[DeTomaso] Campy wheel painting/paint code

Tue Apr 17 09:13:05 EDT 2007

It sounded to me like the tires were never inflated nor the bead set, I had
to read it twice to get that, so maybe not!  I'd like to know myself.

Michael in Savannah

On 4/17/07, Asa Jay Laughton <asajay at asajay.com> wrote:
>
> You do realize that they will have to dismount the tires in order to
> install a valve stem, right?  :)
>
> Asa Jay
>
> Asa Jay Laughton, MSgt, USAFR, Retired
>
> & Shelley Marie
> Spokane, WA
>
> 1973 Pantera L 5533
> [ASASCAT]
>
> ******************************
> http://www.asajay.com
> http://www.351c.info
>
>
>
>
> MikeLDrew at aol.com wrote:
> > Hi guys,
> >
> > I have been in a bit of a quandry regarding my Campy wheels.  My car is
> a
> > 1972 Pre-L, and thus came equipped with third-style (out of about six)
> wheels.  I
> > bought what was purported to be the very last set of 10-inch Campy
> wheels
> > ever to be made, when I bought my car (and this was actually true, back
> in
> > 1989--until Gary Hall got Campy to make another production run in about
> 1993 or so).
> >
> >
> > Anyway, my ten-inch wheels were never used on the road--they propped the
> car
> > up as it rolled onto and off of the car hauler, and then they went into
> > storage while I drove around (to the extent that I drove at all) on
> borrowed 7's and
> > 8's with crusty early 1980s-era rubber, which is what the car has been
> riding
> > on since about 1996.
> >
> > Now that my car is finally coming together, it was about time to mount
> my own
> > wheels and tires.  The problem, of course, is that 10-inch wheels follow
> the
> > general architecture of the later L-model wheels, not the Pre-L
> wheels.  As
> > the certified Pantera Wheel Dork, I knew that if I was ever seen in
> public with
> > mis-matched wheels after I had pointed out such trangressions to so many
> other
> > people, I would probably be stoned to death.
> >
> > To that end, I had procured a pair of L-model 8-inch wheels from Larry
> Stock
> > many years ago.  These wheels had undergone the full treatment that he
> > performed for a few years--they were crack-tested, machined for
> trueness, annealed,
> > then powdercoated.  The problem, as it turned out when I pulled
> everything out
> > of storage a couple of weeks ago with a mind towards putting everything
> on the
> > car, was that they were the wrong damn color.
> >
> > So, my choices were to run mis-matched wheels painted the same color (my
> > Pre-L 8-inch wheels had been perfectly painted to match the rears about
> 15 year
> > ago), or run matching wheels in obviously different colors.  Neither
> would do.
> >
> > So I decided to have the L-model front wheels painted.  I suppose I
> could
> > have gone the DIY route with rattle-can paint from Eastwood, but there's
> no
> > guarantee it would have matched the rears any better than what I already
> had.  So
> > that meant I had to have it color-matched and painted professionally.
> >
> > Kirk Evans wisely suggested that I mount the tires on the wheels BEFORE
> > having them painted, so that the new paint finish isn't damaged by the
> > tire-mounting machine.  Bloody brilliant, that.  So last week I had the
> tires pulled off
> > the Pre-L wheels and mounted on the L wheels, then trotted off to the
> body shop.
> >
> > When casting a critical eye upon my 10-inch wheels during the
> color-matching
> > process, I was saddened to discover that Luigi must have been at the
> Grappa
> > pretty hard that day.  One of them was painted perfectly.  The other had
> > significant areas where the paint had been applied thinly, if at all;
> there were a
> > half-dozen spots where the green zinc chromate primer was showing
> through, and
> > two spots where all the finish had flaked off, leaving bare magnesium
> exposed
> > (which was corroding).
> >
> > So, I sucked it up and left all four wheels to be painted
> together.  That was
> > on Friday at about noon.  Today at about 2:00 p.m., they called to
> inform me
> > that they were done already!
> >
> > Simply put, they are BEAUTIFUL!  They were lying out in the sun when we
> went
> > to pick them up, and the finish is spectacular.  They put a fair bit of
> clear
> > on there, more than they had originally, and they just look
> terrific.  Since
> > the front wheels had been a different color, they painted the entire
> wheel, but
> > since they were color-matching the rears, they taped off most of the
> back
> > side of the wheel and only shot the front, and the visible parts of the
> back
> > side.  This then enabled me to pull the masking tape away and compare
> the new
> > paint with the original paint.  Other than the fact that the new paint
> is a bit
> > richer because of the extra clearcoat, the color is an exact, dead-nuts
> match.
> >
> > Which is the point of this whole long story.
> >
> > The Ford TSBs issue a paint code for the wheels, which is Ditzler DX
> 8555.
> > That sounded simple enough to me, but it turns out that Ditzler was
> purchased
> > by PPG (or rather, Ditzler purchased PPG but then decided to use the PPG
> name
> > for the new, combined company), and none of the old Ditzler paint codes
> exist
> > anymore.  Garth Rodericks had unearthed a recipe for creating DX 8555 by
> mixing
> > three other Ditzler colors, but in calling around, I learned that these
> are
> > laquer paints, which aren't available in California, or many other parts
> of the
> > country either for that matter.  So I was limited to starting over with
> a
> > modern PPG color.
> >
> > And so, at long last, to the point of this story, which I said I had
> come to
> > already, but in fact, hadn't.
> >
> > The absolute, dead-nuts, spectacularly accurate modern color match for
> > original factory Campy wheel paint is:
> >
> > DBC 3822C, known as Bright Silver Poly
> >
> > Not only is it the right shade of silver, but it also has the correct
> > metallic content.  There were several variations on this color available
> that were,
> > in fact, the same 'color', but had more or less sparkle added.
> >
> > Apparently it is an OEM GM color.  SOBill, there's a datapoint for the
> > Gearhead Database.
> >
> > Oh, and the cost to have four wheels sanded, prepped (including masking
> the
> > tires), primered, painted, then clearcoated came to $567.55.  That part
> wasn't
> > quite so much fun.  But I'm certainly very happy with the result.
> >
> > I am letting them dry and harden up for a few days; later this week I
> will
> > take them to the tire shop and have metal valve stems installed and have
> the
> > tires inflated, then balanced.  Then I can install my new wheel centers,
> put them
> > on the car, and then have the wheels aligned.
> >
> > I haven't seen my car sitting on its own wheels and tires since about
> 1996.
> > I'm looking forward to it!
> >
> > Mike<BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> See what's
> free at
> > http://www.aol.com.</HTML>
> > _______________________________________________
> >
> > Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA
> >
> > Archive Search Engine Now Available at http://www.realbig.com/detomaso/
> >
> > DeTomaso mailing list
> > DeTomaso at list.realbig.com
> > http://list.realbig.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
> >
> >
> >
> _______________________________________________
>
> Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA
>
> Archive Search Engine Now Available at http://www.realbig.com/detomaso/
>
> DeTomaso mailing list
> DeTomaso at list.realbig.com
> http://list.realbig.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
>

-- 
Michael L. Shortt
Savannah, Georgia

This email is protected by the Electronic Communications Privacy
Act, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2510-2521, is confidential and may be legally
privileged.  If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified
that any retention, dissemination, distribution or copying of this
communication is strictly prohibited.  Please reply to the sender that you
have received this message in error, then delete it.  Thank you