Painting my rims
 

I have decided that it is way to expensive to buy five new rims or try get used rims for a good price. So I am look for advice on what paint I should buy to paint my rims black and paint my break calipers red. If you have any tips or info on this stuff that would be helpful.

Prep is the key. I used scotchbright or 3m stripping pads from lowes and completely scuff up the finish. You want to take all the shine off. It took me about an hour a wheel to do it right. Then you want to wash them really good, then rinse again. Let them sit in the sun for a while to completely dry. For paint, I used duplicolor engine enamel in low gloss (stock wheels) and semi gloss (new wheels) from Advanced Auto. Works really good for me, and the only way it ever came off is if a rock removed some metal with it, but it's easy to touch up. I'd use the semi gloss cuz it doesn't road dirt so much. The low gloss looked kinda grayish if they weren't completely clean, semi looks "blacker". Low gloss is pretty much just a flat black, not gloss at all.

I got about 7 cans and had some left over for touch up. Also, i didn't bother taping off or covering the tire with index cards to spray, cuz it will just flake off the rubber on its own within a week or two. When you go to paint, you want to do 5-7 THIN coats. I let them dry about 10 minutes betweem coats. Also, don't use more than about 3/4 of a can cuz they like to spatter towards the end and mess up the finish. Thats about it. I'd do it on a sunny dry day.

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I took mine to a local powder coating shop. They had several colors to choose from, including black. It was a lot cheaper than buying new wheels.

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Powder coating looks great, but to me, its a waste of money if you wheel at all near rocks. Especially with those stock wheels, they WILL find a good ammount of rock rash at some point if you wheel it, and there really is no good way to touch up powdercoating. Even with my aftermarket wheels, i touch them up about every month. They get gouged about every weekend i go wheeling.

People asked me a lot about my "powder coated" stock wheels. Nope, just some rattle can :cool:

Very true. Unfortunately, there are no rocks, nearby, for me to crawl. One day...one day.

a friend of mine used A few cans of Plastidip. no need to scuff them up before hand. just tape off the tire itself. if you mess up or down the road want to get rid of the black it just peels off like a vinyl sticker. also very easy to touch up if they get scratched from road dust.

I used Duplicolor Wheel paint. Dark metallic silver, with matte metallic clear. Easy to touch up, looks good.:thumbsup:
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