Painting rims?

[Valley olds]

Hey aleromod members. I've been thinking of painting my rims. I dont know if its a good idea though what do you think? I am thinking of using a stripper to remove the plastic coating on the wheels, and from there I dont know what to do. I could either polish it all up, or I could paint the 5 spokes only (gunmetal or black). If I do paint it, I am thinking of using the duplicolor wheel paint. A friend used it on his trans ams rims and it looked good and supposedly shouldn't chip. Any opinions will be appreciated and bellow is a picture of the rims. 1st one is what Ive got now, second is after paint.

[Midgear]

I dont think I've seen anyone paint their rims to seriously make them look better.. I've seen people whip out a can of black spray paint and just ruin a good set of wheels, but actually painting the wheel a different color- sounds interesting-

Wonder what the factory alero wheels would look like painted a gunmetal color :lol:

[Vtolds]

Powder Coat them is anything.

[Midgear]

anyone ever done that? just paint the stock alero wheels?

I think that'd be pretty sweet lol

[[ion] C2]

yes and it looks retarded. 99.9% of painted stock wheels on a typical (non-high end) car look terrible. many have painted theirs black here.

what kind of rims are those? they look TINY. do it gunmetal, or buy some 18s.

[whiterider00]

i did at one point have mine painted black...it is definately an interesting look to have painted stock wheels, but black wheels on a white car wasnt half bad. the wheels u have tho wud looke really good in a gunmetal color with a chrome or polished lip like in the pic.

[Valley olds]

The rims are pretty small (15's), but I don't want to go any bigger cus this will be my daily driver and I dont want to be attracting thieves or bad people attention. Right now I'm kind of nervous as to how it would come out. If I were to paint it, I would polish the lip and the center. Thats why I want to remove the plastic coating. Tomorrow, I don't really have time, but come Thursday, I will start.

[kwhauck]

Powder Coat them if anything.

i second that, if you try to paint them yourself i guarantee they will look like shit.......

[meadus101]

My Wheelcovers have turned some Hella Ugly colours, I can't afford rims, I was thinking about Sanding them down and repainting them. Anyone ever done that one?

[Redog]

Powercoating FTW

Powercoating is more durable and there are sooooo many colors to choose from.

The powercoating shop I go to has a few rims that are powercoated for color examples, and they look good, except for the lime green one with the silver lip :rolleyes2:

Paint them once, and your going to be painting them again and again and again. My dad painted the rims on the Nova back in the early 90's because all the paint from the factory was flaking off, didn't take long for it to fall off again

[lonnie]

There is a site that powdercoats rims for 399 for a set of four. I would def powdercoat.

[Valley olds]

Powdercoating sounds good, but 399 is a bit much for me. Also, down here, there are no powdercoating shops. Im probably going to end up using spraypaint. Oh and meadus101, if the chrome around the simulated lug nuts on the hub cap is turning green, I recommend wadding polish. It will remove some of the greenish stuff, but if what you want to do is remove scratches, it wont do that.

[lonnie]

Wow gooooood luck with the spray paint!!

[paulyb]

if your going to do it use a good paint like duplicolor or what ever it is. I painted me explorer rims black and have yet to have a problem with them, then again its a trail truck so it doent matter...lol

I didnt use a stripper either, i just roughed the surface with a brillow pad..lol like macco's 300 doller paint job. It held up decent even with the mud and everything else.

http://www.duplicolor.com/products/wheel.html

use this.

[zzyzzx]

I think that painting your rims is a bad idea and they will look like crap in a year, if not sooner.

[lonnie]

If you are hell bent on getting them painted, just take them to a shop and have them paint them, then clear coat, of course it may take some green but the results will be far better then spray paint IMO. I still think that powdercoating is the way to go if you have access to it and the doe.

[Valley olds]

Unsecond thought, I think Ill save my money to either have it proffessionally done, or get replacements. Thanks for the input everyone.

[Midgear]

I just noticed this today.. and since this thread involves wheels- here goes.

apparently- while using a tire shine.. I had left a bit of residue from it on the wheel itself (didnt even notice it) ... As I'm walking out to my car.. I look down and notice something is peeling off the wheel.. "wtf?"

I get down for a closer inspection and it looks like the finish or whatever it is.. is peeling right off the wheel :blink: what can be used to re -apply this protective finish?

[[ion] C2]

Powdercoating wheels cost about $50/wheel through the local guy around here.

[Midgear]

excuse the retardation.. what's the difference between powder coat and painting?

[Cliff8928]

Read this... http://www.sharppowdercoating.net/

[Midgear]

ack.. so it's gotta be done by a shop?

[kwhauck]

no not neccessarily, you could pick up an oven at a garage sale for cheap and get a decent powdercoating gun for between 200-500. If you do a lot of powdercoating it is worth it.....

and for the ovens propane ones are the best because you don't have to have it hooked up all the time.....i picked up my oven for $25 and have it set up to use a standard grilling propane bottle, the oven stays in the back of my shop until i need it....

[shez]

Does anyone have any pictures of the stock Alero rims painted black with the Duplicolor paint? I'm considering doing that to my wheels.

[kwhauck]

just say no to rattle cans........

[_01Alero_]

^ I have to second that. Id say go big or go home. Get them powder coated if anything.

[whiterider00]

Does anyone have any pictures of the stock Alero rims painted black with the Duplicolor paint? I'm considering doing that to my wheels.

just look at the pics of mine...it should probly change ur mind

http://www.aleromod.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22048

[meadus101]

Yea, I might just try something with One of my Wheelcovers. Some Sandpaper, Some Chrome Spraypaint, and some Clearcoat Rattlecan. hahaha.


I mess it up, and it's only 15 bucks on e-bay. or Cheaper from someone on here.

[Valley olds]

Meadus101, I dont know what color car you drive, but if I were you, instead of using chrome paint, Id use silver. Chrome paint, imo, is just not chrome enough and may end up looking fake. As for the clear coat, be really careful because it tends to turn white if applied too thick. Also, make sure the surface to be clearcoated is really clean. If not, you will notice the imperfections of the surface.

[Midgear]

just look at the pics of mine...it should probly change ur mind

http://www.aleromod.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22048

in all reality, that doesn't look -that- bad.. I bet they would look good in a gunmetal color.. can someone photoshop that? lol

stock 16's on the alero in a gunmetal color-

[shez]

in all reality, that doesn't look -that- bad.. I bet they would look good in a gunmetal color.. can someone photoshop that? lol

stock 16's on the alero in a gunmetal color-

Yeah, I bet gunmetal would look decent. I kind of thought painting them black would make it look cheesy. If I don't do them black I'm going to do them gunmetal.

[Midgear]

heres a couple shots of my car (my rear cover is back on since that side shot)

Can anyone make these wheels gunmetal- curious as to how that would look.. try black too!

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w244/Midgear_album/Sample1.jpg

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w244/Midgear_album/Sample2.jpg

[_01Alero_]

Here ya go. As close as I could get to gunmetal.

[whiterider00]

that doesnt look too bad, even the black ones look ok...

[Midgear]

doesn't look bad at all lol

[lonnie]

eh doesn't look right with the stockers to me. May be if those tires were a lower profile.

[Midgear]

eh doesn't look right with the stockers to me. May be if those tires were a lower profile.

exactly!! that tire size is P215/60R/16 ... they have more sidewall ANd are skinner than stock, which sucks-

fixin' to buy new ones.

[JOEY GLADSTONE]

low pros on 16s looks stupid imo

[Midgear]

not -low- profile.. but something a bit lower profile than the inner tubes I got right now.

and as far as looks, I'm not going for that just yet- I'll spare myself the 1 grand and just get a lower profile set of tires and make do with that untill I can afford a set of nice wheels-

little appearance mods here and there mabey.. but nothin too big- the tires I got on there now are bigger than stock anyways.. I want at least stock size on the car lol

[kwhauck]

just buy some rims.......

[Midgear]

just buy some rims.......

sell me some for cheap :lol:

[MattismodderX]

This is to settle all disputes. i am broke as all hell. so instead of spending hundreds on rims, i bought rim spray paint and heres the result http://www.carsponsors.com/member_photos/imgdbu6u0alrpow4q2cgfzb_142356.jpg sorry for img quality (taken with cell phone)

[whiterider00]

that looks a lot better on a black car than it did on my white one

[Kilroy]

This is to settle all disputes. i am broke as all hell. so instead of spending hundreds on rims, i bought rim spray paint and heres the result http://www.carsponsors.com/member_photos/imgdbu6u0alrpow4q2cgfzb_142356.jpg sorry for img quality (taken with cell phone)

Looks decent. Now, what is different about "rim spray" than regular spray paint? Easier / less prep work needed??

[MattismodderX]

Looks decent. Now, what is different about "rim spray" than regular spray paint? Easier / less prep work needed??

its made to be on rims. read the discription in this link. this is the exact stuff i bought: http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=SHW%2DHWP104&N=700+115&autoview=sku

[FrankTheTank]

i dont like the all-black wheels. needs a polished lip to look good (not sure how you'd do that on alero wheels though.

[undecided02]

duplicolor makes an excellent wheel restoration product. I drop thier name a lot but its because they really do make the best stuff

[MattismodderX]

ok so for the end all dispute. i am curently sanding down to the bare metal (below factory paint) on all of my rims (2.5 of 4 done) and once its all completed, with paint as well as clear coat, i will take high quality photos of them. this is a photo of them before sanding:
http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/6436/0820082016amw4.jpg

[00sleeper]

I actually have painted gunmetal on my car right now, i could upload some pics if anyone wants to see them?

[MattismodderX]

id like to see them, so far with mine i still need to finish getting all the stock paint/primer off. bout 95% is off of each tire (lots n lots of paint stripper, cool stuff. and steel wool) so after its all done ill be painting mine and posting before/afters of it

[zzyzzx]

It's going to look like crap when parts of the paint come off.

[MattismodderX]

It's going to look like crap when parts of the paint come off.

after you're done painting?

if ur talking about that... then i hate saying it- but you somewhat wrong.
depending on how well its done depends on how well it will stay on, doing this before- i sprayed it right over the factory silver paint. all i did to clean it was get a few wet paper towels and briefly rub them off. i sprayed it with one layer and didnt even care about taking the time to spray it layer by layer. it turned out great. when i repainted it again overtop of the already sprayed layer the can of paint had been inside my car during the winter, constantly being frozen/unfrozen all winter long and then the layer i sprayed on in the spring was terrible. the paint itself was screwy. and thats when i decided to do it right. if u use primer and duplicolor rim paint, there is no way its going to come off if done right. its made to resist everything that a rim could possibly go through. (heat, gravel, rocks, dust, etc) also this time i am taking the wheels off of the car so get the best all over spray verses just spraying it on while the wheels and caps are attached.

[00sleeper]

i'll be sure to post some pictures here tonight or tomorrow.

[00sleeper]

here's a pic of my rims gunmetalhttp://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d125/skaterwfb674/DSC01435.jpg

[meadus101]

they don't look THAT gunmetal. but I like it.