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.

[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!

[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.