Painting wheels

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player1up

player1up

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I recently picked up a set of wheels that are in need of some new paint.
I understand that prep is the key to making them like new, but what kind of paint should I use?
VHT, duplicolor, ?
Something that will stand up to relatively high heat, that's not going to wash off when I spray it with degreaser...

Anyone have any tips and/or real life experience with painting wheels?
 
Have you thought about powder coating them? I have a motorcycle with powder coated wheels and spray straight Purple Power on them to get the chain grease off. The wheels are not affected by the Purple Power.
 
a buddy of mine used caliper paint. he sand blasted the rim down and painted it. looks VERY good considering what he started with. i used wheel paint once and it started flaking 3 months after.

OR you could always powder coat them;) i priced a set of aluminum wheels at 50 bucks per wheel. that included blasting too tho. might give that a thought.
 
Not sure about a paint that will stand up to a degreaser. But clean clean clean your wheels! Then sand sand sand,then clean again. Then,use a high quality primer(I use duplicolor) and give it a few layers.Then sand out any imperfections in the primer and wipe clean with a tack cloth. I would recommend at least three coats of the paint of your choice(again I used duplicolor wheel paint with good results) Take your time,do light coats so you dont get any runs. When finished let them get some sun for a few days to cure the paint,and you should be good to go.
 
I just used duplicolor engine enamel on mine. Then again they're just stock rallyes and I didn't care too much how it turned out. One wheel came out really nice, but the others had some adhesion issues, think there was still some tire black or something on the rims. First one was nice, second one noticed the running, scrubbed the last two pretty good but same problem. i like the powdercoat idea though. The engine paint works nice and seems fairly resistant, but it's a little on the weak side, tightening the lugnuts will flake it off some if you aren't careful.
 
I will consider powder coating them once I decide what I want them to look like, not sure if they will end up black or gun metal center with polished lip.
As for the caliper paint, that's what the guy told me they were painted with and that crap is fairly difficult to get off...They are 17x8 bullitt wheels by the way, and for $100 for 4 of them I'm willing to "try" on them ;)
...Engine enamel, novel idea, I used that stuff on the engine and it holds up will against heat and degreaser, just have to see about getting the finish to look nice enough...I guess it didn't occur to me..
 
player1up said:
I will consider powder coating them once I decide what I want them to look like, not sure if they will end up black or gun metal center with polished lip.
As for the caliper paint, that's what the guy told me they were painted with and that crap is fairly difficult to get off...They are 17x8 bullitt wheels by the way, and for $100 for 4 of them I'm willing to "try" on them ;)
...Engine enamel, novel idea, I used that stuff on the engine and it holds up will against heat and degreaser, just have to see about getting the finish to look nice enough...
Click to expand...

I hear ya.... you can't go wrong with the powder coat when you decide what you like.
 
Yeah, I just had the enamel left over from various projects over the years, looks a lot better than the dirty rusty look it had, lol =P.
 
i sand blasted mine in the backyard then use wallmart primer the wallmart black. and ran them in the winter still look nice after washing

P1011194.jpg
 
*drool* Those are sweet Tony, how much was it to get them done? I wonder if 15" rims will fits in my mom's oven... lol. She's pretty much given up at my dad and I not using her stuff.
 
Map63Vette said:
*drool* Those are sweet Tony, how much was it to get them done? I wonder if 15" rims will fits in my mom's oven... lol. She's pretty much given up at my dad and I not using her stuff.
Click to expand...
Yeah toss them in. The roast beef might taste a bit different next time.
 
At Home Depot they sell this rattle can paint called Appliance Epoxy. It takes quite a while to dry, but once it dries it is rock solid stuff. This guy I used to work with showed me two bezels on his old VW bug that he painted. One was with a $7 can of Duplicolor and the other was with the Appliance Epoxy paint. The duplicolor one was faded big time the the Appliance Epoxy looked brand new. He said he only painted them about 3 months apart and he did it a year or so before he showed me them. I used them on my wheels here and they have held up perfectly for the last 3 years or so. The only downfall is they only have black, white and maybe tan.

P1120024.jpg
 
rustolium works fine, Ive done the 'S' wheels on the Cuda and the valiant with gloss black. the tires in the Cuda dryrotted before the paint faded. I basicly just did the scuff and shoot method and made sure they where clean before paint.
 
Definitely some good looking wheels in the thread, thanks all.
I've been doing some testing to the paint that is on the wheels now and I think I have a decent understanding of how durable the factory paint really is..and the caliper paint for that matter.
The caliper paint just washes off with carb cleaner ( not that I will be cleaning the wheels with carb cleaner :lol: ) but I wanted to see what would happen.
The factory paint gets soft enough to scratch off with a fingernail and is primer,color, clear ( what I expected to find ), however the clear coat is a much heartier substance than the base.
So, I figure I can find something that holds up at least as well as the stock stuff.
 
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