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.

[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!

[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.