I think I should have waited to paint my wheels
 

I decided to paint the stock sport wheels black over the weekend. This project is turning out to be a nightmare. I spent a lot of time prepping but I think the weather ruined everything. I'm guessing it was a bit too cold (in the 50's) cause on the first day of painting I could not get the paint to go on smooth. I was in the garage with a propane heater. It was probably around 60 cause I felt quite comfortable working in there with a short sleeve shirt on. The paint turned out very rough looking though. I painted 2 wheels that day and had to go get more paint so I called it quits for then.

The next day the weather was in the low 60's and the paint went on much better. I was fairly happy with the results of those and decided I would go over the first 2 wheels with some sand paper and try again. Weather should be good tomorrow so I'll do those then.

I'm pretty concerned about how this will hold up though. I mounted one of the good wheels on the car. Even though I was very careful the paint chipped in a couple spots around the lugs. This stuff feels very soft. I let it dry for about 30 hours before I put it on. I'm scared to even wash these things. Maybe I should let it sit for several days before driving it? This sucks. Put a lot of work into this but I think I should have waited until spring. Hopefully they'll hold up for a while. I really don't want to go through this again.

Powdercoat FTW!!

There is a shop around where I live that cost 70/wheel to powdercoat, I am sure you can find one near you. It will save you the headaches in the long run!

Well its gonna chip ALL kinds if you painted it lol.. get ready to repaint every 3 months haha... I would just powder coat the wheels if I were you man..

Hit up JNZ.... they do some good PC jobs

Did you at least do a couple coats with a clear coat? If it's just 1-2 coats of paint and thats it then it will cont. to chip very easily.

Yeah I did 3 coats of primer, 4 coats of wheel paint, and 2 coats of clear. This paint is made for wheels and many people have had great results with it. It's supposed to be really durable. I'm thinking the cool temps are causing all my problems....or I suck at painting lol

I wanted to get them powder coated but was trying to save some cash. I heard a lot of good things about this paint but it's not working out for me.

I got my rims painted black, I've had them like it since June...I do not have one chip on any of the rims and I drive it everyday. It has 3 coats of black on them. They have held up really well, so I think it all depends on how you go about doing them. The guy I got to do them is coming here tomorrow because I'm going to paint my S-Tune front like the guy with the TT kit. I'll ask him exactly what he did and tell you...

Here's a picture of my rims
[IMG]http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/IMG_1225.jpg[/IMG]

Well, it doesn't help that you painted outdoors. If you can, do this in a garage w/ a respirator and the doors closed and make a temporary paint booth. I've had to use the tool shed a few times in the past.

And yeah, the cold really hurts on painting as it never really settles properly. You could wait til the spring time ~72 is about right.

I would agree with others that powder coating is normally a preferred method but if you're trying to save money or just want to see how it looks before having them sandblasted and powdered, that works great.

Best of luck to you, just remember, wind and open air outside is bad for drying paint >.<

I've heard on this forum that powder coating has negative effects on the overall strength of the wheel.

Yea, thats what I came to find. Whenever I asked someone about powdercoating thats what I was told. So I went with paint, and I'm satisfied.

Looks good! I thought I did everything necessary but didn't get those results. Here's what I did:

- washed the wheels and let them air dry
- sanded with 320 grit
- hosed them down and let them air dy
- taped everything off
- went over them with tack cloth
- went over them with Duplicolor prep wipe
- 3 coats of Duplicolor primer
- 4 coats Duplicolor wheel paint
- 2 coats duplicolor wheel clear

I painted these in the garage. I did have to open the door to ventilate though as it was building up quite a haze in there.

I've heard mixed things on this as well. My main motivation for painting was to save some money though. I really only needed the paint to hold up for a year or so until I could buy some wheels. I don't even know if these will last a month though. Hopefully it's not as bad as it seems. Maybe they just need more time. It's supposed to rain later this week so I'll just paint the other ones and let it sit until the weather clears up. Maybe by then the paint will be good and hard.

good luck finishing the project, post pics when you are done!

Thanks! :tup:

Hey Marco its Jeremy...Im looking to get some wheels powdercoated and you mentioned someone locally does it for ~$70/wheel. I called a few places in SD but not at the price. Whats the shop?

Puckshaw it might be the paint your using im not sure... can you post pics of how the first two turned out so those of us who have painted wheels before can see what your talking about. With a visual we may be able to spot your problem. I dont think the cold had anything to do with it cause I painted mine in 30-40 degree weather and they came out just fine. How much did you heat them? that may have added to the bubbling affect? How long did you give before adding coats? before going from primer to paint? I bought quick drying paint to help combat the cold weather. It still took me over 6hrs non stop to paint them and I could barely walk the next day from being so bent over.

GL bro and keep us posted!

Thanks ;) Well I finished up repainting the first 2 a couple hours ago and I think they turned out pretty good. It was mid 60's and I heated the paint can up with a heat gun in between coats. Seemed to go on much better today. I sanded them down a bit and then did 3 coats of black and 3 coats of clear. I'm afraid with all the clear that these are going to be too shiny compared to the other 2 though. They look really glossy right now but we'll see how they look when they completely dry.

To answer your questions, I waited 10 minutes between coats of primer/paint/clear, and 30 between switching from primer to paint and paint to clear. I didn't heat the wheels themselves, just had a propane heater in the garage to keep the temp up. The first day wasn't really a bubbling effect, it was just going on really rough and gritty looking. Went on really smooth today. I have high hopes for these 2 but I'm afraid the other 2 aren't going to match or hold up as well.

I'll snap some pics tomorrow after work to show the final results. Don't have any pics of how they turned out before I fixed the rough ones though.

Oh and my back is ok but my fingers are destroyed from the sanding and pushing the damn paint nozzle :shakes head:

Ok I decided to redo the other wheels this time since they weren't as glossy as the 2 I did yesterday. You can see in the pictures that they looked very different. Everything is all finished up now and they all match and turned out really nice. I did 3 coats of paint and 3 coats of clear on top of what I had already done (sanded a bit first and cleaned the surface).

I'm going to let them sit for a few days and then mount them up and take some good pictures. I'll be glad to finish up this little project :)

The workshop:
http://api.photoshop.com/home_a71d50...f/fullsize.jpg

http://api.photoshop.com/home_a71d50...3/fullsize.jpg

The glossy versus the not so glossy:
http://api.photoshop.com/home_a71d50...e/fullsize.jpg

Glossy:
http://api.photoshop.com/home_a71d50...e/fullsize.jpg

Not so glossy:
http://api.photoshop.com/home_a71d50...1/fullsize.jpg

They look great now! Good Job! next time give it a lil more time between coats to keep it from doing the blistering or bubbling as you saw on your first attempt. But all in all these turned out great! :tup:

All of mine look like your non glossy set... its like a satin finish. I cant wait to see these on your car!

Thanks! I've got it down to a science now after all the practice :rofl2: I think the warmer conditions and heating up the paint really helped. Now I'm just hoping it holds up well. It should with all the coats I put on.

I actually was going more for the satin finish like on yours but I'm fine with the gloss look too. I'll probably put them on the car this weekend and snap some pics if the weather cooperates :)

Nice save! Good job keeping after it until it worked out. In for pics on the car!

Thanks :) Here you go:

http://api.photoshop.com/home_a71d50...5/fullsize.jpg

http://api.photoshop.com/home_a71d50...b/fullsize.jpg

http://api.photoshop.com/home_a71d50...c/fullsize.jpg

http://api.photoshop.com/home_a71d50...c/fullsize.jpg

Looks great. Good job! :)

Where?! Gimme info! I cant find a good powder coater in Mira Mesa. Haha.

:iagree: Looks really good!

FWIW some goo-b-gone or goof-off will take off the balancing marks (little paint circles) on the tires. Wheels look great man. Nice camera work too.

Thanks guy :tup:

schrute: thanks for the tip! Those little circles on the tires actually do bother me when I see them lol. I'll have to give goo gone a shot.

In the garage pics they almost look like chrome
The finished product looks very nice.
What brand of paint did you use to spray?

Thanks, I used Duplicolor Satin Black and Duplicolor Clear Wheel Coatings. Not really sure I'd recommend it. In the end I'm happy with the results but I really struggled with that paint. Seemed very inconsistent but was a lot easier to work with when I started heating the can between coats. Oh and I hate their spray nozzles. They required a lot of effort to push down and you had to be careful not to get your finger in the way when spraying. I like the nozzles that extend out a little further.

End result looks really good.

FYI on the spray cans, save your finger and buy one of these!
http://www.buyhardwaresupplies.com/i...13/1390657.jpg

Damn I wish I knew those things existed earlier! :mad: Would have made this much easier.

I picked one up a few years ago (different brand) from Home Depot. Comes in very handy, unfortunately I keep losing the damn thing so I'm going to have to buy a couple more :)

Sorry to go off topic, but I had a question about painting rims. I have a set of American Racing Estrella rims that I traded a subwoofer for and I was wondering how many coats of primer, paint, and clear coat I should put on them. I already used aircraft paint stripper on them and got basically all the old finish off them but I still need to sand them. Also I was wondering if I should use the Dupli-Color Rim paint, or use high heat motor paint since I read that it's thicker and higher heat rating.

I would say do 2-3 coats of primer, 3-4 coats of paint, and 2-3 coats of clear. I used the wheel paint. It was a little difficult to work with but in the end turned out great. I don't have a lot of miles on them yet but so far they're holding up perfect. Good luck :tup:

yah im worried about how long they will last. I dont want to paint the rims every year because of chips haha

Yeah only time will tell how long these hold up for. Honestly this was just a temporary fix in my mind until I can afford some new wheels. If they hold up really well for a long time that's just a bonus for me.

has anyone ever tried the rust-oloum brand of rim paint? If so was it good?

I did paint my brother's wheels. Until now for 1 and a half years with no chip, dings etc. It's the way you sand and prime it. I used engine paint from dupli color. Holding up real good. By the way nice job :tup: