Got some up in my build thread, & it will be a few days before I have them mounted again, but thanks to the miracle of the intrawebz here's a quick sample:

 

DD, those waffles look sweet. I just went in the garage and the color code on the
old can I had said WP101 Silver. No H in front of it but they may have changed codes
since 2008.

 

Thanks for the check, Tim - - maybe they just look brighter because they haven't been riding around under a rubber mat in the trunk for 32 years?

I'm pretty happy with how they came out. I can't wait to see them mounted, with my jazzy newly-chromed lug bolts.

Right now I'm trying to convince myself if I should clear-coat my retouched center caps. I love the satin flat look of the black paint un-cleared, but it doesn't hold up well, as it's trying to stay bonded to chrome.

Clearcoating would lock the paint down more tightly, but it looks too glossy compared to all the other emblems on the car. I did one as a test, and though it looks nice, there's just something wrong about it to me.

Obsessions are inconvenient.

 

Could be. I have a brand new wheel as a spare. Purchased in 1987 when a tire
place broke a wheel on me doing snow tire mounts. They bought it direct from the
Mazda dealer. The color is spot on from what I can tell.

 

i'm going to be restoreing the waffels on my 80, problem is my car is an LS i've read they are supossed to be solar gold but does anyone one know of a wheel color spray paint that will match close?

 

Solar Gold is one of the LS vehicle colors (Mazda code M4). The gold they used on the LS wheels was very close to this but I've never saw or read anything indicating it was also the exact color used on the wheels. The best bet would be to just color match an original wheel. Yours are not gold anymore? What about the spare? Other wise, if you wanted to, you could just have some M4 mixed up at any automotive paint supply store. Not sure if paint for wheels has some additional hardener or sealer specificaly for the aplication but again, the paint store should know this and be able to adjust accordingly. Finding a good match for wheel gold off the local parts store shelf is most likely a long shot.

I agree with you DD about the center caps. A semi gloss clear at best. Too glossy and they look funny. Although I'm not sure how much additional hold it may provide. That plating Mazda put on the caps is like teflon to paint. I've masked off the lettering and outer edge and blasted the caps before repainting to remove that paint repellant.

Speaking of wheel paint, regular waffels do seem to have some kind of crummy coating. I've never been sure what to identify or catagorize it as however. I'm not 100% sold on the overall wheel being painted from the factory. At least not with normal traditional type paint. I've mostly saw evidence of something applied on the outer rim where its been turned, not the center waffel section. I've found several rims that have varying degrees of flaking and peeling on this outer surface, especially around and under the OEM wheel weights where corosion likes to take root. On some, it seems almost like a kind of metalized spray or paint that can flake like Mica, but on others its more like just a micro thin clear coat.

I've refurbed several sets expermenting with different strippers and blasting media. Normally, strippers will lift and wrinkle paint, disovling it into a slimmy goo. Blasting off paint creates an edge you can see and manipulate with the guns nozzel. To be honest, I've never experienced anything like removing paint when either stripping or blasting one of these rims. At most, it seems like I'm removing some thin, barely noticable layer of clear. I'm not saying its wrong to paint your rims, in fact the painted wheels do look good and help to seal the pores of the metal from brake dust and dirt/grim in general. To me they represent the original wheel quite well and in the end, thats what matters the most. I like em, I'm just saying I'm not sure what process was actually used.

The gold LS and rare keyhole rims do have painted center sections. The differences next to the normal waffels and 79 Limited rims are very plain and obivious to the naked eye. Intresting SA wheel facts are that both the 79 Limited and Keyhole rims have "Yokohama" cast right into them but only the Keyhole also has Almex cast into it. Based on the construction and material similarities, Yokohama must have also supplied the classic waffel, but no where is it cast into the wheel like the others.

 

As I said earlier, I have a brand new waffle OEM from Mazda as my spare and its in a
minty state. Its definitely painted and I think has a thin clear coat on it. I know when
I stripped my waffles originally with the aerosol aircraft stripper (which works best BTW)
I saw the coating (looked like paint to me) curl up and slough off when I hit it with
a brush.

I do know that if you anyone used AL etching cleaner in waffles that will
strip that paint off but not as well. After a few cleanings with it, tho, you willl have
removed most if the paint. So I can see where someone might think all waffles
are not painted, as this was an easy goof to do back in the 80s before they had
decent and affordable wheels cleaners. I think a lot of folks thought these were
like old school mags and the AL etching was the way to go for cleaning. I know I
tried it at one time and then realized that it was stripping the wheels.

 

+1; my never-run spare is clearly painted silver except for the turned edge at the rim and the lip surrounding the wheel center.

My running wheels, on the other hand, I believe were paintless by the time I bought the car (1989), and I'd used etching cleaner on them several times over the years.

When I refurbed them I did not clearcoat the unpainted sections, as I like to hit them with wadding polish from time to time. Really makes them pop.

 

Guys, Your thoughts and comments are duely noted. I also value your opinions and on going contrubutions to these pages, however I still hesitate to call it actual paint. Maybe we're just playing semantics or splitting hairs here. I also have a couple new unused spare wheels and tires to scrutinize and can see how on a like new rim it appears as paint through texture and gloss. It just does not amount to anything substaintial. There are places where it seems a bit thicker but generally its very thin to almost non existent in places like the sides of the rectangle cast cutouts. Maybe they were being "cost conscious" and just dusting the rims or maybe its a thin seal coat of somekind that wears off over time on rims mounted to the car. That may explain my lack of wrinkle up and debris when using strippers (yes aircraft-aerosole & liquid) or a feathered edge when blasting. I've worked on more than a few rims but never a like new one which would not re-doing in the first place. Call it paint if you wish, I don't think its anything to stress over and besides, your actual painted ones look good as I previously stated.

 

Wow, those look good. Like an idiot, I gave away a pair of these a long time ago.

 

BAH! You just took all the fun out of this thread



Thanks, its not hard and you can find a used set for cheap, just scour the
classifieds. Folks are always unloading these things. I have my original set still.

I might do them in black with a red stripe around the rim and put hoosiers or
toyos on em for play time.

 

What would be fun for the LS would be to strip them and have them honestly gold anodized, then get the lips and tips polished back to silver.

& by 'fun' I of course mean tedious, expensive, labor-intensive, but beautiful.

 

I havent thought of that but that would look pretty awsome! but i'm also pretty sure it would cost more than the car did lol.

 

Lovin' this thread. Learning lots! I've printed it out and put it in my binder of "things to know and do" to my 79.

Subscribed!

 

The 'car' is always the cheapest part of any car project.

 

Tim where did you find the Cooper cobras at and in what size?

 

Holy thread resurrection Batman!

The Cooper COBRAs were 205/60x13 tires. You can no longer get them in that size. Also they are
a sucky tire performance wise. I mean they really suck in the wet, they squeal all the time and
ride like rocks.

I've since shelved the waffles and COBRAs and run 7x15 Konig Rewinds with 205/60x15
Dunlap Star II. Great tires BTW.