The 70’s faux-magnums (from my dad’s old Granada) that I’ve been running, though nice enough in monochrome gunmetal grey, were starting to bother me so I decided I’d try painting the spokes. I started scrounging around the basement and garage looking for some silver paint when I found this stuff:
I bought it a few years back from Home Depot. It’s basically thin, shiny aluminum tape used to seal seams on gutters, heating ducts, and the like. I figured hey, it’s shiny, malleable and cheap, so here’s what I did with it:
The tops of the spokes (the part that’s normally chrome on real magnum 500’s) is outlined by a slight ridge, which makes it simple to just run a razor blade along it for perfect cuts.
Some high-pressure rubbing with thumb and fingernail is more than adequate to squeeze out any air bubbles and mold the aluminum to the contour of the spokes. Once the center caps and trim rings are installed, it’s virtually indistinguishable from chrome.
I was thinking 'bout shooting a thin coat of clear over them, but I think I’ll wait a few weeks and see what happens first. If they don’t hold up, I can just peel them off and be none the worse (financially speaking) for it.
Now it’s time to do something about those Torino center caps…
Jody here is what I did for the driver wheels on the Lime Frost XR7G when we took of the Radier Wheels. The chrome was shot so I had my buddy paint the wheels then I made my own center decals for the standard styled steel wheel caps.
Not correct but good enough for an old set of SS wheels off my high school Cougar. Any good sign shop should be able to make a Cougar center for your caps.
Steven
A few years back I used these Granada wheels for a set of winter snow tires (ha, how many of you can say you’ve run snow tires on your Cougar?!) but ended up keeping them on with some summer tires until I can find a nice set of correct styled steel wheels. Steven, I really think a G car like yours deserves good chrome wheels so you should just go ahead and ship those driver wheels to me.
