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Painting wheels

M

millertime86

CEG'er
Joined
May 19, 2006
Messages
383
Location
lancaster, pa
I was trying to decide between painting my rims or getting them powdercoated. i think im going to go with painting them because its cheaper and i can do it myself and im not sure if powdercoating will weaken them or not.


how do you prep the wheel before painting it?

and what kind of paint do you use, normal car paint?

use all 3? primer, base and clearcoat?

thanks in advance!
 
painting will be fine as long as you don't expect them to be perfect. i painted mine on my old svt with some duplicolor wheel paint. i used primer, color and a clear and they turned out awesome. i also let them sit inside to cure for a whole week. but when i went to put the tires on, the machine took up some of the paint in spots on the outside edge of the rim.

powder coat is super strong and is more resistant to chipping or scratching than spray paint. therefore, powder coating is definately the way to go for wheels if you have the money.

but overall, for what i spent, i would chose to paint over powder coating. from five feet away you wouldn't know the difference anyway.

dsc05043.jpg

sorry, don't have too many pictures of that car, but these are the wheels about a month after they were painted
 
PHilly said:
I would get them stripped and powder coated.
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This the route I have gone. Strip the wheels yourself. Aircraft stripper works pretty well, but it's time consuming and involves highly toxic chemicals (aircraft stripper has large amounts of ammonia...).
 
millertime86 said:
i can do it myself and im not sure if powdercoating will weaken them or not.
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Powder Coating WILL NOT weaken the rims (unless they are magnesium then it is debatable). If this were the case manufactureing companies wouldn't coat wheels (simple example).

Painting them will look nice but will dull over time and not be as durable. If you do paint you should strip, degrease, primer, paint and clear coat. Clear coat will be required if you are using a 2 stage color coat.

I would coat them, it is more durable and it isn't as expensive as you might think. as an example you could do a single stage Gloss Black starting at 50 or 60 per wheel and up depending on wheel size. The cost for materials will be up there, plus the time to do it. You could have the wheels back, finished, in a couple of days with a local coater.

You can strip the wheels yourself and possibly save a couple of dollars, but the coater would and should strip and blast them anyway. A part not propelt prepared will not have the durability expected if not cleaned properly.

Just my .02
 
Blasting wheels won't get them down to the bare metal easily. I would suggest stripping them. If you can get your hands on a large amount of stripper, you can dunk the wheels half at a time and save yourself a LOT of time and effort. We took a blasted wheel (steel media blasted), and for ha-has threw some stripper on it, and more primer came off...Need to get down to the BARE metal.
 
zorrex said:
Blasting wheels won't get them down to the bare metal easily. I would suggest stripping them. If you can get your hands on a large amount of stripper, you can dunk the wheels half at a time and save yourself a LOT of time and effort. We took a blasted wheel (steel media blasted), and for ha-has threw some stripper on it, and more primer came off...Need to get down to the BARE metal.
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Was the wheel you were blasting powder coated? Different coatings respond to different media for blasting.

I recommend stripping and then blasting for a good profile for the top coat to adhere to. The only time I don't blast is if the wheel or part is going to be polished and clear coated.
 
CollinsPC said:
Was the wheel you were blasting powder coated? Different coatings respond to different media for blasting.

I recommend stripping and then blasting for a good profile for the top coat to adhere to. The only time I don't blast is if the wheel or part is going to be polished and clear coated.
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No it was the stock coating on E0 SVT wheels...It's TOUGH stuff!
 
zorrex said:
No it was the stock coating on E0 SVT wheels...It's TOUGH stuff!
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Sounds like BMW wheels, They have a primer coat that only chemical strippers will remove and I am not talking Aircraft stripper.

But back on topic, I still suggest powder coating as the best alternative.
 
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