even with white primer underneath. The shade isn't even close. Rather than take these back down to plastic, I'm just going to redo the job with the caps off my parts car. Back at square one as far as what shade of paint to use, however.

Lessons learned, to be applied next time:
a) Never trust the paint can cap color. For round 2, I'm going to test on something I don't care about first.
b) Less is more when doing lettering. The lettering came out a bit sloppier than I would have liked. I might try to find a fine detail paint pen or something.

Anyway, here's the method I used. I first needed to sand the old paint off of the caps. The flat top surface was easy - 120 grit sanding sponge for the heavy stuff, then a 180 grit sponge for "polish". I just dry sanded with the sponges, and periodically blew the dust out of the sponges with compressed air. The sponges held up fine - I used one of each grit for all 4 caps. Fortunately my caps weren't really scuffed too badly, so I didn't have to polish out any major scrapes in the plastic.

The 5 indentations on the sides were a little trickier. It's hard to get a standard sponge in there, and nothing I had worked. I tried little abrasive Dremel attachments, but they weren't strong enough - they just polished the paint. Then I found this sanding block kit which worked perfectly when used with appropriately sized paper. This kit was the perfect size, and came with plenty of paper in different grits. I had to take breaks while using this kit though, as it made my hand cramp up.





Ready to paint:





I used a white Rust-Oleum adhesion promoting primer, which I didn't like very much. Started off OK, but at one point it spit out blobs of paint which left the surface like a pebble finish. I had to sand all of that out and respray it. Aside from that, it went well. Since I had to do this outside, I cut a little cover out of an Amazon box to keep leaves and crap from falling onto the wet paint.

Primered, with cover on:



Color coat:



For the letters, I used a jar of touch-up paint and some detail paint sticks, kind of similar to Q-tips but smaller. Despite me being careful, it ended up a bit sloppy and I wasn't really happy with the result. I think next time, I will either find a paint pen or be more careful with the paint stick.

Lettering:



After the lettering, I put a couple coats of clear over the caps to seal everything in. I forgot to take a pic of the finished product.

And finally, here's one of them (sort of) in place on the wheel. It's just sitting in there for now since these are a bastard to take out unless the wheel is off, and I'm not going to end up using these because they came out way too dark.

[Black88GTA]

For reference, here's a stock cap from my '94 parts car in place on the '92 wheel. Way too light, so this won't work either. The white stuff on the wheel is dried tire paste - I have to wipe that off at some point.

[svxnavyvet]

Try using a large hole needle in a syringe to do the lettering let it flow out

[ZoraSVX]

I recall someone in the FB group mentioning a Honda color that was nearly a perfect match. But of course, I can't find that thread now...