What sheen of black for road wheels

I'm restoring a set of 14" road wheels.

What sheen of black was used at the factory?

All the survivor ones I see look to be flat black. I'm not sure if they were originally matte black and faded to flat over 40 years, or were always flat.

Is there any factory documentation that specifies the paint code?

Semi Gloss black

I agree, semi gloss black. Most are so old or the unrestored wheels now look flat black after all of these years.

I had a unrestored black road wheel that was a trunk spare that was never used. I wanted to match the gloss % to paint the other 3 wheels I had, and I ended up painting the wheels with a black flattened to 80% and it matched perfectly.

Hmmm, Road wheel as a trunk spare???

Ok...I misread the post. I had a plain steel wheel, not a road wheel.

I'm sure the gloss level is the same...

Not really. The plain steel wheels were painted with a cheap gloss black. The road wheels have less sheen.

Moparmike69, I need to disagree with you on this point. But to be honest, I wish I had a low mileage reference pic of each rim type side-by-side to be 100% sure. I do agree they were semi-gloss, which can be a range of sheens.

Both wheels were made by the Motor Wheel Company, and both wheels received a color topcoat. So why would Chrysler spec 1 type of black for a steel wheel and a 2nd type of black for a road wheel? It just doesn't seem logical to me.

Yes there is.

The 5 wheels on my '69 Barracuda are X9 color as called out on the build sheet.

Plymouth X9 Black Velvet is the exterior gloss finish color used to paint bodies. See page 23-151 in the '69 Plymouth Factory service manual.

The factory paint on my wheels was still shiny a few years ago when these photos were taken, despite no wash or wax or any other maintenance for decades. Definitely gloss black.

do you have any detail pics of that tire? original spare to the car?
your sheet shows T74 E70-14 "white streak" fiberglass-belted.

I haven't seen any 1969 dated fiberglass-belted FIRESTONES

Is this thread about road wheels, or plain steel wheels?

If we're talking road wheels, perhaps this thread may help you?
I created this thread on DC.com how I restored a low mileage set of road wheels. The wheel hoop is a different sheen of black compared to the recessed areas. Also, the chrome center was welded in prior to the wheel being painted, so this needed to be replicated. They are very different to the previous Magnum 500's which are just completely chromed.
Hope this helps.

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,113265.0.html

The OP originally asked about road wheels, but I took it a different direction trying to learn more about the paint differences.

Bill440rt...your pics answered our questions! Both types of paint were used. Awesome reference material!

Not the original spare, sorry. It was among the first replacements to the factory tires sometime around 1970 or so.

I drove the car from Houston to Oregon by way of Wyoming which had no speed limit back then. After a couple of hours at around 90 mph on black asphalt on a very hot, sunny day, the tires overinflated and the center tread of all 4 factory tires on the ground disappeared .

You can disagree but you would be wrong. It has long been established that the plain black wheels are gloss black. See any correctly restored A12 car. Also it has been established that road wheels are not gloss. I have seen more than a hundred original wheels and that is what is correct.

See the link in my above referenced post.
Road wheels (NOT Magnum 500’s), used two sheens of black. Gloss, for the outer rim hoop, and semi-gloss/flat for the recessed areas. This gloss black is the same black on steel wheels.
I too have sourced numerous road wheels and have another low mileage unrestored set that are the same way.

That is correct sir.

MoparMike69...I agree with you. Both types of paint were used. The spoke part of the wheel is semi-gloss/flat, the outside (under the trim ring) is gloss, based on the pics from bill440rt. This is what I said after Bill posted his pics.

Steel wheels are all gloss.

I was looking for the correct sheen for road wheels. This is the info I was looking for. Thank you Bill!

I also don't mind the other discussions in the thread. It's all good.

You’re welcome!

I’m not sure if you are saying you just never saw any or you aren’t sure if any were OE in 1969? I bought a new 1969 Road Runner that came with Firestone Wide Oval red streak tires. They lasted about 3,000 miles.

the key wording is "fiberglass-belted"

when Firestone went from bias/ply to fiberglass-belted they didn't re-brand the RWL appearance of the tire - both were "WIDE OVAL" the bias/ply tire was "Deluxe Champion" VS. "SUP-R-BELT" for the belted

Firestone "WIDE OVAL" Deluxe Champion = Goodyear "SPEEDWAY"
Firestone "WIDE OVAL" SUP-R-BELT = Goodyear "POLYGLAS"

1969 383 Road Runner had Goodyear Speedway or Firestone Deluxe Champion STANDARD
fiberglass-belted Goodyear Polyglas was OPTIONAL

Here are some photos of early take off wheels and a NOS one that are dated somewhere in 1970, I can't remember for sure.

As Bill440 showed in his post the center chrome section was welded in before the outer wheel was painted. I will also add that I believe the black reliefs in between the spokes were most likely painted before welding and some sort of masking template went on the front and back side while the outside was being painted. most likely flat in the back and cone shaped in the front.

On the take off wheels you can see how the red paint from the drum was still wet when the wheels were installed. Also the assembly line print I saw said to keep the paint away from the area around the studs where the wheel would sit. It doesn't look like this worker was particularly successful with that instruction.

Mike Afflerbach