painting rims
 

hey guys, i am interested in painting my rims to a powdercoaty looking grey or black. right now the rims are chrome with lip. any suggestions and help to what i need to buy to prep my rims? they have too much scrapes from parallel parking so i just want to paint them. thanks

Sand, prime, paint and clear. Your done..

Ive never done chrome rims but I did refinish the lip on my black rims with polished lip.

Sand down the clear with wetsand paper. Start a 200-300Grit, then 400, 600, 800, 1000 then 1500 if your meticulous.. buffed it and done.. I couldve cleared it but was too lazy and will probably do it in the winter when the wheels are off. I did my research off google and learnt lots...

I also got rid off all the curb rashes cause they were an eyesore. Now my rims look brand new..

hmm, im not sure what color would look good, stil ldeciding to go all black or dark greyish color, i need options. what kind of primer do i have to buy? can it be from home depot or does it have to be exactly for auto? my rims are all chrome except the middle part which is black and silver and around the lip has bolts. am i able to sand the chrome and do i stop when i see all the color gone? thanks!

you need rim paint, otherwise heat from the brakes on rock chips will ruin your paint job. You can get it from Canadian Tire.

also, if you are trying to fix the scratches/scrapes you may have to sand with a lower grit paper. Try 200 for the scrapes and 400 for the rest of the rim. You need to "scuff" up the surface of the rim otherwise the paint will not adhere properly.

not to hijack this thread, but does anyone know how much a garage would charge to do this for me? thanks

Sure blast in port coquitlam will sand blast and powder coat for $300.

i will try that. so... i still need to sand the chrome lip even if its not painted and it feels smooth? just bought the dupicolor primer, rim, clear coat paints earlier. i think i have 200 grit right now if thats all.

the chrome lip has a bit of curb rash, how would i go about getting rid of that or will it be unnoticed once im done painting it?

Is it a chrome lip or poslished lip? Big difference.. If its chrome you have to repaint the whole rim.. You can tell by if you have a clear coat or not. Chrome doesnt have clear coat. Polished lip is just the aluminum rim.. Once you hit it with the 1000grit and polish its gets pretty shinny.

To get rid of the curb get a dremel with a sanding tool. Grind down the curb rash until it has small little rashes.. then take your 200grit and sand it away..

When I did my rims for the first time I made the mistake of using to high of a grit to get rid of the clear.. Start off with atleast 300 if not lower.. Also you are looking at atleast 2 hours prep work on each rim plus painting. Especially if this is you first time...

I was quoted by both panthers and green $700 for refinishing my polished lip and curb rashes.. Thats when I decided to hit up google and see how to do it myself... Its really easy but you just need time..

Took me 15 hours of preping my rims and polishing but I did them right not half ass but I also used the wrong grit on the first 2 wheels so that was a bitch I probably wouldve cut 3-4 hours if I used the right grit.

Yes, you need to sand the smooth surfaces with a high-grit paper. Make sure you are wet sanding(not dry) so you get even coverage. Dry sanding could result in fine lines in your paint job. As for the curb rash..you can try to sand it out and also use a filler/primer to get a more even surface. Which colour did you buy?

I actually had one wheel rashed all the way around pretty bad.. I just dremmeld it and wet sanded it down, you dont really need filler unless its a huge gash. Big key is use lots of water.. You can tell when you passed the clear because clear coat sand down white and the aluminum will sand down grey.. I remember going through like 20 buckets of water.

for better adhesion of paint, the wheel should be around 35 degrees Celsius.
also, be sure to wipe down the are you want to paint with rubbing alcohol to remove oils, dirt etc.

Also forgot to mention something important.. You will only be able to find 100-400 Grit at home depot. You can only buy higher grit at an auto parts store.. but its quite expensive.. My 1000Grit cost me $20 for 5 pieces. but the 800 grit was $10.00 @ lordco.

canadian tire also has up to 2000 grit in the automotive section.

How large is the range of powdercoating color options? can I get a close to oem white?

x2

I just had mine done in satin black:

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...s/IMG_5758.jpg

I had mine done in gunmetal at Rainbow powdercoating, but it took a long time

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/8164/img0722nb.jpg

^price?

$45/wheel for sandblasting and $40/wheel for powdercoat. they even fixed my curb damage too

Damn that's a good price, SureBlast does not fix curb damage so I had to sand out what I could myself.

How bad was your curb damage? @matsuda
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how many layers should i coat the rims with? so far i've done 2 layers primer, 2 coats of dupicolor black rim paint, looks awesome but how can i protect it from rocks and debris so the paint does not come off? i also have clear coat ready once the necessary amount of paint is applied.

... or just do it yourself.

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/6852/img0589ye.jpg

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/8058/img0617v.jpg






OP, for the finish 2 or 3 coats of clear coat will be good to protect the paint...

More the better. I think I did 3 or 4 coats of paint and then 3 coats of clear. Unfortunately you will get some chipping with time.

they were pretty bad, the guy I bought them off of curbed the shit out of them. My friend helped fixed them with jb weld but when they sandblasted it, they said it would have to be done again. He was going to pick them up and fix it again but when he called, they were like..the wheels are done.. like fixed and painted. woo

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/4082/img0615g.jpg

see all that goo around the edges? that's jb weld covering up all the curbage, that was the worst rim