Does anyone know where i can get the silver paint for the stock ford steel wheels, the 5 hole ones i think? The duplicolor silver wheel paint seems like it has too much metal flake. I need to put the rims and tires from my parts truck on, but dont want rusty wheels.

 

The Ford silver is called "argent". A long time ago I was at a Pep Boys and they had a can of it, it was Duplicolor "Truck Paint" and said "Ford Argent" on the can.

 

So this should be it:

http://www.cacustomcoatings.com/foarsi.html

I will also check the local parts stores. Thanks

 

That looks to be what you want.

 

what's the best way to prep your wheels if you're painting them? Sorry to hjack

 

I like sand blasting to bare metal

 

i did mine in gloss black a couple of months ago- i washed the rims and put two coats on after that. i guess you could prep it better than that but they seem to be holding up.

 

I am just going to sand the rusty spots, then put on a couple coats of primer and paint. I wish I could sand blast them but I just dont have the time.

 

I've spent a bunch of time reviewing the tricks of the trade here at the FTE site regarding the repainting of steel wheels. Sadly, the steel wheels on my Ranger are rusting in the space between the stamped hub plate and the bead on the rolled rim. I suppose that the folks in Engineering should have figured some weep holes into the design to provide for drainage.

I vigorously steel brushed the rim to remove the flaking paint and scale rust to prepare the wheel. Next I used a gel-based rust remover and continued to work the rusty spots with a steel brush and finished by brushing the entire inner wheel surface. I removed quite a bit of the scale and found pitting in spots, so I attempted to sand these areas as smooth as possible. Used the self etching primer to coat the worked area (entire inner rim) and it stuck pretty well; two coats (over spray on outer rim was difficult to remove after a minute or two). I looked all over for the Argent paint, but settled for a silver that was pretty close. Three coats with light sanding in between coats. Finally sprayed with two coats clear and remounted the wheel.

Conclusion: better than before, especially where rust wasn't a problem. Raised areas still look bad for me, but at least I'm protected for a little while. Nothing beats sandblasting and a baked powder coat. Given the cost, I'm not sure it was worth it. It took a day to do the one test subject, but I suppose that the rest will go quicker now. That said, I'm not sure I'm going to do that.

Still - I appreciate the thoughts folks put to text here. It helped.

Kevin