Has anyone taken the stock xmen rims and painted the center black and polished the outside lip? can you polish the finish on these rims very well?

 

I would think that you would have to strip the clear coat off of the rims first before any painting can be done. sand with some fine grit, and then get to polishing.

As for paining /shrug. they are aluminum. So something that would stick to the bear metal would work. Then after the polish and paint you could take some wax, and buff it to a really nice finish. More coats the better.

Of course i have never done it but it might work.. figured you at least needed a response. Also I don't remember who it was but someone stripped the clear coat from their rims and polished them. They even removed the black paint. Just a solid crom wheel.

 

They look best if your strip the clear coat, then sand the imperfections and slowly wet sand up to 1500 grit, then paint the insides black and clear the rest. Thats the most bang for the buck.

 

try plastic coating from Trochoid, it's the *****

 

i did this with some nice results. All i did was hit the wheels with high grit paper to just knock any oil/grim off along with smoothing the clear coat..( i didnt work my way up from low to high and wet sand and blahblah...as long as it looks smooth and feels smooth then its good)...I used some blue painters tape to mask the lip and then put about 3 coats of black and thats it.....

I had a can of clear coat that i sprayed on one wheel and it turned my paint that had dried over night into a gray slime so i had to repaint that wheel and start over!!!!

Heres a pic of how it turns out...

 

damn that **** looks sweet rusty!!

 

I sand blasted mine and painted the centers with the silver "wheel paint" found at the auto parts stores. I then "polished" the lips the best I could. These didn't polish up as well as my Epsilon wheels.

I put too much paint on the wheels. The paint is lifting around the lug bolts. Also the clear is a waste of time. It also changes the color.

 

On yeah i forgot to mention i used engine paint in the spray can...I know this really dosnt matter since the wheel itself dosnt get hot but i thought it might be a stronger paint to resist rock knicks and lug wrenchs hitting it...

 

its really more the clear coat that resists things like that.

 

I too am going to plug Trochoid here. I ran into an enourmous dilemma when it came to my rims getting painted by him, but I know when/if the time comes for them to get painted he is the one that is going to get my money for it.