Repainting P02 wheel covers -- any advice?

[Paul S.]

Hi all,

I am restoring a set of P02 wheel covers for my '69 convertible. They are now perfectly dent-free and polished, so it is time to repaint the black areas.

I am wondering if anyone who has done this before can share any advice. I am especially curious about masking methods for the fins, as I want to maintain the rounded ends on them, but that is going to be difficult.

Thanks,
Paul

[Ron G.]

Re: Repainting P02 wheel covers -- any advice?

Paul,

I personally have tried and researched restoring PO2 wheel covers, and in my opinion it would be very difficult to replicate the areas where they are painted black. I do believe they were painted with lacquer and it could be done with someone who possesses a lot of patience. I do not know of anyone at this time who is restoring PO2's. - Ron

[Paul S.]

Re: Repainting P02 wheel covers -- any advice?

Well, I decided to attempt it and just finished my first one last night. It turned out pretty much perfect if I do say so myself. Since I plan to have my car judged, I really needed to make them look exactly like original. This makes the fins on the lower (outer) piece of the wheel cover MUCH harder to mask-off. If you are not doing an NCRS-restoration, you could just extend those into the outer polished rim, as I have seen others do. Instead, I masked them each individually, which obviously took a ton of time. Anyways, on to the pics...


BEFORE:



DISASSEMBLED, STRIPPED, POLISHED, & AREAS TO BE PAINTED ROUGHED-UP:

[Paul S.]

Re: Repainting P02 wheel covers -- any advice?

MASKED:



PAINTED & MASKING REMOVED:

[Paul S.]

Re: Repainting P02 wheel covers -- any advice?

REASSEMBLED WITH NEW REPRO CENTER CAPS:



The center caps are made by Trim Parts, who must have purchased the original tooling, as the caps are indistinguishable from my originals.

Anyways, one down, three more to go!


- Paul

[Leif A.]

Re: Repainting P02 wheel covers -- any advice?

Attention to detail is self evident. Great job and well worth the time spent. Kudos.

[Wes S.]

Re: Repainting P02 wheel covers -- any advice?

Are You going to start doing this as a part time job. What kind of tape di you use for the ribs?
It looks like the General made it. Nice job.

Wes

[Gary J.]

Re: Repainting P02 wheel covers -- any advice?

Looks like fine line tape for the ribs

[Paul S.]

Re: Repainting P02 wheel covers -- any advice?

It is 3M vinyl pinstriping tape. I used a leather-cutting tool to cut the ends into the correct rounded shape before applying it.

[Wes S.]

Re: Repainting P02 wheel covers -- any advice?

Thank You. It did a great job.

[Tim G.]

Re: Repainting P02 wheel covers -- any advice?

Wow, those look beautiful. The PO2 option looks beautiful on Corvettes, such a classy appearance.

[Bob I.]

[Paul S.]

Re: Repainting P02 wheel covers -- any advice?

Luckily, my centers were in good shape and just needed thorough cleaning and polishing (on the fin edges). If I would have had to paint them, I probably would have just painted the entire fin area and then removed the paint from the fin edges afterward with a rag and a little bit of lacquer thinner. (I used semi-gloss black lacquer paint.)

[Bob W.]

Re: Repainting P02 wheel covers -- any advice?

Paul, super job they look like brand new caps. In your first post you said you removed the dents how? I can not find a way to get to them from the back side. Also where in Pa do you live as I'am from the North east part of the state.

[Jeff P.]

Re: Repainting P02 wheel covers -- any advice?

Very nice job.