dwmajk Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 Just purchased the 1991 reatta listed in Hemmings,that was posted on feb.22 on this forum,thanks for whoever posted this car. Was local to me and easy to visit. I just came back from wheel restorer,they can not do any repairs to the center caps. Griot's offers a wheel paint, has any one in this club attempted this repair.Puritan buick stated they are no longer available.I have two that look pretty beat up. Thanks for any information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MauiWowee Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 By repair, do you mean to the clips on the back that hold them to the wheels? I'm not aware of anybody being able to repair that. '91s have a different size cap than '88-'90, and they have been unavailable for a while. Perhaps if you are lucky someone here on this excellent forum could help you out. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwmajk Posted April 4, 2006 Author Share Posted April 4, 2006 No what I was asking was has anyone have a way to paint the plastic that will hold up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MauiWowee Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 Any automotive paint supply store should be able to fix you up with a paint that is designed to work well on plastic. The issue is trying to use a product that will match the rest of your wheel. I have read here that the '91 wheel silver is still a mystery.BTW, nice buy on your '91. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reatta45 Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 You were told that they, (your wheel restorer), could not do the centers? ? Any place that can redo the wheels can redo the caps? Any competent paint shop can do the wheels. The only problem is when they do the wheels they must shoot the caps at the same time and with the same mix as used on the wheels. You will NOT find a spray for the caps that will even remotely match the factory wheels. If you have the wheels redone have them do the caps AND have at least two spares to shoot, because your redone wheels will Never match factory painted centers, but all the centers you have shot at the same time will match and they will look right until you place one of those centers on a factory wheel. Having wheels redone is a one way deal, you can not mix factory painted with redone parts because they will not match? I think Barney had a post about this some time back. KennyV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Eaton Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 I have a GM Bulletin,#53-17-03A that addresses refinishing 91-96 aluminum wheels.It appears that GM used the same silver color on many of the wheels.It says that if the wheels were previously clearcoated aluminum they recommend paint #WAEQ9283 (PPG#DBC-3531)For "sparkly silver" use #WA9967 (PPG #35367)So far, no one has tried or commented on the color match using WA9967NOTE, all 1991 Reattas have a color mismatch between the wheels and hubcaps.We do not know if this a result of two different sources doing the painting or possibly they used the same paint but the color difference is the result of the different bases (aluminum vs plastic)I had a set of 1991 wheels redone in white and I had the hub caps painted at the same time (I removed the emblems)The company I used painted over the black fake rivits and I chose to repaint them black vs trying to remove the white paint. Also you will probably find they will not paint the black stripe between the paint and the natural aluminum.After many tries with different brushes, I reproduced the strip using gloss black in a hypodermic needle. I ground off the sharp point and polished it to a very smooth edge. By making a small "puddle" of paint, then pushing a "wave" of paint ahead of the tip of the needle, the paint wicked up the sides of the groove and the finished strip looks original. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwmajk Posted April 5, 2006 Author Share Posted April 5, 2006 Barney thanks for the tips,I think I will repaint the wheels myself.A few years back I used the wheel restoration kit sold by Griot's to restore a set of wheels on a 1985 SL owned by my neighbor,they came out very presentable for a driver which is what this car is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted April 6, 2006 Share Posted April 6, 2006 About 2 weeks ago I repainted the wheels and center caps on my '91. I went to an automotive paint store and they looked up in the paint book the correct paint code for the 91 wheels. I sanded the wheels and completely removed all the paint from the center caps. I used a base coat and a urethane clear and they came out very nice. Tape over the center emblem and then using your finger nail cut around the center emblem to remove the excess masking tape. Same on the clear coated aluminum edges of the wheels. I am away from home for a week so I can't tell you the exact paint code right now but it was in the PPG code book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwmajk Posted April 6, 2006 Author Share Posted April 6, 2006 Jim thank you,I think I will do the exact same thing you describe,Barney mentioned he painted his white,I wonder what a colored wheel matching the cars exterior would look like,like the old benz wheel, they looked cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Eaton Posted April 6, 2006 Share Posted April 6, 2006 White wheels were a $100 option in 1991 on white exterior cars only. I think painting them body color would look very good and even better on a car that has body color side molding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwarren Posted April 6, 2006 Share Posted April 6, 2006 A previous owner had painted mine (see attached) and I have not changed them. I think it looks OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwmajk Posted April 6, 2006 Author Share Posted April 6, 2006 Brian that is great looking car, thanks for posting the photo.and those wheels really do look great.I have a week or two to decide silver or claret red. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwmajk Posted May 19, 2006 Author Share Posted May 19, 2006 Well I decided not to paint my center caps,and went to Barney to get replacements he makes available.I was blown away when I opened the box he just sent.They look like they came from the factory.perfect, almost to nice to put on. Barney thanks very much there is no way my repaint would look as nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest inthespot Posted May 19, 2006 Share Posted May 19, 2006 I really like the Maui Blue wheel centers. I would like to do that with my '90 although I like the '91 wheels 10 times better than the '90's. Does anyone have any centers for the 90's that are less than perfect that I could paint Maui Blue? If they are scratched or discolored than maybe they would not be at a premium price!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Eaton Posted May 19, 2006 Share Posted May 19, 2006 There are always some less than perfect '88-'90 caps on Ebay. If you are going to paint them you can make some bad ones look really good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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