DIY: Painting Wheels
#1
Drifting
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Madison, Nj || Woodbridge, CT
Age: 34
Posts: 3,185
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
DIY: Painting Wheels
OK so i decided to do a write up on how to do this (or atleast how i did it)
Est time to complete..2-3 hours.
What you need:
Hose (any source of water will work, but i found using a hose to clean my wheels made it much easier to blast away the majority of the junk)
400 grit sand paper
Wheel primer ( try and get a viscous one, or one for filling in scratches or dents, available at pep boys//autozone)
Wheel paint, whatever color you want. you can get it offline, or again at autozone or pepboys, although the two aforementioned retailers carry a limited selection of colors//finish's
Masking tape, 3m blue painters tape works the best, make sure you get the multi surface one otherwise youll get some paint leaks onto your tires..
Beer (or soda.. food, whatever you prefer.)
First. take the wheels off the car (sounds dumb, you never know)
Second: Wash the living FUCK out of them. scrub scrub and scrub. you want to get all the dirt grime and dust off of the surface you are going to paint. if not, youll get some bumpy shitty paint that will probably chip and or flake where the dirt or whatever is that you painted over. DO NOT use any kind of wheel cleaner that leaves some sort of residual polish. this will mess with the primers ability to adhere to the alloy.
Third: using the sand paper, rough up the surface of the wheel slightly. were not talking anything major, just a light sand over the entire wheel
Fourth: rinse down the wheels again to get rid of anything the sanding might have kicked loose. wait for the wheels to dry.
Five: once the wheels are dry, go ahead and mask off the tires from the wheel using the tape, if your painting wheels not mounted to tires, then you lucked out. just make sure to not get any significant amount of pain onthe inside of the wheel where the tire bead would mount to. not sure it would do anything, but who wants to risk it![Shrug](https://acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/shrug.gif)
Six: lay down a coat of primer, make sure to go evenly and coat the entire wheel. try your best to fill in the dents/ dings without over sprazying and causing drips. If you do get drips, take some very high grit sand paper and LIGHTLY sand down the drip. repeat until the entire wheel looks evenly coated. i did two coats and it worked perfectly fine.
Seven: now the fun begins, using a steady hand and slow movements, coat each wheel with desired paint. the more coats you do, the more resiliant the paint will be. make sure to give the paint at least 15 minutes to dry between each coat, you want to make sure your not putting wet paint on wet paint. this will cause drips.
this is after two coats:
![](http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp338/BarrettJa/0317091654.jpg)
this is after 4
![](http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp338/BarrettJa/0317091730.jpg)
I chose not to paint my center caps because I personally like the way they look against the GM.
finished product mounted on my car (I let them dry for 3 hours after the last coat before i mounted them)
![](https://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs036.snc1/2665_1075677607350_1088490692_30573428_5556920_n.jpg)
another option you could explore that I chose not to is finishing them with a clear coat. this would give them a mch glossier look. while mine do refract light, there more on the Matte side of things.
Thats pretty much it. the longer you wait for them to dry, the better your results will be. im yet to stand the test of time, but for sub 20$ you cant go wrong with this, even if they do need a re-spray down the road.
Est time to complete..2-3 hours.
What you need:
Hose (any source of water will work, but i found using a hose to clean my wheels made it much easier to blast away the majority of the junk)
400 grit sand paper
Wheel primer ( try and get a viscous one, or one for filling in scratches or dents, available at pep boys//autozone)
Wheel paint, whatever color you want. you can get it offline, or again at autozone or pepboys, although the two aforementioned retailers carry a limited selection of colors//finish's
Masking tape, 3m blue painters tape works the best, make sure you get the multi surface one otherwise youll get some paint leaks onto your tires..
Beer (or soda.. food, whatever you prefer.)
First. take the wheels off the car (sounds dumb, you never know)
Second: Wash the living FUCK out of them. scrub scrub and scrub. you want to get all the dirt grime and dust off of the surface you are going to paint. if not, youll get some bumpy shitty paint that will probably chip and or flake where the dirt or whatever is that you painted over. DO NOT use any kind of wheel cleaner that leaves some sort of residual polish. this will mess with the primers ability to adhere to the alloy.
Third: using the sand paper, rough up the surface of the wheel slightly. were not talking anything major, just a light sand over the entire wheel
Fourth: rinse down the wheels again to get rid of anything the sanding might have kicked loose. wait for the wheels to dry.
Five: once the wheels are dry, go ahead and mask off the tires from the wheel using the tape, if your painting wheels not mounted to tires, then you lucked out. just make sure to not get any significant amount of pain onthe inside of the wheel where the tire bead would mount to. not sure it would do anything, but who wants to risk it
![Shrug](https://acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/shrug.gif)
Six: lay down a coat of primer, make sure to go evenly and coat the entire wheel. try your best to fill in the dents/ dings without over sprazying and causing drips. If you do get drips, take some very high grit sand paper and LIGHTLY sand down the drip. repeat until the entire wheel looks evenly coated. i did two coats and it worked perfectly fine.
Seven: now the fun begins, using a steady hand and slow movements, coat each wheel with desired paint. the more coats you do, the more resiliant the paint will be. make sure to give the paint at least 15 minutes to dry between each coat, you want to make sure your not putting wet paint on wet paint. this will cause drips.
this is after two coats:
![](http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp338/BarrettJa/0317091654.jpg)
this is after 4
![](http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp338/BarrettJa/0317091730.jpg)
I chose not to paint my center caps because I personally like the way they look against the GM.
finished product mounted on my car (I let them dry for 3 hours after the last coat before i mounted them)
![](https://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs036.snc1/2665_1075677607350_1088490692_30573428_5556920_n.jpg)
another option you could explore that I chose not to is finishing them with a clear coat. this would give them a mch glossier look. while mine do refract light, there more on the Matte side of things.
Thats pretty much it. the longer you wait for them to dry, the better your results will be. im yet to stand the test of time, but for sub 20$ you cant go wrong with this, even if they do need a re-spray down the road.
#3
Senior Moderator
Regional Coordinator
(Mid-Atlantic)
Regional Coordinator
(Mid-Atlantic)
iTrader: (6)
#4
Drifting
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Madison, Nj || Woodbridge, CT
Age: 34
Posts: 3,185
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
yeah, the only difference would be using a high heat paint instead of wheel paint. make sure its got ceramic particles in it. otherwise it will smoke right off the second your engine gets hot, and noone likes an engine bay fire lol
#5
Da HoNu
@Shadow: don't get me wrong, you did a great job!! but you should pick up some gunmetal center caps, your stock ones kinda stick out a bit imo
Last edited by hOnU; 03-18-2009 at 02:03 PM.
#6
Senior Moderator
Regional Coordinator
(Mid-Atlantic)
Regional Coordinator
(Mid-Atlantic)
iTrader: (6)
![Werd](https://acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/werd.gif)
Trending Topics
#9
Drifting
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Madison, Nj || Woodbridge, CT
Age: 34
Posts: 3,185
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
best way is to try and sand down the scratch without indenting the are at all, then fill it with primer. i had some pretty hideous scratches on mine from previous owner. it seriously looked like someone went at it with a belt sander. a couple of layers of primer and you would never know now.
#11
Drifting
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Madison, Nj || Woodbridge, CT
Age: 34
Posts: 3,185
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
haha yeah.. mine was fairly simple.. prep work was pretty easy too. sanding was the most annoying part cus i have big hands and my fingers didnt fit all to well between the damn split spokes haha
#17
Drifting
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Madison, Nj || Woodbridge, CT
Age: 34
Posts: 3,185
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
just sand away. you don't really need to remove the finish completley, you just need to rough up the surface enough that the primer has a porous surface to fill and adhere to.
#19
Pro
i have done this before on my other cars and found aircraft stripper works really well to get the old finish off. just spray it on and wait about 5 mins until you see the finish start to bubble up, then take a plastic putty knife and lightly scrape the old finish off. this makes the sanding much less tedious as you will only need minimal sanding after you wash the stripper off. just my .02
#21
Your Girlfriend is in my
I'm thinking about doing this to my rims, not sure yet, cause I want to use these rims when I start dropping and lowering my car.
![](https://img19.imageshack.us/img19/5363/002lye.jpg)
![](https://img199.imageshack.us/img199/7269/001yrf.jpg)
Not sure of a choice of color, but I was thinking something to match the color of the car. Theres a gash on one of the rims, I was hoping that the paint can cover that up. Any opinions on this?
- RemieGino14 -
![](https://img19.imageshack.us/img19/5363/002lye.jpg)
![](https://img199.imageshack.us/img199/7269/001yrf.jpg)
Not sure of a choice of color, but I was thinking something to match the color of the car. Theres a gash on one of the rims, I was hoping that the paint can cover that up. Any opinions on this?
- RemieGino14 -
#23
Senior Moderator
Regional Coordinator
(Mid-Atlantic)
Regional Coordinator
(Mid-Atlantic)
iTrader: (6)
Fixed your pics for you, lookin good man, I like the gm grill as well
#27
Senior Moderator
Regional Coordinator
(Mid-Atlantic)
Regional Coordinator
(Mid-Atlantic)
iTrader: (6)
The wheels and center caps look great, those A emblems could use some work though
#29
Intermediate
Thinkin about paintin my 99 3.0 wheels gunmetal, but I could also just wait until I need new tires (prolly closer to winter time) and get them powder coated black pretty cheap through my work. The wheels have a lot of scratches and nicks from the previous owner and would probably be a lot of work sanding and filling. I am also having trouble deciding if the black on black or gunmetal on black will look better. Any suggestions?
#33
Advanced
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
nanos
Car Parts for Sale
26
11-12-2015 08:41 PM
merc009
3G TL (2004-2008)
21
10-03-2015 12:59 AM
detailersdomain
Wash & Wax
0
09-03-2015 10:56 PM