Rim Painting

[seacopper]

I had someone tell me if I wanted to change the color on my rims from alum to "pick a color" that all I needed to was rough up my wheels and tape around the areas I didn't want to paint. Question is: Has anyone else done this. I'm wanting Black wheels.

Feedback.

[pdmted]

I redid the wheels on my 300ZX. I just went to the local paint store and picked a color I liked, bought a pint and brought that to my local body shop to have them sprayed. I also had them use a clear coat I bought from Eastwood Company: Auto Tools, Body Repair, Classic Car Restoration, House of Kolor Paint, Powder Coating that is made for wheels spacifically. They sell the clear in both spray cans and quarts. It is a special clear made just for wheels. They turned out great, but I would definately use this special clear coat. Its much more durable.

[seacopper]

Thanks alot, I was hoping I would get some good gouge. I would hate to do this and it turns out like ???/

[EricZ]

In my experience with motorcycle wheels, regular paint just doesn't cut it. Powdercoating is the only way for real durability.

[ICON]

As long as there isn't much rust then you can give the current surface a quick sand w/800 grit sandpaper real quick then topcoat to your preference. I typically take them down to bare metal and go from there but it's time consuming and a pain. I used that Eastwood clear coat and had some serious problems with it, would not adhear to the paint eventhough i followed their instructions to the letter. Maybe it was a bad batch. I'd simply use the color you want and skip the clear. If you need to repaint them all you'd need to do is hit it w/some sandpaper and recoat the entire wheel otherwise you'd need to sand all the clear off. Yes, powdercoating is much better but cost and down-time was what turned me away from it.

[seacopper]

I thought about powder coating but money and downtime like mentioned before is the issure. Course I might be able to handle the scratch and paint idea. If I don't like it I can always get them blasted by a true professional.