American Racing Libre restoration on a budget

[LI Roadster]

I picked up these American Racing Libre's from Dbrick.. my plan is to do a budget restoration on them. After reading posts on the web and watching a few videos on YOUTUBE I decided to start the process.



what I used:
EZ Bake oven off... gloves, a mask(this stuff stinks) 2 wire brushes followed by steel wool and then moved on to 800 grit sandpaper.





After 15 minutes I wiped off with a rag and they looked like this



I need to hit them again with a finer grit sandpaper and then a good aluminum wheel polish.

this is what they look like at the moment.



my plan is to paint the centers Graphite Grey with Duplicolor wheel paint and then finish with clear coat.

[Bill Chapman]

SWEET!

[dbrick]

Cool, they look better already. If you can keep the texture on the center, they should look great with the wheel paint.

BTW, you left the center caps behind, PM your address and I'll get them out to you.

[LI Roadster]

Cool, they look better already. If you can keep the texture on the center, they should look great with the wheel paint.

BTW, you left the center caps behind, PM your address and I'll get them out to you.

Dave I am I keep the textured center, but painting them Graphite using wheel paint, I think it will look good against the red body color.. don't worry about the caps I'm going to get replica AR caps from ebay

[dbrick]

I used the dark graphite on my Westerns, holds up great even without the clear, 5 years no chips.

[ACote]

Like this! Will let me borrow his and wear them out some. Or were you going darker?

[LI Roadster]

Like this! Will let me borrow his and wear them out some. Or were you going darker?

going for this look;

http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/wordpre ... ter-01.png" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jamesw]

Nice! That's the car that bid up to over $35K!

Cheers
James

[Alvin]

classic look, libres just look "right"
here are a few gun metal/graphite finishes







i personally like the textured spokes/finish vs smooth paint, that's a tough call!

[dbrick]

Dave I am I keep the textured center, but painting them Graphite using wheel paint, I think it will look good against the red body color.. don't worry about the caps I'm going to get replica AR caps from ebay

I like the metallic wheel paint on the textured sandcast finish, looks really nice. Painted on a smooth surface or glossy paint doesn't look quite right to me.

Can you post the link to the Ebay caps, a few people were asking about them.

[LI Roadster]

Dave I am I keep the textured center, but painting them Graphite using wheel paint, I think it will look good against the red body color.. don't worry about the caps I'm going to get replica AR caps from ebay

I like the metallic wheel paint on the textured sandcast finish, looks really nice. Painted on a smooth surface or glossy paint doesn't look quite right to me.

Can you post the link to the Ebay caps, a few people were asking about them.

Dave I don't have a specific link to ebay, I called torque thrust Terry he told me to look for caps that are 2 1/2" bore, many ARE 200s caps should work. The copies of the libres like Shelby vipers use a 2 1/4" bore...

[LI Roadster]

UPDATE
After lots of careful taping. I sprayed 3 coats of duplicolor wheel paint in Graphite, followed 1 one clearcoat. a little more buffing this time with Mothers Aluminum wheel polish and the Mother's powerball drill attachment..

99.9% finished, but I couldn't wait any longer, seeing the car on jack stands was killing me so I had the wheels and tires mounted.. Goodyear Eagle GT 195/60/14





center caps are ARE replica's and center decals are from ebay seller


next thing to do is paint my drums. I picked up flat black high heat brake caliper paint for that

[jamesw]

I just used bbq paint

Looking good! Love those Datsun center caps.

Cheers
James

[dbrick]

Very nice. Drums might contrast nicely in dull aluminum. I don't know what the factory finish was .

[notoptoy]

Looking good!