Wheel Painting DIY

[Phi Kai]

I haven’t seen a DIY for this so I thought I would be the originator!! Anyway, I really like the look of stock wheels. Keeps the vehicle looking factory, but you still have the ability to have all the fancy things. I had a friend who had painted his wheels for an old car of his and I had just been waiting for the right vehicle of mine to do it for. Anyway, I’ll get right in to this because I think it will be a bit on the long side.

Author: Phi Kai
Date Published: May 10, 2007
Contact: via PM

Title: DIY Painted Wheels

First of all this will cover all the steps for painting your wheels. However, with my particular set of wheels I went with black with a silver lip look, so it includes a few extra steps.

Supplies Needed:
Aircraft Stripper
Spray Paint (Any Color)
Automotive Spray on Primer
Clear Coat
1” Plastic Putty Knife
Small Wire Brushes
Sand Paper (Fine Grit)
1” Painter’s Tape
Notecards (optional if you have tires)
RUBBER GLOVES (absolutely have to)




Step 1: Take the center caps out…I know obvious


Step 2: Tape up parts you don’t want painted…(in my case that means the lip) and for everyone that means the valve stem (assuming tires are on). Make sure to do a good job with the taping.




Step 3: Put your rubber gloves on…at times I doubled up on them… This part is a little laborious and the fumes plus the chemical are killer so be careful. You will be using the aircraft stripper to take the factory paint and coatings off the wheel so that you have a non painted service to work with. It takes quite a while and several sessions of this spray on application to take all the factory paint off. During these steps you will be using the putty knife and the wire brush to scrape everything off. You want to make sure you get everything otherwise you’ll have an uneven surface when you go to apply paint. After you do several coats and have scraped and brushed all the factory paint off, grab a water hose and spray everything clean.





Step 4: After you get everything stripped and cleaned you will need to use a fine grit sand paper to scuff up the wheel and give the paint an even better surface to stick to. I removed the tape after the stripping because between the water and chemical it has a tendency to un-stick the tape.


Step 5: See above about taping everything up.

Step 6: Apply the primer in light even coats. Its probably not crucial to do the primer, but I had some bad luck the first go on these wheels with the top surface being to slippery. I’d give you all tips on spray painting things, but well I’m not so good at it. So do your best.



Rest of the process to follow, but I thought I would start you guys looking…


~Kai

[Phi Kai]

Step 6: Paint the Wheels color of choice. Once again I chose black because that’s what I want to do. I probably gave them between 3 and 4 coats of the black…it was on a black primer so it was kind of tough to tell…


Step 7: Time to work on the Center caps…you were probably wondering since I had left them out up until now…Anyway, I tried to just use the primer and was going to paint over that, but it didn’t stick. I then went to Krylon Fusion, but it didn’t really stick that well either…I ended up giving the center caps a quick light sand to get the paint to stick. You’ll also notice that I left the center circle silver…I had originally tried to tape that part up, but it wasn’t working out so well. Fortunately enough the cap to the aircraft stripper is a perfect fit inside that circle and worked well to keep it silver.



Step 7: Headed back to the wheels to remove the blue tape covering the lip. Turned out pretty good…


Step 8: It was time to clear the entire thing…but the tires still needed to be protected. For this I used note cards and stuck them around the outside of the tire to protect the wheel while I sprayed the clear coat. I did about 3 coats of clear.


Step 9: Get them mounted…I haven’t had a chance to do this as I work and well…the paint is still curing.

Hope you guys enjoy this tutorial…

I will try to have them mounted by Tuesday, but no promises. If you have any questions feel free to PM or respond to thread.

~Kai

[njmueller363]

It will be interesting to see how they turn out. I think that w/ spray painted wheels the paint would just chip off the moment you went to install new rubber...but I guess time will tell. Keep us posted.

[CLynn85]

I was just talking tonight about options for how to powdercoat my wheels tonight. Waiting to see how it comes out.

[GTCOMA]

where does one buy Aircraft Stripper?

[06blacktaco]

I would like to see how these turn out. What are you doing to do about the lip of paint where the factory paint is still on the outer rim of the wheel?

[Phi Kai]

Originally Posted by CLynn85

I was just talking tonight about options for how to powdercoat my wheels tonight. Waiting to see how it comes out.

I've seen a couple people who have powder coated the wheels...but I've always heard that it's a tad bit on the dangerous side. Once they are factory baked, baking them again can sometimes cause to much stress and they might crack.

I'll keep you updated on how they turn out

[njmueller363]

Originally Posted by CLynn85

I was just talking tonight about options for how to powdercoat my wheels tonight. Waiting to see how it comes out.

If you search, you will find a guy that powdercoated his wheels black...it didnt look so good IMO...and powdercoating is pretty expensive and not really worth it. You are probably better of just buying new ones.

[Jredneck480]

youve got balls man to paint ur wheels

[docindahouze]

you are not the first person to do a DIY. 05xrunner did his xrunner wheels in a flat black. unfortunately he does not hang out anymore cause he was upset or something. i would post the link to his thread, but he deleted or moved all of his truck pics from his host site.

EDIT: his sig pic is still there.



it will be nice to see the end results.

[njmueller363]

I like the way they look stripped...its like you have some expensive polished wheels...Id keep them like that

[Phi Kai]

Originally Posted by GTCOMA

where does one buy Aircraft Stripper?

I buy it in the automotive department at wal-mart. Its cheaper there than at a automotive store. About 5.50 a can. easy to get

[Phi Kai]

Originally Posted by 06blacktaco

I would like to see how these turn out. What are you doing to do about the lip of paint where the factory paint is still on the outer rim of the wheel?

I intentionally left the outer lip factory painted cause I wanted a silver lip...and since i still had wheels on I had weights where they are balanced so I couldn't really do anything there anyway without taking them to get the tires off and what not.

I suppose if i didn't have tires or weights I could have stripped them and then taped them so they would be more polished than silver

[Phi Kai]

Originally Posted by docindahouze

you are not the first person to do a DIY. 05xrunner did his xrunner wheels in a flat black. unfortunately he does not hang out anymore cause he was upset or something. i would post the link to his thread, but he deleted or moved all of his truck pics from his host site.

EDIT: his sig pic is still there.



it will be nice to see the end results.

well it wasn't in the DIY sticky...and I'm sure someone else has done it before me...but now there is a thread

[06blacktaco]

Yeah I know that. It should look cool, but unless you cover it in a lot of clear, there will be an edge where the silver and black meet.