Repainted rims...the process... Options

[6gcSTVT]

So one day this past christmas vacation I had a sunday off and decided to sit down in my garage and sand all of my rims since the paint was chipping on all of them. I decided I was going to do this in the spring but since vermont has been having such nice wether and the fact that my gf left to study abroad for 4 months on the 2nd of january I was bored. So thats where the labor began



I used a flat head screw driver to remove the weights and I labeled them on where i took them off and what rim (1,2,3,4) Well while i'm telling you this do you think i should put the weights back on myself or just go and have them rebalanced? Anyways after 4 hours of sanding with 320 wet sandpaper and numerous distractions like shiny objects they were done.



The next day i also had off so I cleared them off of dust by washing them then using a rag and paint thinner/500 took every last dust particle off the rim and sat in my moms kitchen for 2-3 hours taping them off. Once again there were distractions but this time due to the Sci-Fi channel.



That night I busted out my mettalic graphite Dupli color, clear coat, primer, and a shop light. The painting happened in my basement Mom was so pissed and threatend to get a hotel room for the night bc i made the whole house smell.



After a coat of primer, 2 layers of paint and 2 layers of clear.... TA DAH!!





The color came out darker than I originally hoped but due to the mettalic flakes and the clear coat I'm hoping That the way the second and third final pic look in the light is what they will look like once on the car come this spring.

[hurley97]

I used a flat head screw driver to remove the weights and I labeled them on where i took them off and what rim (1,2,3,4) Well while i'm telling you this do you think i should put the weights back on myself or just go and have them rebalanced?

definitely get them rebalanced. thats a very temperamental kind of thing, just because you put them back in the same spot won't mean they're balanced again.


oh yeah... Nice job! I want to do that to my rims when the weather gets warmer. they came out really nice

This post has been edited by hurley97: Jan 22, 2007 - 12:10 PM

[GTSOwner]

One thing I beleive might happen is that when you put the weights back on, it'll scratch through the paint. Then when you change tires, you'll have to repaint the scratches.

On the up side, that looks absolutely fantastic! Great job!

[Slick]

That looks real good! I'm doing mine also, but i'm painting the spokes separate from the lip. Alot more taping involved.

[malpaso]

looks damn good

[Negative]

One thing I beleive might happen is that when you put the weights back on, it'll scratch through the paint. Then when you change tires, you'll have to repaint the scratches.

On the up side, that looks absolutely fantastic! Great job!

Yeah we did this to a friend of mine's volks on his MKI MR2. Exact same color only we used 3 coats of the Duplicolor clear coat on top. Scratches really easy so be careful. A good tire shop can put yur tires back in balance with the weights on the inside lip of the rim. They will still be visible but will look 100% better. Def have it professionally done as you need a wheel balancing machine to get it right.

[celiracer]

Hey about your balancing. Just have them put weights on the back side of the rim instead of the front side. Thats how mine are on my rims, that way it doesn't scratch paint and also if you have chrome rims and the weight is on the front side of the rim, it will create rust on that part of the rim.

And about your rims. I think they came out good. Can't wait to see them on your car. But IMO you shoulda left the polished lip.

This post has been edited by celiracer: Jan 22, 2007 - 2:38 PM

[6gcSTVT]

I apreciate everyones opinions! the deal with the balancing is from my dad. I know i can get them weighted on the inside with sticky weights but my dad said those aren't that great, but the ones you mount on the outside of the rim are the best for balancing. A couple of you said to have the weights on the back lip and if thats correct then why has the shop i go to put them on the front of a nice rim? Or should i go to a say, tire kingdom instead of my local shop and get "professional balancing" (weight on back lip)?

Second thing to address is the polished lip.... I'm a huge fan of the polished lip but my rims were peeling on that lip so they would have required a new tape job and different paint and since i was going with the spray can I could only find chrome and chrome would look nice for a lip but idk how it would come out of the can. You know hte cap doesn't always represent whats inside Basically it was easier to do it all one coat... but next time I'll give the lip a try if this paint fails me...but it shouldn't!!

Good luck to everyone else that repaints their rims!

[celiracer]

Sweet. I didn't know your lip was peeling. But about the weights just go there and ask them to put them on the back side of the rims. Because when they balance a tire they usually put one weight on the back and one on the front. But their balancing machine can get set up to just put weights on the back and just on the front. Tell them u just want them on the back and they will balance them to work on just the back.

[6gcSTVT]

Sweet. I didn't know your lip was peeling. But about the weights just go there and ask them to put them on the back side of the rims. Because when they balance a tire they usually put one weight on the back and one on the front. But their balancing machine can get set up to just put weights on the back and just on the front. Tell them u just want them on the back and they will balance them to work on just the back.

awsome

This post has been edited by 6gcSTVT: Jan 22, 2007 - 5:52 PM

[hurley97]

I apreciate everyones opinions! the deal with the balancing is from my dad. I know i can get them weighted on the inside with sticky weights but my dad said those aren't that great, but the ones you mount on the outside of the rim are the best for balancing. A couple of you said to have the weights on the back lip and if thats correct then why has the shop i go to put them on the front of a nice rim? Or should i go to a say, tire kingdom instead of my local shop and get "professional balancing" (weight on back lip)?

weights can be put on the front lip, back lip, both, or sticky weights on the inside. but you have to set the balancing machine to which location you want the weights. most shops put them on the outside lip so 90% of the time its already set to that and they probably just didn't think to press the little button , a lot of times when they're busy its like a factory and they're just trying to get everything done. next time specifically ask for whichever location you want them.

I haven't had a problem with the sticky weights on the inside, its just a little harder for the guy in the back to balance them.

[kCed]

nice work..

i wanna paint mine too...

wut kinda paint did you use?! like can i just go to the paint shop and use that paint or is there a special rim paint?

[6gcSTVT]

nice work..

i wanna paint mine too...

wut kinda paint did you use?! like can i just go to the paint shop and use that paint or is there a special rim paint?

I just went to autozone and bought Dupli-color rim paint and clear coat as well, depending on how thick you put the layers on you may need 3 cans of paint and 2 cans of clear, I layed 2 thick layers of each and just barely squeeked by with 2 cans of paint and one of clear. it costed me $17 to paint my rims... You should have no problem finding paint but what color is the hard part.

[kCed]

i have never wetsanded anything before...how do you do it exactly...just use regular sandpaper and wet it?!

wut order or grits should i go in?!

[6gcSTVT]

i have never wetsanded anything before...how do you do it exactly...just use regular sandpaper and wet it?!

wut order or grits should i go in?!

Well my rims were peeling and I had no real deep scrapes so there was no need of a lower grit sandpaper, if you don't know the lower you go the rougher the sand paper and the higher you the finer/smoother you get. Wet sanding is basically the same as sanding but the sandpaper is black, made for metal and you constantly use a spray bottle to apply to the rim and paper while sanding bc the paint and metal will bind up the sandpaper if its not kept wet. for rims its nice to have around a 320 grit metal sandpaper. But if i'm not that helpful here there is a How To at the home page here that says "refurbishing and repainting your wheels" that another member here made up.

oh and if you look at the first picture i uploaded you can see the sandpaper and the orange head of the water bottle..

[jason]

you rims do look nice i love the metallic =) i also have the sticky weights on my rims, i made sure they were clean when i took em to get balanced n have had no problems with them falling off or anything, even with pressure washing

[Sammyr]

Inspired, I think I will have to paint my spare wheels!

[6gcSTVT]

If anyone feels like doing a test run on some spare rims grab a can of rim paint thats chrome and do the whole sanding then painting a part of it and let me know how it goes bc if is looks really nice that would be the cheap way out for a nice lip

EDIT: maybe i'll give it a try with the spares around my house...

This post has been edited by 6gcSTVT: Jan 24, 2007 - 10:27 PM

[jason]

If anyone feels like doing a test run on some spare rims grab a can of rim paint thats chrome...

i think alsa makes chrome spray in a can thats supposedly pretty good, check out their site i wanna say it was like $8 a can though

[6gcSTVT]

i think alsa makes chrome spray in a can thats supposedly pretty good, check out their site i wanna say it was like $8 a can though

well considering it costed me 17 dollars to have basically have new rims for this next year i think $8 is spendable to give it a shot when i get the time to, if anyone else does before me let us kno