1957 Buick Wheel Stripe Question

I picked up my wheels/rims this week from the powder coater (Beautiful Tangerine!!) and now ready to have them striped. Does anyone have the particulars on "French White" which is the color that has been identified as the stripe color.

Appreciate any and all info.

Thanks,

Gary

My guess...reasonable, would be that it would be the same as the Dover White (color code C) for the 1957 Buick. I do not think that the pin striping would be a different color than that. On my original wheel it is almost an exact match to that. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

55 Wheel from DVAP.

Jim

Thanks for your input. I did some further digging last night and it appears that the "French White" stripe came into existence on 1942 models. The DULUX code number is 289-53561 and carries forward thru 1958 as it appears that was the last year for striped wheels. The DUCO (not misspelled! Different than DULUX) code for Dover White (Letter Code "C") is 253-58162. Information source is the 1960 Master Chassis Parts Book.

Now the issue at hand is to decipher the two paint code numbers, particularly the stripe code. Too late for the Dover White as the car is already painted!!! My original '42 has the nice striping on all 5 wheels so don't know if we can use some of the newer technology to get a mix or not due to the area of the sample. My '57 wheels had evidence of the striping but is long gone now after the powder coating.

I have also wondered how the stripe was applied at the factory. The '42 wheels appear to be striped by hand as there is evidence as to where the brush strokes begin and end. The '57 were much more even and look like maybe a template of some nature was used. Just curious!!

Gary

Gary,

Thanks for the update. That is good information. It looks very similar to the dover white, but I would guess that it is a bit more vanilla ice cream colored. If you want, I can take some close up photos of my wheel and get some measurements for you on the striping. Maybe that will help you out on getting the striping down. A suggestion might be one of those striping wheels that you can buy from Eastwood. It looks like they have a head that has three wheels on it. I was also thinking that you could possibly set up a fixture where you could use the front spindle as an axis and stripe using the tool while someone spins the wheel or moves it slowly. Just an idea.

My guess is that the wheels in 57 were machine striped, kind of like I described above, but automated in some fashion to keep up with production speed. Let me know if you want the photos. PM with email and I will send them. Thanks.