Spare tire carrier color

[Rex T.]

The original spare tire carrier on my 67 appears to have lost its original color, even though I know they were not painted. It is now a very light gray, approaching white (not really) but much lighter than original. What are your recommendations for "restoring" it to its original color?

As always, thanks in advance for your help.
Rex

[Joe C.]

Re: Spare tire carrier color

Rex,

The original color was "unfinished" glass/resin composite. Dark, charcoal grey.....same as your heater box.
You might try buffing out in much the same way as you would treat "dead" lacquer paint. Use an aggressive polishing compound first, then buff out with some polish. If the tub fading has gone deeper, then you might have to start with 600 wet/dry paper.
I have never heard of the substrate weathering this way, unless it was left exposed for a very long period, and sun bleached. Are you sure it's not painted? Try some lacquer thinner first.

Joe

[Stephen L.]

Re: Spare tire carrier color

I was able to "darken" my 67 carrier using the following:

1.Obtain some Black paint and appropriate thinner.
2.Thin the paint to about 95% thinner/5% paint.
3.Spray carrier light coat using spray gun
4.If result is "too dark" remove coat with thinner and thin your mixture with more thinner

The idea is to have the paint so thin that it has very poor coverage and the grey fibers show thru......

Worked for me.....

[Rob M.]

Re: Spare tire carrier color

Rex,

My heater box was painted black by a prior owner. When I stripped the black paint off, it was left looking as you describe your tire carrier looks. At any rate, I cleaned it up and sprayed it with Rust-Oleum crystal clear enamel #7701 or Rust-Oleum #1902 matte clear (sorry I don't recall which one). Both are clear and give it the wet, or dark grey, look again. One is more glossy than the other and you would need to spray a test piece to see which one is best.

This worked well for me.

Good luck,
Rob
39795

[Barbara S.]

Re: Spare tire carrier color

The best way to bring back the original color/finish? Grab a bag of xxxx steel wool and start rubbing. It will come back just fine.

Been there and done that. Good luck.
Tony