My grandfather doesn't seem to have believed in hubcaps; whenever he bought a new truck, he would pop the hubcaps off and toss them into a pile in the shed. Years after his passing, when I came into possession of his truck, I got not only the four hubcaps that came with the truck, but two from the truck before that:



I'm sure if I dug around in the shed I could not only find the two missing hubcaps from the previous truck, but probably four more from the truck before that.

A couple of the hubcaps are in OK shape, but most of them are badly scraped and pitted with rust. I'd like to refinish them, but I'm unsure how to go about it.

First, what colors should I use to get back to the factory original look? The hubcaps are painted Argent, with blue lettering and ring. Is there only one Argent that Ford used? And what shade is that blue, anyway? It is a very dark blue, but I don't know if that's because it's supposed to be that way, or because they spent thirty-plus years laying in the dirt.

More important than the exact color, though, is how do I go about actually painting them? Stripping the old paint and rust off is no problem, but I can't think of a good technique for repainting the ring and (especially) the recessed lettering neatly. Any suggestions on this front would be greatly appreciated.

 

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Painting would be best done like pinstriping with an automotive grade enamel. The letters you can "well" the paint, kind of like just dabbing it in there until it fills up about 1/4 of the way like it is now. The ring will take a steady hand and a good brush. When I get the trim rings done on my truck, I'm gonna have one of those M/C - Hotrod pintstripe guys do it. Are the caps actually painted argent, I thought they were raw (spun?) alluminum.

 

You're right, paying someone else to do it would definitely give the best results...but I am hoping there's a way I can do this on my own.

'Welling' the paint in the lettering sounds like it might work. As for the ring...I had the notion that it might be possible to paint the ring of the hubcap blue (not necessarily neatly) to begin with. Then, after that dried, fill the ring with a low surface tension liquid, such as rubbing alcohol. Then spray the face of the hubcap with argent, with the liquid acting as a mask for the blue in the ring. Any overspray or slop from the blue ring would ideally be covered with the argent, then I could well the lettering as you describe.

Is this plausible, or am I smoking crack?

 

If you want to spray the argent, I'd lay that down first, then well paint the letters. For the stripe, I would spin the hubcap on an old turntable or a potters wheel, or something that spins at relatively low rpms. Then use a good brush to lay the paint in. That way you're keeping the brush relatively still, letting the spinning hubcap do the work. It'll be much more stable and you'll get cleaner lines.

 

THAT sounds like a good idea!

 

It does indeed! Now...if only I had an old turntable, or a potter's wheel...

 

I see turntables being given away for free on craigslist sometimes.........

 

Garage sales, flea markets, Ebay, your uncle's attic. All fertile ground for the elusive turntable.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Used-Sony-PS...item5648285a75

 

Thrift stores are great for that as well...

 

Why not pop the cap onto a rim and use the front hub to spin it?
When painting the lettering, take a paper match and use it like a wick or paint brush. its easier to control than a brush and won't drip as easy.

Myself, I'd mask off the ring area to be painted with fine line painters tape and spray it.

I believe those were bare or anodized aluminum when they were new.
You should be able to polish them up like chrome with some aluminum polish.
Some earlier versions were painted steel.

 

Sand blast

Masking tape and an exact-o knife to cut out the letters, then spray away.

 

How do you think the OEM did all of this and remained profitable? Just curious.

 

Being an aficionado of How It's Made, I'll bet they designed machines that did it pretty much the way we described. Flooded the letters, and spun the disc for the stripe. For the polished aluminum caps, they could have painted the stripes/letters first, then sanded/polished the caps until just the recesses had paint. But in the pictures the stripe looks recessed, so I'll bet on the spinning technique.

 

Given how many millions of these hubcaps Ford produced over the years, I would assume they had a machine expressly designed to do the paint work.

I'll probably do the hubcap-on-spinning-wheel trick, and if that doesn't work I'll find an old turntable. Using paper matches as paintbrushes sounds good, too.

I'll start this project once I've finished painting the rims themselves. I've got one of those done, four more to go, so it may be a few weeks before I can report back on this.

Does anyone have good knowledge on the specific colors Ford used?