How To: Painting your stock wheels...

Status
Not open for further replies.

203Cree

Active Member
Established Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2004
Messages
6,973
Location
Olathe KS
Allright guys and gals, I've gotten tons of requests on how I went about doing this. I just redid them the RIGHT way this week, so I figured I'd give you guys the skinny on how I did it.


**EST. TIME PER WHEEL** Weather Dependant, but plan on at least 2 hrs per wheel. This is a weekend project folks...

**EST. COST** Right around 60 bucks.

CIMG0814.jpg


List of products you'll need:


Simple Green

Spray Bottle of water or garden hose

1/2 Masking tape - I used the painters tape, leaves less residue. You can pick it up at just about any autoparts store.

1 Can of Duplicolor Primer

2 Cans of Duplicolor Wheel Paint - You can do it with one depending on how much color you apply..

2 Cans of Duplicolor Clear Coat

1 Can of Adhesion Promotor

Sand Paper - Various grits from 400 to 1500

Rags

Masking Material - Those old Sunday papers you've been stealing from the neighbor for the last couple years will finaly come in handy. :)


Start out by taking the wheel off the truck and popping out the center cap. Spray the entire surface down with Simple Green and let it soak for a minute or two. If you've used any kind of Tire Shine, you'll need to spray down the sidewall as well or your tape will not stick properly.

Wipe everything down. You have to get all the junk (brake dust, dirt, etc..) off or it'll look like crap. Trust me, I learned this the hard way.

After you've let it soak, spray it down with water. It's very important that you get all the Simple Green off otherwise it'll cause flaws in the paint. Easiest way to do this it just to run water over the wheel until you don't get any more suds. Let it dry completely before you go any further


Now that we've got the cleaning done, it's time to start sanding. Grab some of your sand paper. The grit will depend on how bad your wheel is. If you've got road rash or chips in the lip, you can get information as to how to repair that here. Since my wheels were in decent shape and had a coat of paint on them already, I started off with 1000 grit, just enough to rough the surface up but not scratch the face.

CIMG0808.jpg


You might need to step it down some and work your way up to the finer grits. It's entirely up to you. After you've prepped the surface of the wheel, take a rag and wipe the surface down to get rid of any dust you've created.



With the sanding done, it's time to start masking off the wheel. Apply the tape around the wheel. With Hankooks, this is really easy, as there's a recess right at the bead that you can stick the tape into. I don't know about the other brands of tires out there. If you can't get it down into the bead, get it as close to the lip of the wheel as you can. We'll cover overspray in a minute. Don't forget to mask off the valve stem as well. Once you've got the wheel it's self taped off, take your masking material (tellin ya, those stolen newspapers work great. :)) and mask off the rest of the tire, or at least the front of the tire and the tread.

CIMG0816.jpg


Now it's Prime time, lol.

********************

A couple tips right off the bat...

Try and do this in an enclosed area if possible, and make sure you have ventilation. You can do it outside, but it makes for wasted materials and a more time consuming process.

Don't do this on a day where the relative humidity is high, it will cause the paint to "Orange Peel" and result in a wheel that you WON'T be satisfied with. You can check the humidity in your area at Weather.com.

Try your hardest to do this while it's light outside. You'll want to roll it outside to check your coverage, as light spots won't always show up until you're in natural light.

Always hold the can the recommended distance from the wheel surface and apply light coats. Runs can be hard to fix, so do this the smart way and avoid them all together.

While spraying, don't start or stop spraying over the wheel. This will cause 'heavy spots' and it will show up when your done, making it very apparent that you rattle canned these wheels, lol.

********************

Okay, with all that out of the way, lay the primer. You can do this in two light coats. The directions say that you need to wait a minimum of 30 minutes beforesanding. I'll tell you right now that isn't always the case. If it's cool outside, wait longer. You wanna wait until it's set before you do anything.

CIMG0817.jpg



Make SURE that you sand between coats, using a finer grit (1000 or above). You'll know when you've sanded the primer enough. It'll gloss up when you're good to go. Wipe off all the dust again and lay the second coat.

CIMG0819.jpg



Now onto the fun part. Color.

After you've prepped the second coat of primer, wipe it down and lay a LIGHT coat of color down. You want to lay this coat so light you can still see the primer. This will be your Tack coat.

Wait a minute or two and lay another LIGHT coat over it. This coat should cover the primer completely, but just barely. Let the wheel sit until this coat is dry. Repeat this step at least once more. The idea is to build up the color slowly. In doing so, you accomplish two things: You SHOULDN'T get any runs this way and it'll give you more even coverage on the wheel.

CIMG0820.jpg



Once your last coat of paint is where you want it (and it will vary how many coats it takes. Two of my wheels took 3 coats, the others took 4 to get the coverage I wanted), apply the clear coat in the same manor you applied the color. You should be able to wrap up the clear in two coats. It might take three, depends on how thick you put it on.


You're almost finished. Wait a little longer for the clear to dry (at least an hour) than you did with the primer and color before you try and handle the wheel. You've made it this far with no mistakes, you don't wanna screw up now.

Once the clear is good and dry, go ahead and take off your tape and masking material. This is where your work pays off. Stand back and admire the fruits of your labor. :)

(These are what you should end up with)

CIMG0810.jpg

CIMG0811.jpg

CIMG0809.jpg




***Notes***

Overspray: If you get overspray on the tire, don't worry about it. It's really easy to take care of. Grab an extra rag and some Simple Green. Spray the cleaner on the rag and scrub the tire. It takes some elbow grease, but that overspray will come right off. :)


Center Caps: Painting these things is almost the same as the wheel. Mask off the SVT badge, hit them with a coat of the Adhesion Promotor, then a couple coats of color and some clear. Just remember to do it light coats.


Hope this helps you guys. :beer:
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users who are viewing this thread



Top