imported_jj2ii3344

** I am not responsible for any damage this might cause to your vehicle, either directly or indirectly **

Painting your own rims at home without using Aircraft Stripper

Applicable to: Any alloy wheels
Difficulty: 2.5/5 - Moderate

Tools you need

- 1 Can of Duplicolor High Performance Wheel Paint Clear Coat
- 1 Can of Dupicolor Sandable Primer
- 4 Cans of Dupicolor High Performance Wheel Paint
- 400, 600 grit sand paper
- Dish washer
- Prepsol
- Towels
- Newspapers
- Masking Paper
- Index cards

Instructions

1. Clean your rims thoroughly with dish washer to remove wax/dirt from the surface
2. Begin wetsanding your rims with 400 grit sandpaper to prepare the surface for paint and to level the surface
3. Once the surface is relatively smooth and imperfection-free, move on to 600 grit sandpaper and repeat steps above

Note: If your rims has any scratches etc, it is important that you fix them now through sanding/bondo. The primer and especially the paint will not cover these defects for you.


(I bought my rims for a super low price, but the finish was very very bad on it)

4. Clean the rims again with dish washer to remove dirt
5. Wipe your rims with prepsol to remove any leftover wax etc. (this step is not necessary)
6. Let rims dry completely
7. Put newspapers on the floor and place your rims on the newspapers to prevent spraying color on the floor
8. Put masking tape over any areas you do not want to paint (eg. rims logo etc.)
9. Put index cards over the circumference of the rims to protect the tires from being painted



10. Spray a light coat of primer on the rims, wait 10 minutes and repeat until rims are covered with primer, then wait 10 minutes or until primer is dry



11. Spray a light coat of wheel paint on the rims, wait 7 minutes and repeat until rims are covered with color, then wait 1 hour before putting on clear coat (the Duplicolor wheel paint is different than the company's regular automotive paint, it is mixed with a metallic and is harder to control IMO)






12. Spray a light coat of clear coat on the rims, wait 10 minutes and repeat until you have around 2-3 coats.




Enjoy!

imported_crazydragonclk

great tutorial, and tons of good pics to help along the way

imported_97silverHB

great job

btw, how long did u take to finish 4 rims?

imported_JDMman

awesome ..... i have the same project to do this summmer except i have to remove 2 or 3 layers of paint from the rims first... lol

Cosic

great write up man. the cue cards, would have never thought of that!.. did you try to get the inner wheel behind the spokes painted or no?

takagari

wow awesome

i want to get mine paint matched to my car with a chrome or somehting silver lip.

but i may do this. wish i could get my color in spray paint lol

SnOO-sNoo

looks good

takagari

ok so in canada wheres the best place to pickup this. with the most selection?

Gallagher

Canadian Tire really.......thats where I got all of my ****

PavementPounder

lookin good

takagari

i may jsu thave the shop do it since im getting so much other workd one. ill have to price it out.

but i think thats the exact color i want to go with.. hmm

imported_Ne0

what does the Dupicolor Sandable Primer look like, i have been to canadian tire, walmart and zellers and i can't find it.

Is the primer really necessary?

imported_nnniiiccckkk007

thanks for the pics!

looks great

great advice

imported_bobjohnson

You dont really need primer i dont think, i didnt use any and mine turned out like this (warning, big pictures):


No primer

Considering they looked like this to start out with:

Before

I dont think they turned out too bad... if i had of taken more time they could have turned out not half bad...

And before anyone gives me **** for doing a sad job, and painting steelies, look at the before pic and tell me it doesnt look better now... Which is all i was going for.

All i did was:

1) Powerwash the wheels, to get the big chunks of chrome off

2) sand down all the rust

3) pour some rust converter on and worked it all around

4) powerwashed again

5) let them dry in the sun for an hour or so.

6) Sprayed with duplicolor wheel paint.

If i was painting wheels that were actually worth something, id probably have taken my time and done a proper job. But its just temporary, so i think it turned out pretty good.

The paints also holding up pretty well, i did that a month or 2 ago, ive hit it with the power washer a whole bunch of times, and i even slipped with the tire iron and hit the wheel, no paint chipped off or dented or anything. So i dont think primer is needed with the duplicolor paint as long as you somewhat prep the surface before hand. Also i dont think the can mentions anything about primer, just the clear coat, which i also didnt use since i didnt want a really shiny look.

imported_crazydragonclk

you dont absolutely need primer but it helps, when doing a real good finish it sometimes helps, and it will generally adhere better vs a regular surface. but thats why sanding also must be done so that the surface paint can grab onto the wheel.

in some cases the paint may be good for a year or so but after different temperature changes and wear it could start to peel or flake off.

But generally it is better to use primer as in some applications like trim pieces you can get flaking alot easier vs a stiffened metal piece that doesnt warp

SIRious

Cheap way of painting them.. u could get them done professionally at a shop for 75 each!

VTEC_Thunder

If you paint a few coats of the main colour paint then wet sand with 2000+ grit sand paper, then apply a few coats of clear coat and wet sand that with 2000+ grit paper then polished and waxed them I'm sure you could get a near perfectly smooth, mirror finish that looks like it was done by a pro.

imported_HondaCivicEG

it took me about 2-3 hours of work doin the same thing, plus ive done this like 10 times now on diff rims so my hands are kinda fast in it now. but it shouldnt take more than that for a starter either.
all i did was to first sand, and then wash with soap and water, let it dry, masked off the tire from the wheel, and then spray on 2-3 light cots of paint, and then if u wanted not to get scratched where easier then do 1 or 2 cots of clear. well i sprayed flat black and if i clear that its gona become a shiny black and no point to it.