Help Identifying Gold Wheel/Finish

[sboy79]

Thought this question would be best answered by the forum. I'm working on my 1977 280z and hoping to learn a little more about the wheels. My grandma purchased the car new in the Seattle area in 1977 and the car came with gold painted wheels from the dealer (at least I'm 90% sure that's the case). The gold paint (or tinted clear???) was chipping off so my uncle who owned the car before me had them stripped and polished. I'd like to restore them to the original gold but I can't find any pictures or information on the wheels as any other color than the black/polished combo. 

I'm attaching a picture of the wheel (not mine but one I found on the net) and a pic of an old ebay ad that shows one gold wheel that most closely looks like how I remember them before being stripped. I also have one picture of the car with the wheels before they were stripped.

Did these wheels come painted gold from the factory? Is this gold paint or gold tinted clear-coat? Have you guys seen/owned these wheels and do you have pictures?

I'm not sure yet if I want to repaint the original wheels gold or buy modern wheels and just try to match the color as closely as possible as an homage to the originals.

[DatsunZGuy]

I do not recall seeing these early 280Z four-spoke coming from the factory with a gold tint. 

My guess is plating the wheels in gold was dealership add-on to help fatten-up the profit margin. 

[Mark Maras]

 Looking for a part #, I found this. 40300N3200. It appears to be a Nissan wheel. Arguably a one-year-only, 77 Black Pearl Edition wheel. That info came from an old Ratson thread. Does anyone know if the Black Pearl Edition came with gold wheels? None of the 77 Black Pearl Z Images Google offers have gold wheels like yours.

[DatsunZGuy]

No mention gold wheels on the zhome.com page article.

http://zhome.com/History/BlackP.htm

Also interesting the marketing slick photo below shows a Black Pearl with the stock wheel covers with no mention other wheel options available.  

 

[dutchzcarguy]

14 hours ago, sboy79 said:

I want to repaint the original wheels gold

I guess it's a clearcoat with (experiment it) 10% gold paint in it? 

What i wanted to say is the inner "4 point star" of the rim isn't original black it's a sort of blue-ish dark grey..  As i'm also restoring 2 sets of these wheels i will follow this topic!  I still have to find out the paintnumber of those wheels..  I do have some wheels with the blue-ish grey on them..

[crayZlair]

If nothing more than durability, I would suggest seeing what a powder coating business could do for you.

[sboy79]

2 hours ago, crayZlair said:

If nothing more than durability, I would suggest seeing what a powder coating business could do for you.

Yeah that’s the plan. They can do some pretty cool tinted clear finishes. Usually stripping/cleaning is included too. 

[DatsunZGuy]

1 hour ago, sboy79 said:

Yeah that’s the plan. They can do some pretty cool tinted clear finishes. Usually stripping/cleaning is included too. 

Also, take some time to look into Cerakote.  It's been used on firearms for years and is very durable.

https://www.cerakote.com/project-gallery?htids=Rims

 

Edited January 5 by DatsunZGuy
Added Video