What Wheels Are These?

[10thumbs]

Hello guys,

What are the rear wheels made of?  In other words, why are they that color? 

Anodized?

Thanks for looking.

Michael

 

[RAT-T]

THEY LOOK LIKE E-T III'STO ME, A 2 PIECE WHEEL, I THINK IT'S JUST PAINTED THAT COLOR

[Force]

Yes they look like E-T III's but they are not painted, some of them were anodized gold and I have seen many pictures of race cars with gold anodized E-T wheels from the early 70's.

[Toner283]

It is not gold paint or gold anodizing. It is a coating called Dow 7. Dow 7 is a chromate conversion process. It results in a golden finish with red and green iridescent hues. Usually used on magnesium parts.

Magnesium was and is very popular for wheels (and other parts) on drag cars due to its light weight. Magnesium can be polished but maintaining a shine on magnesium parts requires constant upkeep. Go a few weeks without polishing them and they will start to turn dark.

When you see pictures of old race cars that have wheels on them that are a very very dark grey almost black the wheels are probably magnesium that has tarnished. The front wheels on the car pictured appear to be polished magnesium.

A very good approximation of Dow 7 coating is model masters jet exhaust.

[10thumbs]

Thanks guys for the replies.   Good info!

Chris, this is some excellent info!

I've been wondering why some wheels on race cars are golden-hued.  Look here;

These are done with Dow 7.  I did a search on Dow 7 and up came some fantastic info, which in turn gave me a few ideas on treating the brass on my models.

Plus, I found a metal I can use that has a soft gold hue, I'm excited about this!

Michael