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View Full Version : DIY: How to paint your wheels


clere
10-19-2007, 12:58 PM
First of all, make sure its at like about 65 degrees in your garage or outside or wherever while doing this!!!

Well you get your 4 wheels off, and cleaned (I actually cleaned them while they were still on the car haha, and I used some all purpose cleaner and steel wool. After you get them all cleaned, you can take the option of sanding them with VERY fine sandpaper, but I did not, and as you can see they still turned out very well.

Then you let them dry. I just set them in front of a space heater for a tiny bit and let them all dry, and then taped off the wheels, which I don't have a picture of, but looks similar to this
http://www.peterbeers.net/vw_roadtrip/GTI/GTI_Mods/Black_Wheels/images/I_MG_5458.jpg

Note that it is easier to tape them off if you just rip and use a bunch of smaller pieces of tape.

After it was taped off we went and sprayed some adhesive promoter on the wheels.

Shortly after the adhesive promoter, we put on some dunpont graphite wheel paint that you can get at autozone, checker, any auto retailer.

You want to put it on thin and lightly, and just go over it a few times side to side and up and down. Don't put it on too thick all at once obvioslly.

Right after the graphite paint, before it was even dry, we sprayed on a clear coat. You don't have to be as cautious with how thick you put clearcoat on as opposed to the wheel paint itself.

After the clearcoat you go and watch yourself some TV, grab a bite to eat, take a shower, duce, or whatever you would do in your normal day activies while they dry. I think we waited an hour or so, but that could also be because there was a good movie on TV lol.

After that, went out and sprayed them with another clearcoat, let them sit for about 10 minutes, and ripped the tape off and put them back on :)

Never done a write up before, so I just threw this one together and hope it helps someone else.

wasabiman
12-06-2007, 03:04 AM
this is great, I need to repaint my rims. Thanks for the writeup!

ilovemylude22
12-06-2007, 05:35 AM
nice

Si Speed
12-06-2007, 09:19 AM
Excellent tutorial y4.

CavScoutRyno
09-22-2008, 03:53 PM
hey instead of tape for the tires, i would suggest vasoline. it will get in the small spaces between tires and rims very easily and you can "trim" it with just a butter knife and wipe clean all the places you want to paint. paint the wheels, then when dry just wipe off the paint covered vasoline. just make sure you get a good coat on, no thin spots. the only thing i advice against, is if you are doing this with some friends, just one of you go in the drug store to buy the vasoline.

clere
09-22-2008, 05:54 PM
the only thing i advice against, is if you are doing this with some friends, just one of you go in the drug store to buy the vasoline.

hahaha thats great

jcball3r
10-20-2008, 01:04 PM
Great write up. When I paint my rims, I use index cards rather than taping the tire (takes too long). Just get like a pack of 50 index cards if you dont mind spending. I tried the vaseline trick too, it worked great for the outer lip!:biggrin:

93-LUDE-SI
10-20-2008, 08:18 PM
Is it really that simple? Can you really just spray paint them and have them not chip and look halfway decent?

Aiden671
10-26-2008, 12:20 PM
Is it really that simple? Can you really just spray paint them and have them not chip and look halfway decent?

hmmm
well if you know the 101 on spray painting stuff..
the paint shouldn't chip
for a couple of years.
depending on how you take care of your rims.