The Magnum 500 Painting Project Finished - with pictures

7173Mustangs.com

Help Support 7173Mustangs.com:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Mar 5, 2013
Messages
313
Reaction score
5
Location
Carlisle, PA
My Car
-Former 70 & 72 Mustang coupes owner.
-69 Torino GT, Formal Roof, 351W, Edelbrock 600 cfm, dual plane high rise intake, long tube headers, AOD trans, dual flowmasters, Pertronix II Billet, 3.5 TRACLOC g/r, 15" Magnum 500s, 100A alt, mini-starter
-70 Mach 1, 351W, FMX
Here’s a quick rundown of my Magnum 500 painting project. I started with the junkyard rims but they turned out alright. All in all I think it cost $45 to go from start to finish with all 4 wheels.

1a – Original with new tires

1b – Sanded and Scraped

2a – Primed with 3 coats of gray Rustoleum

2b – Painted with 3 coats of Argent (Silver) Lacquer paint

3 – Stencil in the Gloss Black paint

4 – Mount with trim ring and center cap

These are on my 70 but I may swap them with my 72 since they look a good bit cleaner.

Magnum Phase 1a.jpg

Magnum Phase 1a #2.jpg

Magnum Phase 1b - sanded and scraped.jpg

Magnum Phase 2a - Primer.jpg

Magnum Phase 2b - Argent Painted.jpg

Magnum Phase 3 - Gloss Black Painted.jpg

Magnum Phase 4 - Mounted with cap and Trim Ring.jpg

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Trim rings! I hadnt seen them on mustangs before. Another poster here mentioned he had them on an earlier year mustang. I recall Pontiac used them. Clearly they add a lot to the painted wheels.

 
Trim rings! I hadnt seen them on mustangs before. Another poster here mentioned he had them on an earlier year mustang. I recall Pontiac used them. Clearly they add a lot to the painted wheels.
I had heard that a few months ago. This set is for my 70 but will match my 72 identically. Interestingly, I bought the set for the 72 off of Ebay and they came off of a 72 or 73 Torino and they came with trim rings. Until a few months ago, I thought most Magnum 500s had trim rings, but clearly not at least for Mustangs. While probably not as sharp as chromed wheels, the aluminum ring won't rust and the wheel can just be repainted.

70 Side View.jpg

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Those do look great. I hope the paint holds up. It looked like there was still some rust left before primer. Why didn't you remove the wheel weights?

 
Those do look great. I hope the paint holds up. It looked like there was still some rust left before primer. Why didn't you remove the wheel weights?
Thanks to all for the positive comments. The trim rings definitely hide a good bit as well.

There was definitely a tad bit of minor rust prior to painting, but with the amount of rust I got off and the amount of time I spent getting it off of all 4 tires I was about done. Looking back I should have used POR-15 Marine Clean and Prep and Ready to convert the rust to black metal. I think with 3 coats of primer, 3 coats of Argent (silver lacquer) and 4-5 coats of the glass black they should last for awhile. The set on my 72 appear to have been painted the same way (I bought them that way) and have held up for going on 5 yrs now.

I didn't remove the wheel weights because the tires were already balanced and I didn't want to have to get them redone.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Those do look great. I hope the paint holds up. It looked like there was still some rust left before primer. Why didn't you remove the wheel weights?
Thanks to all for the positive comments. The trim rings definitely hide a good bit as well.

There was definitely a tad bit of minor rust prior to painting, but with the amount of rust I got off and the amount of time I spent getting it off of all 4 tires I was about done. Looking back I should have used POR-15 Marine Clean and Prep and Ready to convert the rust to black metal. I think with 3 coats of primer, 3 coats of Argent (silver lacquer) and 4-5 coats of the glass black they should last for awhile. The set on my 72 appear to have been painted the same way (I bought them that way) and have held up for going on 5 yrs now.

I didn't remove the wheel weights because the tires were already balanced and I didn't want to have to get them redone.
True, but once you took the tires off you unbalanced the set up.

 
Those do look great. I hope the paint holds up. It looked like there was still some rust left before primer. Why didn't you remove the wheel weights?
Thanks to all for the positive comments. The trim rings definitely hide a good bit as well.

There was definitely a tad bit of minor rust prior to painting, but with the amount of rust I got off and the amount of time I spent getting it off of all 4 tires I was about done. Looking back I should have used POR-15 Marine Clean and Prep and Ready to convert the rust to black metal. I think with 3 coats of primer, 3 coats of Argent (silver lacquer) and 4-5 coats of the glass black they should last for awhile. The set on my 72 appear to have been painted the same way (I bought them that way) and have held up for going on 5 yrs now.

I didn't remove the wheel weights because the tires were already balanced and I didn't want to have to get them redone.
True, but once you took the tires off you unbalanced the set up.
Interesting. Can you elaborate on that? I thought once a tire was balanced with the weights then it was good to go. I didn't know pulling a tire unbalanced anything to include rotating tires. I'm not tracking what you are saying, can you explain?

 
Thanks to all for the positive comments. The trim rings definitely hide a good bit as well.

There was definitely a tad bit of minor rust prior to painting, but with the amount of rust I got off and the amount of time I spent getting it off of all 4 tires I was about done. Looking back I should have used POR-15 Marine Clean and Prep and Ready to convert the rust to black metal. I think with 3 coats of primer, 3 coats of Argent (silver lacquer) and 4-5 coats of the glass black they should last for awhile. The set on my 72 appear to have been painted the same way (I bought them that way) and have held up for going on 5 yrs now.

I didn't remove the wheel weights because the tires were already balanced and I didn't want to have to get them redone.
True, but once you took the tires off you unbalanced the set up.
Interesting. Can you elaborate on that? I thought once a tire was balanced with the weights then it was good to go. I didn't know pulling a tire unbalanced anything to include rotating tires. I'm not tracking what you are saying, can you explain?

The rims were balanced with the tires on. There's really no way to put the tires back on the rims in the exact location of where they were before. Therefore the balance is going to be off.

I know shops that when they plug a tire due to a flat will rebalance them because the plug changes the balance of the set up.

Once a tire is pulled from the rim it needs to be balanced again.

 
oh yeah, right. Tracking. I didn't remove the tires to paint the rims so I think I'm good to go. I thought you meant once I pulled the wheel off the car they went unbalanced. The original pics I posted don't really show how I taped off the tires.

Here's more pics that shows that more clearly.

IMG_20130520_105355.jpg

IMG_20130525_085541.jpg

 
Back
Top