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

[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]

Originally Posted by Vtolds

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

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 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?