MikeJS

I'm wondering at this point, without specific paint codes, that the choice is one of personal preference? Once again, searching on-line , it's very difficult to determine if these are painted satin or gloss, and whether or not some of the pictures of amazing restorations used the 'correct' sheen when they restored their cars... As a bit of progress on the one I'm currently restoring. The first process was to clean the entire wheel cover and then go over it with an SOS pad... Progress half way through, the SOS pads did an amazing job at getting them pretty cleaned up and well on their way to a decent shine... For what it's worth, I used the piece of rigid insulation as a mounting pad to ensure I didn't damage the stud housings as I manhandled my way through the process... Following the SOS clean, I used sand paper ranging from 340grit to 1200 depending on the severity of the scratches and road rash. In one location I used 220, but for all intent and purpose, most of the minor pitting came out at 600+ but I didn't get too worried about perfection. Following the sanding, I tried my hand at using a rouge and a buffing wheel for the first time. For kicks and giggles, I started with red rouge, and within seconds, I was blown away at how easy it was to get the aluminium to shine. At a certain point I decided I could live with this level of shine as the shinier it got, the more the minor imperfections show up at 2-ft away while working on it. I'm sure once it's on the car, I'll be pretty happy and probably won't even find the spots that have added to my 'stress' cleaning this one up... Again, far from perfect, but from where I started to where I'm at, I'm pretty happy with the results. Although this is off of a '63 and is the not the right centre, I tried my hand a cleaning up the centre spinner and plastic emblem to see how it'll work on the ones from my '64... For the most part, the '63 centre spinner was in good shape but the plastic was dull and had minor scratches (similar to mine). After cleaning, I simply used colour sanding papers (3200 grit to 8000) on the on the plastic centre. I didn't use the rouge on the metal but used the red rouge on the plastic cap after most of the scratches were gone, and it too came out pretty decent... So now I'm back to the question of paint sheen- gloss or satin. I initially thought that I would go satin, but after cleaning up the centre cap, the black piece underneath does appear to be gloss, so I'm leaning to finishing the paint in gloss so as to "match" the centre cap... Not sure if this makes sense or not, but at some point I have to make a decision and live with the result... (or do it, then realize it doesn't look good, and do it over again... I seem to do that a lot, but I'd prefer not to do that here tho'...?) Later, Mike

Fun thread... apparently our toys come in ALL sizes...) This 1:25 scale '65 Riv was built and hand painted back in the early 1980's shortly after I purchased my 1:1 1964 Riv in Wedgewood blue (that I still own). Colour came close, but a tad too dark. At the time, model manufacturers were only producing the '65 Riv' scale models and they are still readily available. For the 1963, and 64 years, these models were only available in '63/64. They can be still be found on eBay, some built, some in original boxes, some $$$, and although I've since acquired a handful of the original '64 scale models, I've not got around to re-creating the 1:1 aside from this one... Although I built models as a kid, that fad faded long ago until about 10-12 years ago when my son got to be the age that he was interested in building them, so of course, I got involved. A couple of our Riv projects... Another '65... '66... (the red thing on the steering wheel is a homemade anti-theft club...) I've also collected a number of first gen Riv's in various scales, some plastic, metal, a couple small slot car racers... When I find the time, I'll take a few photos of some of those...

Thanks, Ed... PM sent... Later, Mike

Tom, good day. Thanks. The portion of the vanes I was wondering about is what is shown in the photo in green tape. It appears that based on the photo above and Pat's subsequent comment that the entire area is indeed painted black leaving only the outer portion of the vanes unpainted. This would make sense as I can't imagine the challenge of polishing and subsequently masking to keep those "vertical" portions unpainted. Keeping just the thin portion of each vane (exposed to outward view) unpainted should be relatively easy to mask off. For a similar application of masking , I've coated the portion to remain unpainted with vasoline then after the paint is cured, I've carefully wiped the vasoline off . No paint seepage below tape, worked like a charm... For what it's worth, and obviously I'm a little biased, but as objectively as possible, I do think these are one of the classiest looking factory wheel covers to come out of Detroit... Thanks again for the input, guys, much appreciated. Later, Mike

Thanks, Ed, much appreciated. Later, Mike

Ed, good day, hope all is well… Since I last posted back in mid March, I was able to locate one of these wheel covers off of a ’63 (unpainted) from a Canadian seller in reasonable shape, (at a VERY good price, don't ask...:) ) and just showed up today. It's in need of a couple minor repairs, a bit of polishing and then paint for the ’64. (Also came with a bonus spinner, albeit cracked tri-shield centre, overall in pretty good shape, photo attached…) In searching for information related to these turbine wheel covers, a handful of links refer back to this forum in various topics, and you seem to be very knowledgeable. If you don't mind, I just want to confirm that the area between the vanes is indeed painted black for the ‘64. The reason I ask, is that in this discussion from the aaca way-back machine of 2007, http://forums.aaca.org/topic/103896-correct-wheel-coverhubcaps-for-1964/ you wrote;’ “The center of the knock off has a large black plastic piece in it with the silver Riviera R. .. (clipped for brevity... my bold->) The centers of the turbines are painted a dark charcoal grey, not black.” In various other posts, and most pictures that I can see, these certainly do look like they are painted black between the vanes. Maybe I’m misinterpreting the 2007 post, but are these indeed painted black or charcoal grey? Also, just for clarity, in a lot of photos it's tough to tell, but are the vertical portions of the vanes supposed to be painted or unpainted? I suspect the latter, but I'm not 100% As mentioned, Ed, I was hoping to find two of these, but now I only need one. I’m not sure if you’ve had a chance to organize your collection for the ROA meet, but I’m still interested in acquiring one more of these in reasonable shape. Also, if you have or know where to find the correct centre R plastic thingies, I could use a couple of those. I’d prefer to buy them from someone that knows that they are indeed the correct ones to fit these particular spinners as opposed to me trying to buy them by guess by golly… Thanks. Later, Mike

Ed, thanks for the prompt response, AND more importantly, hope...) Ya, the broken ring is a drag, but on an ol' 20-footer, (for all intent and purpose still original), it could look worse... Thanks again, keep me posted... Later, Mike swickmj at telus dot net (replace the at and dot for email...)

Good day. New to the forum, from Edmonton, Alberta Canada. I've owned a 1964 Riv' since 1980 and I am looking for a couple of the aluminium bolt on wheel covers. Two of my four originals are still in reasonable shape, (in need of a good pro polish....) but one has a 4-in piece broken off, and another has the complete outer ring broken off. Based on what I've read here, one of these is possibly a candidate for repair, (if I can find someone local that could do it...) but the one missing the outer ring I can't imagine being fixed. I'm hoping to find a couple still in reasonable shape, but in need of a good polish and new paint, and of course, someone willing to ship these to Canada. We have terrible exchange rate against the US dollar, but I'm more than willing to pay fair market US$ plus reasonable shipping. Thanks, Hopefully the pictures show up... Later, Mike