'36 Dodge wheel painting questions

[jpage]

Here's a couple of questions for the '36 Dodge guys. I'm soon going to be painting my wheels and I need to know what accent colors were used with the Avon Green color. I also am curious how did your painters did the star pattern. Did they spray the main color first, then mask the star or did they do it in reverse? How exactly did they mask the star to keep it the same all the way around or did they make a template? Any help or tips will be greatly appreciated as this looks like quite a chore to do correctly.  Thanks

[1936 D2]

OK... Here we go. A LOT of research here.

DuPont was apparently the original paint manufacturer for '36 Dodge. Your "Avon Green Metallic" is Dodge paint code # 302, DuPont code # 202-31348. 

 

The accent colors for the wheels are called "Whirlpool Green" and "Silver". I have NEVER seen paint codes for any of the accent/stripe colors. I WAS told at one time that "every paint shop knows how to mix the stripe colors because the names are standard". The way they are listed on the following chart has nothing to do with the color positioning. (First column is Manufacturer paint code Number, second is DuPont paint color code Number and Manufacturer's Name for the BODY color, 3rd is for the DuPont paint color code Number and Manufacturer's Name for the FENDER color [hence NOT Black ever], 4th is for the Manufacturer's Accent / Stripe paint color Name, and the last column is for the Wheel Color combinations).

 

Where the colors go on the wheels took a while to research. Different color combinations have different paint combinations. For instance: the most standard vehicle color at the time was Black, so the wheels were painted Black with a Packard Ivory starburst and outer rim stripes, along with a Black stripe near the outer edge of the starburst. (Made it look like there was a Packard Ivory pin stripe around the starburst, but not really.) Your wheels, because of the Silver listed, would probably look like the second wheel shown here with most of the wheel the Avon Green Metallic, the spokes Silver and the Whirlpool Green as an outer rim accent Stripe and Stripe near the outer edge of the starburst. (The second wheel is a Gray but I would suspect the paint scheme is the same).

 

 

If you look very carefully at the edges of the starburst you can see the sprayed paint flares out a bit near the points. I am suspecting they used a shield of some type that did not lay perfectly flat causing some of the spray to "leak" near the points. This shield would either cover the hub or the spokes depending on the base color of the wheels. I think in your application the shield would be on the hub while the silver was sprayed. 

Once this combination was dry, the painter came in and put on the "Whirlpool Green" pin stripes by hand. (See the bottom of the Black wheel's spokes for evidence of the hand done stripes. Quite an artist!). 

My painter for my car did all this spray painting by putting on masking tape by hand on all six wheels. What a pile of work! A stamped (or now laser cut) sheet metal template would have been much easier I would think! I did the striping myself. And THAT was a pain! But came out OK.

All this info is from close to 25 years of research. This stuff sometimes does not come quickly!  

Edited May 6, 2016 by 1936 D2 (see edit history)

[jpage]

The wheels on my 2 parts cars were heavily rusted but I still could make out the starburst and stripes on several of them but really could not distinguish any color except, all the wheels on these cars had silver paint on the inside hub area and on the inner rim which led me to believe that they may have been painted silver first and then trimmed. The third car's wheels were repainted at some point and all trace of original color was lost. I'm sure these wheels were painted at the factory with templates for speed. I also know that trying to mask them is going to be difficult, especially trying to keep everything consistent. I don't have a wheel that that is defined enough to be helpful  although I still can see a bit of the pattern for reference. I know a guy who has a computer controlled water jet cutter that could possibly make me a template but that might be really expensive, but might make a better job. I didn't know about the second pattern, I just assumed that the wheels would have a silver starburst and the rest be green. I also have one wheel where the entire back, hub and rim ,are silver and the front has the color .Thanks for the info. I've never seen a color sheet for accents or for the summer color schemes. Those color chips can be deceiving as the chips I have are much lighter than the one pictured but it may not have copied well. All the color formulas I've tried cross to a darker color than my original paint but I don't have a large enough flat sample to use the computer match and nothing in the current paint charts match or come very close. May have to have it mixed by eye! Incidently, according to the build sheet, my car was to be painted Mercury Metallic but somehow ended up Avon Green. Inside of doors and sail panels atest to it. Something got screwed up somewhere!

Edited May 7, 2016 by jpage (see edit history)

[1936 D2]

Now that I am back at this "paint thing", I see what you say. I DO think the wheels that are indicated as having "Silver" had the Silver painted on the whole wheel first. Looking at the Gray one's photo, the Silver looks to be more rusted than the Gray. That would make you think the Gray area may have two layers of paint. 

 

Also, because I could find no info on this wheel color stuff back in the early '90's, I gave some thought to the color positioning before I painted my wheels and decided that having the Silver color for the starburst would look odd because it is right next to a very shiny bright silver of the hubcaps. That would give the hubcap a dull looking edge. So I flipped it and put the body color as the starburst to separate the shiny metal hubcap from the darker less shiny "Silver" paint. The only thing I missed was that (according to the Gray wheel photo) the outer rim of the wheel is supposed to ALSO be body color. I do not have the shiny stainless trim rings for my wheels so the same "dull against shiny" problem would have been there too. I did not consider this issue as I picked how I would do my wheels. (Sadly, now I know).

So, with all this info, I think the Gray wheel in my photos would show the correct placement for the listed colors on your Avon Green car.

 

I have a photo of a car that I was told was "Avon Green Metallic" but it is VERY faded with age I think and seems a bit of an odd, very light color for cars in '36. Most of the early car colors were quite subdued and with earthy tones. The "Spring Showing" and "Summer Special" colors may be a different idea! As far as I can find, those colors were only produced by "Ditzler" company and were offered on cars out west. I have heard of them called "West Coast Colors" also. 

 

Here's a copy of the photo I have of the supposed original "Avon Green" car. If this is not right (and may possibly be one of the "Spring Showing" or "Summer Special" colors) please let me know.

 

 

Here is a page from "Ditzler" including the "Spring Showing" and "Summer Special" color info I have located. I have NEVER seen chips for these colors. These colors do not have Dodge Manufacturer Paint Code numbers listed. This made me think that MAYBE Dodge showed a paint color for your car on the manufacturing paperwork, but was then painted later, maybe at the dealer, with a green from the "Spring Showing" or "Summer Special" colors. (There are three Green's listed but the "Hunter" / "Archer" green is known to be a darker almost forest green color). You would know that so... maybe one of the other green ones? And consider that the two "Seamist Grays" may have a greenish cast to them also considering their names.

[1936 D2]

Ooooo. Also consider that in the parts manuals I have seen that there was a "Chrome Spoke" wheel available for some models. I think I remember I may have seen that on an original export Limo that was painted the "Dodge Blue" color. That would also make you think that the "Silver" color listed for wheels would be arranged to match this "Chrome Spoke" wheel and have the "Silver" on the spokes. What do you think of that idea?

[jpage]

After seeing the "gray" wheel, I'm thinking too that that is probably the correct color scheme for my wheels. I'm also thinking that the entire wheel was silver and only the front was painted in the trim color, as evidenced by the wheel I have. Saves time and material to do it that way.The other scheme would tend to have the entire wheel painted in body color and just the starburst in the accent color. The photo of that car is poor and does not look like my paint color. I posted a photo of an inner panel a while back which you helped to clean up the color on, which shows a closer example of the Avon Green. It is very similar to some of the med light greens used on Ford, Toyota and Honda cars today, but those colors tend to be a bit lighter ,I think due to the size and color of the metallic agent. I've seen wheels listed in the parts books with chrome spokes and an all chrome wheel but have never seen any. I would imagine that it was not a very popular accessory due to price and upkeep in depressed times, but I'm also surprised of how many 6 wheel applications you see. I wouldn't think that the average Joe would have spent $40 for the extra wheels! The problem with this photo is that it was taken inside in low light which gives it a blueish tint but in person it is a green shade, kinda hard to describe, it's not dark but it's not light either! It's an interesting color and one I would like to stick with due to it's unusual shade for a car of the era. Everyone thinks all old cars were black! Even your color seems very light for the times, but I think they were trying to appeal to the women with lighter ,brighter colors and driving ease. Thanks for the help and info!