painting torque thrust wheels
 

Does anyone have any recommendations for painting the centers of the TT D wheels such as type of paint, methods, etc.?

Re: painting torque thrust wheels
 

How about just making them correct as per the originals: bare cast (glassbead works that crappy paint off) and send them out to high polish the outer rim (getting rid of the machining rings). That is the right look, just did a set and they are killer. I called American a few years back and they wanted to argue with me that all Torque Thrusts including T70's were painted battleship gray spokes originally. I purchased my first new set in 1971. The man arguing with me was born in 1974. Case Closed.

Re: painting torque thrust wheels
 

George, I dont own any Torque Thrust wheels currently, nor have I ever tried to restore any. I am old enough to have served in Viet-Nam in 68'and do have a rememberance of "the look".
I would not think that GLASS beading would replicate the original look as they left the foundry. Would not glass beading create a look other than the as cast appearance. Many aluminum foundry operations, use a STEEL shot blaster
with different sizes of shot and differing amounts of time, to remove all the mold sand, etc.....
This of course would be done before any machining and polishing is done....
Just my thoughts..........


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...hotBlasted.jpg

Re: painting torque thrust wheels
 

Chuck,
I believe that you have the right idea as far as what the factory's cast aluminum parts looked like. My dad had some things cast at an Aluminum foundry and they used a vibratory bin filled with steel shot to remove the casting sand from the parts, when he got them back I was amazed at how close if not a dead on match to the "reskinned" and NOS aluminum parts look.
Now as far as how the Torq Thrust wheels looked... I was not born when they came out so I will have to defer to Mr. Lyons.

Re: painting torque thrust wheels
 

Glass doesn't look quite right...the outer lips were not high polished but rather machined finish. You can mak the new repop wheels look a ton better by simply getting rid of the grey spokes by using Alumi-Blast or some other Aluminum replicaction paint ...

Re: painting torque thrust wheels
 

I don't know that I've ever seen the new TT Ds blasted in any way. I have a set for the '57 and thought I would use Alumi-Blast, but would be interested to hear if anyone else has other thoughts. I'll definitely do something with them to get rid of the dark gray spokes! https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/no.gif

Re: painting torque thrust wheels
 

Here's a set of the newer 15x6 TT's with the center sections lighted with Eastwood argent silver lacquer. While they looked a ton better than out of the box gray, I have since replaced them with a true set of vintage straight spoke mags, finished similarly. The "left natural" idea sounds good in theory, but if you ever plan to actually drive the car or hit the brakes, the dust will quickly make them look like hell, and nearly impossible to clean.

Re: painting torque thrust wheels
 

That'a cool look. You're probably right about leaving them uncoated. The brake dust would be a problem with Disc Brake cars, but not as much of an issue with the drums on my '57.

A bit of a side step from this thread but, what wheels does Mike Guarise have on his '02 Nickey car? Nice finish on those spokes.

Re: painting torque thrust wheels
 

What about spraying a semi-gloss or a flat clear over the as-cast/bare spokes? I suppose certain clears can discolor over time but wouldn't a clear coat keep brake dust out of the pores?

Re: painting torque thrust wheels
 

Let me clarify: I only suggest the glass bead to remove the crappy gray paint, not change the cast finish. It's there and it's fine; it just needs uncovered and the bead blasting has done that just fine for me on numerous new wheels. Original old wheels were not high polished outers but did NOT have that heavy machined ring thing going on either. Smoothing and polishing now is the only way to get the outers back to smooth and they lose the fresh polish look quickly if you wish to get as close as I have found to what they did late sixties, early seventies. Yes, brake dust is an issue. Aluma-Blast is OK, probably the best finish if you dont want to leave them bare as they were originally. Better idea than a clear in my opinion.