how to paint your rims

[km9v]

The wheels look good painted black. If they were mine, I think I would have left the center cap & lug nuts shiny just to break up all that black. if my wheels ever get bad off, I might paint them using a gunmetal gray.

[destroyerofu2]

Originally Posted by km9v

The wheels look good painted black. If they were mine, I think I would have left the center cap & lug nuts shiny just to break up all that black. if my wheels ever get bad off, I might paint them using a gunmetal gray.

i painted the center caps last and didnt like the way they looked being silver on a black rim

i have intentions of painting the calipers and part of the rotors orange to help with all the black but i paint in my garage and its to cold to paint this time of year

[TJ91]

mine have held up over the entire year. A few small chips i just got but shes my DD and its very small. Until they cure fully, they can be a little brittle so watch out when mounting them. But mine had no chips up until last month, so thats about 8 monthes of being a dd.
They heldup great soo far
Just be sure to check weather conditions or your paint will be off. Also make sure you test the cans on something to see if the paint is old an dusty.
And then make a light first coat, followed by 2 medium coats and theyll look GREAT!
Watch out for drips and curing time as well. Made that mistake with on rim, it wrinkled and i had to start off by scratch for that rim a week later. Thank god i did it over the winter

[TJ91]

Originally Posted by km9v

The wheels look good painted black. If they were mine, I think I would have left the center cap & lug nuts shiny just to break up all that black. if my wheels ever get bad off, I might paint them using a gunmetal gray.

I used grey primer and its looked amazing, gun metal wuld look amazing

[dfairman]

Great write up. I did mine about a month ago and left the lugs chrome. That's one way to avoid the scratches I guess...

[Mike-D]

I have done this on my jeep. and it was scary then. Thinking of getting the Camaros rims powdercoated that will total about 300 for everything taking tires off and powdercoating and getting tires put back on. after reading this I think I will try to paint them. Hypotheticlly I mess this up could i still get them powdercoated? I'm a noob sorry

[Debeldan]

what is the point of sanding and how much should you sand to make it look perfect?

[nicaraguanguy]

I never thought about doing that. Awesome.

[Jay23]

I have a question for the experts, if I wanted to do this and add a red pin stripe around the edge, what would be the best way to accomplish this?

[wylde1]

Originally Posted by Jay23

I have a question for the experts, if I wanted to do this and add a red pin stripe around the edge, what would be the best way to accomplish this?

there's a few ways, but this is how I would do it.

Sand, clean and prep your rims as per usual.

then using your red paint the flange of the rim, the whole flange even. But make it like 1" wide and give it a good 2 coats.

Let that cure a bit so that you can put tape on it without messing it up. At least 1/2 hr, maybe 1hr if you can just to be safe.

then using a vinyl/rubbery pinstriping tape in whatever width you want, say 1/4", follow the very edge of the rim with the pinstripe tape all the way around. Be very careful and make sure the tape is in a perfect circle or you'll notice waves in your stripe. This case is nice because you can use the outer edge of the rim as a guide.

then do your 2 coats of black (or whatever main colour you want) making sure to paint over the tape.

then after a short amount of time, remove the pinstripe tape. Like 10-15 mins. You want to remove it as quickly as you can after applying your 2nd coat of black but you want to give it time to get a bit tacky so it's not as easy for you to mess it up. This will give you a nicely defined pinstripe line. If you remove the tape too early you run the risk touching it and leaving a fingerprint, too late and the line might chip by the paint wanting to stick to the tape more than the wheel leaving a wavy or broken ugly stripe line

Now with your new beautiful black wheel and red pinstripe, coat the whole thing with a few coats of clear and let it cure up.

Bingo bango sexy pinstriped wheels.

[dfairman]

Good idea... I wish I would have thought of that...

[wylde1]

I'm by no means an expert haha I've just pretty much spent my life painting things I own haha. never used a pro shop but I seem to figure out a way to get it done in a garage with hardware store type supplies.

you can still add a pinstripe if you've already painted the main color pretty easy though, it just a touch trickier.

Clean the wheel really well but don't sand anything yet.

use the flexible vinyl pinstripe tape and lay out your stripe around the edge. then lay another stripe inside that right against the inside edge but DON"T overlap it. That will be your stripe edge. then remove the outer tape line and mask off everything you don't want to be the colour of the stripe.

then take some fine sandpaper and scuff the surface of the stripe area. Since it's already paint you don't need to prime it again unless you accidently sand through the paint layer. All you have to do is scuff and clean here.

2 coats of your stripe colour

remove masking before stripe is completely dry, then let it cure up for a bit.

Then clear the whole wheel to blend it.

bingo bango sexy pinstriped wheel haha

[Jay23]

Wow that should work, thanks so much, i will make sure to get some pics up once i get it done(or attempt it anyway lol)

[Thrill]

So what paint would i use for a Synergy Green Camaro. Any suggestins on what you would think looks good... Example: All black with Green lugs/pinstripe etc. i would like to to do this mod