painting wheels.
07-19-06, 09:48 PM
#5
Taste great, more filling
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I've used Duplicolor car paint, special wheel coating paint, High Heat Engine Paint, and official Mopar factory paint on wheels, and it's all come out fine as long as you clear coat it afterwards. In fact, I had a polished wheel on my company Explorer that had bad damage from a brakepad throwing sparks and melting all the finish on it causing rust, I used sandpaper to get rid of the rust and then just cleared the bare metal again and it looked like new. Take your time, sand before you paint and clean before you sand. Clean after you sand, too, different towel.
07-19-06, 10:42 PM
#7
Taste great, more filling
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No problem, painting wheels is scary (because wheels are expensive!), but not hard. Just like painting anything, good prep is 90% of the paint job. Another good tip, if you DO tape off and leave part of it silver, pull the tape (carefully!) soon after you finish spraying so the line will still be wet and you won't pull bits of paint off with the tape when you do it later. And if you're going to have a tape line, it's probably best to reclear it all as a whole when you're done (it will minimize the tape line and make it look like it was all done at once), but it's not necessary.
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07-19-06, 10:48 PM
#8
painting wheels is a simple task and its all in the prep work i'm doing mine with duplicolor wheel paint . . heres the thread . . .
https://www.rx7club.com/interior-exterior-audio-26/possible-stupid-question-about-bondo-aluminum-wheels-557171/
before . . .
after . . .
https://www.rx7club.com/interior-exterior-audio-26/possible-stupid-question-about-bondo-aluminum-wheels-557171/
before . . .
after . . .
07-19-06, 11:25 PM
#11
no i jus coated them with the bronze and left them kinda satin. Yours turned out better, mines got lots of overspray . . . those CDR-9s where an *** pain to paint i hate holding dowon the little button on rattle cans, i want my spray gun!!!! hows the paint holding up on the calipers?
07-20-06, 01:02 AM
#12
I am the stig.
I recently painted my phone dials, and I'm really happy I did. There was always something about my car that looked odd. (Aside from the previous owner's poorly repaired dents and body damage.) I'd look at other FC's and think that they looked a lot slicker, but really couldn't figure out what it was. After painting my phone dials Graphite Gray, I realized the silver-ish rims were making the car look taller. My friends commented that it makes the phone dials look "less old".
I originally went with black, but ran low after 2 wheels. I went to the local auto parts shops and they were sold out of Black, so I took a chance on Graphite Gray. (Dupicolor wheel paint.) With one side of my car on black rims, and the other on graphite, it gave me a chance to compare them. (Also, I didn't think anyone else would notice they were different colors since you only see on side of the car at the time.) The next week I stripped the black wheels and went Graphite all around.
For prep work, I removed the old clear coat / paint with KleenStrip Aircraft Remover from Autozone, which works great as long as you slather it on like BBQ sauce. (Use chem gloves and glasses, it burns like a mother.) After that, rough sand with 100 grit, then smooth with 220 grit, then one coat of primer, and one coat of paint. (As heavy as possible without getting runs.) I did the black rims without primer and following the directions on the can and it didn't come out as well.
Before:
After:
Original w/ flaking clear coat:
Graphite vs Black:
I originally went with black, but ran low after 2 wheels. I went to the local auto parts shops and they were sold out of Black, so I took a chance on Graphite Gray. (Dupicolor wheel paint.) With one side of my car on black rims, and the other on graphite, it gave me a chance to compare them. (Also, I didn't think anyone else would notice they were different colors since you only see on side of the car at the time.) The next week I stripped the black wheels and went Graphite all around.
For prep work, I removed the old clear coat / paint with KleenStrip Aircraft Remover from Autozone, which works great as long as you slather it on like BBQ sauce. (Use chem gloves and glasses, it burns like a mother.) After that, rough sand with 100 grit, then smooth with 220 grit, then one coat of primer, and one coat of paint. (As heavy as possible without getting runs.) I did the black rims without primer and following the directions on the can and it didn't come out as well.
Before:
After:
Original w/ flaking clear coat:
Graphite vs Black:
07-20-06, 01:18 AM
#13
Originally Posted by staticguitar313
no i jus coated them with the bronze and left them kinda satin. Yours turned out better, mines got lots of overspray . . . those CDR-9s where an *** pain to paint i hate holding dowon the little button on rattle cans, i want my spray gun!!!! hows the paint holding up on the calipers?
The paint is holding up great on the calipers. I just cleaned 'em really well with brake-cleaner, lightly sanded them, washed 'em with soap and water and then sprayed them off with compressed air before painting them.
But FARK, you went NUTS with the masking tape, lol!
I've painted a few sets of wheels and I usually just use one layer of masking tape around the tire (the skinny way), but I don't press the tape down fully onto the tire, thereby leaving a little lip of tape--just enough to slide some newspaper under to cover up the entire tire, and leaving an apron to prevent overspray around the tire... Does that make sense? Like, I give the tire a "skirt" of newspaper, with just a thin line of scrunched up and curved masking tape around the circumference... Whatever.
07-20-06, 03:31 AM
#14
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As for masking off the polished lip on the vert rims, go get yourself a roll of 1/4" tape to lay down first. it is much easier to make curve around the polished to painted transition. Then use a thicker piece of tape and a piece of newspaper or masking paper like erik said. Another way to do that is to just run a peice of tape along the edge of the paper before trying to get it on the wheel.
07-20-06, 06:18 AM
#16
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I used a heavy duty "thinner" to soften the top coat a little and used a rustoleum black paint and sat them in front of a propane "torpedo" heater for about 20 min. a piece. No clear, turned out perfect and a year later they were still fine.
07-20-06, 01:27 PM
#17
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Anyone know how painting the wheels black/gunmetal and leaving a polished lip would look like a 7 spoke TurboII wheel? I'm liking the gold wheels on a black car erikseven 
Staticguitar, what did you use to take those mad gashes out of your wheels before painting them?
Staticguitar, what did you use to take those mad gashes out of your wheels before painting them?
07-20-06, 08:31 PM
#21
everyone seems to have awesomely painted wheels. i will post pics of mine once they get painted. i may go get the paint tomorrow while i have a bit of extra cash. i'm doing a complete buildup so i'm buying new parts and its slowing down my rebuild haha.
