Any advice on painting Rally II wheels?

I purchased a set of 14" JC Rally II wheels last month. They had already been blasted and painted but I would like to repaint them since I don't like the way they were painted. First, the lines between the silver and charcoal are not "crisp" and even. Second, I'm not sure the charcoal is the correct shade. The seller never responded when I asked him the paint he used and the "correct" paint I purchased from PY to touch-up a couple spots is a slightly darker shade.

How good are the masking kits the vendors sell? Will they provide a good correct mask and will they prevent paint from "wicking" under them.

The masking kits are slick! They are totally adhesive so no wicking.

I need to do mine as well, someone redid them before I bought them but the lines also are not crisp,...good 10 footers but that's it. Let us know how they turn out! I will get to mine in the next month or so before it's debut!

If you have ever done it with tape you will know why they are 10 footers.

Jim, I agree with you that the kits are nice,.. But I found that a good roll of masking tape and a razor blade always worked fine for me.

John, you are good! The rounded tips are a real PITA.

I ordered a kit about 10 minutes ago. I could probably do OK on the straight away but the rounded ends with my exacto might be pretty uneven. I might even be OK with a couple but 25 might try my patience.

Yes. And you can cut your paint trying to trim the tape. If you use two pieces of tape the paint wicks up the seam. There was a time when you had to use tape.

I have found that the kits are a little smaller then they should be...In other words, they taper both left and right on the bottom to meet up with the tape line you have to make between them, If you do that (as you should) the rounded top of the kit is too low on the top. Unless they have changed the kits since I last bought them, I think you will find the same issue.

Thanks. I wonder if that is the improvement referred to in the PY Part RPW54 "SET OF 25. DOES 5 WHEELS IMPROVED!" I'll report back in a week or two.

The masking kit I purchased worked very well but I still had to use flexible tape to mask off where the spoke meets the rim to get a crisp, proportional line.

John

The "improved" wording in the sales catalog does not mean they fit. I tried to use the masks today and found what some of you guys have discovered; they are too narrow on the outside (or too long) to accurately mask the "spokes". I guess I'm back to using tape or a mix of the masks and tape. What a PITA.

This is such a basic product to make why is it so difficult to get it right?

Jim, I have been restoring these for over 30 years, If you use a quaility tape and a razor blade, spray each coat lightly! and wait for each coat to dry...I think you will be very happy with the outcome...And before you know it, you will mask a wheel in no time.

I wonder how perfect the wheel paint was from the factory? I think that would be good enough for me. If someone bent over that far to look and see that little bit of a problem I think they would be presenting a big target for my foot! Car paint is one thing, wheel paint is another.

LOL Fbody69. Ebay had a set awhile back that covered the charcoal gray paint, not sure if its better but I have tried the set that covers the spokes with about the same problems as you.

Seems like trying to cover the grey would be a pain to apply!

I suppose I'm just too picky. The tape and trim will be tedious but it will be how I do it. I think I'll use the masks as a start and use tape to correct it's shortcomings.

It took about 1 1/2 hours to do the first wheel. I'll paint it first to see how it all looks. The others should get faster.

Show some full pics when you're done.

I used the masks about two years ago. Purchased them from Ames and I thought they worked perfectly. I'm going to take another look but I thought they came out great and had no problems at all.

Get the masking kits from Ames; they also sell the correct paint, which turned out to be DupliColor. I painted my Rallye II's over 15 years ago using their masking kits and people still comment on how great they look. Hope this helps.

Results--
The masking kit: The best results came from the use of Scotch 3M Fine Line Tape and new X-acto blades rather than the masking kit. On wheels that I used the masking kit, I had to use a lot of the fine line tape to fill the areas not covered by the mask. My overall impression of the mask is not good.

Paint: The silver paint I bought from PY was a pretty good match. The PY inner charcoal color resulted in a nice-looking wheel but for originality purposes, it was waaaaay too dark and glossy. I then bought the recommended Duplicolor as discussed in a magazine article and found it an identical dark color to the PY paint. My color comparison was between my test wheel and pictures of a POCI multiple-Gold award perfect '68 and some unrestored Rally II pictures.

I now know why the Ames catalog paint has the note: "For years controversy has circulated concerning the Rally II charcoal paints available from the vendors." and "This color is a darker charcoal than original." And, I know why PY recommends the use of a satin clearcoat to dull the glossy paint down.

Bottom line, I ended up ordering the charcoal paint color recommended at the 1st Gen site FAQs from Tower Paints. The shade and gloss level looks good compared to Concours quality wheels.

Here's a wheel with some of the hardware in place. The brushed trim rings are still back ordered.

Nice. Go for the GTO look. No trim rings. They are pretty enough for it.

Well now I'm really confused. I thought the inner was supposed to be a lot darker.
Here's two rims I have, one is old and supposidly never repainted, the other is new from Wheel Vintiques that I was going to paint.

looks to me the new is the correct paint scheme...

Strange, my rims, which I know are original too the car are the darker background color as shown by ho428's first picture.

my original rims have the lighter color.....

Ive seen ligter and darker colors on two different cars Ive owned. One came from California, one came from midwest. I have to think that theres a bit of difference from plant to plant, year to year as well.

Since I just did my rallys a few weeks ago, the process is still fresh in my mind. I used the Eastwood kit and paint. The stencils were ok, but, didn't cover as much I as would have liked. Their silver was ok, but the charcoal was too bronzy looking. I ended up using some black, which I know isn't technically correct, over the charcoal 1st coat, and its looks good. Id highly recommend an exacto knife and the blue painters tape for masking. I also found that the "hammer" style paint on the backside and inside (where the tire covers it...even though nobody will ever see it), looks good too.

Do you know the duplicolor codes for the colors? and about how many cans will work?

thats not darker ,thats black!

Bjorn, here is another one with the same dark colored background:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Pontiac-F...sspagenameZWDVW

betcha those have been "fixed" = re painted at some time

I know this topic has been run through the mill. In researching the correct color for the Rally II's, I looked a many examples, asked and did the home work for finding the right colors.

Since the removal of lead in paint, the silver now has to be a metal flake. The suggestion of Duplicolor # T229 silver is very close to the factory silver in shade. But the metal flake does give it sparkle. I found in painting my spare rim with the T229, if you take some very fine steel wool it knocks out some of the sparkle.

The Charcoal is another story. The factory paint color, PPG # DDL32947 does appear to be on the (join me Luke) dark side. I have a pic somewhere of a un-restored museum quality '69 T/A's Rally II. As I recall it was quite lighter than the PPG paint I purchased. So I'm still in debate whether or not to use the PPG Charcoal.

I'll see about finding the pic. BTW both the Duplicolor and PPG paints are acrylic lacquer.

I had mine powdercoasted two tone, well worth the investment. Prices may vary where you are at.