Re: Paint or Powder Coat Rims?

Posted by BH On 2010/2/25 22:44:55

Hank -

I think of supplier paint codes as specific to a formula, rather then any particular combination of year/make/model. As such, I suspect that as pigments and tinting compounds became obsolete, over the years, and were replaced by something else, new formulas were created and likely given new numbers.

Now don't hold me to this, but I've heard that PPG's 9000 is pure black and all other blacks in that series are a tint thereof. 9300 has a bit of blue. 9700 has a bit of brown.

The difference in some tints may be so subtle that you wouldn't notice it between the wheels and the body.

On the other hand, I remember an instance decades ago, when a high-school friend had a black '74 Javelin AMEX and did some spot repair on the rear quarters with a rattle can, expecting it to blend - as it had with other cars of other colors. Yet, when the paint dried, it had a definite brown shade to it that stood out like a sore thumb against the factory-applied black.

If you're dead-set on powder-coated rims. Ask your shop of choice if they can shoot a sample on a piece of scrap tin the next time they do a high gloss black job for some other customer. Then you can hold that sample up against a section of Onyx Black on your Clipper. Surely there's some original paint in the engine bay, trunk or door jambs that will polish up to a shine for comparison.