Cast wheel colour id
Posted: 05 Sep 2023 12:07
I have just had my '78 Strada wheels stripped and powder coated and as I had spent some time trying to pinpoint the likely original colour possibilities, I thought it may be helpful to post the results on here.
I found two references for the wheel colour; the first was from Sorensen's website, showing a wheel in RAL7040 and the other (from a source I failed to record) which quoted RAL7035. Neither looked quite the same as the original paint on my wheels so, recognising different paint manufacturers paints to the same specification can vary somewhat, the powder coat company I used spectrally analysed the (probably original) paint on the inside of the rim on my wheels (under the tyre). They came up with the result that it was RAL7036, so on the strength of that I went ahead with this colour. It has proved to be a very good match for the photos I took of the wheel rim under the tyre prior to them being stripped etc. It is very slightly darker and more 'blue' than the RAL7040 wheel shown on Sorensen's site, but allowing for colour reproduction effects I would consider it to be very similar.
Intrestingly, the powder coaters were emphatic that RAL7035 from their supplier was very much lighter and more 'yellow' than any of the photos I could show them of typical wheel colours, which highlights again the possible differences in pigmentation from different suppliers to the same RAL number! They advised that a spectral analysis related to their own supplier's paint codes was the best way to obtain a match, advice that has been recorded in the forum a number of times!
I found two references for the wheel colour; the first was from Sorensen's website, showing a wheel in RAL7040 and the other (from a source I failed to record) which quoted RAL7035. Neither looked quite the same as the original paint on my wheels so, recognising different paint manufacturers paints to the same specification can vary somewhat, the powder coat company I used spectrally analysed the (probably original) paint on the inside of the rim on my wheels (under the tyre). They came up with the result that it was RAL7036, so on the strength of that I went ahead with this colour. It has proved to be a very good match for the photos I took of the wheel rim under the tyre prior to them being stripped etc. It is very slightly darker and more 'blue' than the RAL7040 wheel shown on Sorensen's site, but allowing for colour reproduction effects I would consider it to be very similar.
Intrestingly, the powder coaters were emphatic that RAL7035 from their supplier was very much lighter and more 'yellow' than any of the photos I could show them of typical wheel colours, which highlights again the possible differences in pigmentation from different suppliers to the same RAL number! They advised that a spectral analysis related to their own supplier's paint codes was the best way to obtain a match, advice that has been recorded in the forum a number of times!
