Wheel color for Halibrands?

[Ron Earp]

Anyone know what the correct color is for the centers on these wheels? I think they were made of magnesium which is dull grey in color, correct or no? Any suggestions?

I was going to take my over to the coaters/painter and have a finish put on them since I've some other car parts being done as well. A dark dull grey looks right from photos, but I've not seen any close up - all the GT40s I've seen in person had BRMs and all the Cobras I've seen wearing Halibrands have them polished to a blinding glare!

Ron

 

[Gordon Levy]

Go to your local paint supply store and look at interior paint colors. I have painted the center on these wheels before and I used a single stage urethane slate gray color. I think it was a GM color. It did look like tarnished Mag when I was finished.

 

[Robert Logan]

Ron,

I like to see wheels in the same colour of the stripes on the sills. The best illustration of this is the Gulf cars with their orange wheels. This is still used today on modern race cars and I think looks great.

The MkII we built we used the silver of the stripes and this blended in well with the aluminium rims we use. The car was a copy of 1046 that won Le Mans in 1966, driven by the Kiwi's Chris Amon and Bruce Mc Laren (alas the black and silver). Some of the photographs I had of the car showed the car with gold wheels and I was relieved when I saw some photographs with silver wheels.

I looked into anodising the wheels but because of the different alloying elements in the wheel parts (rims, cast center and welds) the anodising has different shades and looks CRAP.

Ron follow Bob Lawrences lead, paint them. I have NEVER seen a better set of wheels and all the hard work Bob put in realy paid off.

Best wishes mate,

Robert