How To: Paint wheels on the cheap

[saxo_man]

Sweet to the beat Pablo. Great result for such a miniscule outlay.

 

[pablo]

no nu-luk job like but sure

 

[saxo_man]

I got primer, lacquer and a 'mystery' colour today!

 

[Steveo@modifiedni]

Just been reading through this topic... Im gonna go for it myself. Am going to try and get a very bright silver (BMW colour... cant remember what it is - titan or something?) and see what happens! haha!

 

[Daz500]

I started to do a set of spare alloys but they had been left outside for too long and needed a lot of pre work. A visit to wheels-in-motion followed by a repeat visit within 7 days will see my alloys looking like new ... lol

Do you guys use a rotary polisher or anything to flatten the paint for a good finish or do you not get the dreaded orange peel effect?

 

[saxo_man]

I've got orange peel effect on mine, didn't rub too much after painting, but a good few coats of lacquer seems to have helped. The colour is metallic grey and it seems to be quite forgiving. I did rub them down between coats but I rubbed through to the metal at the edge of one of the spokes so went easy after that, I was using 1500 paper.

This is them before they were lacquered:

 

[Kerzo]

I am in the process of doing a set myself at the moment and slightly ballsed up the first wheel - still better than before but far from a pro job which I may just settle for down the line. Masking up the tyres has taken me HOURS

 

[saxo_man]

Kerzo - I got the tyres taken off at day one, you'll have to remove weights anyway and with rubbing them down you'll need them rebalanced. £20 and saves an awful lot of hassle, but too late now lol What happened the first one? Are these the Zetec-S alloys? Flip and lot more to work on than my wee 15s

 

[Kerzo]

Yeah Zetec-S alloys, all 18 inches of them

I wasn't going to refurb them as someone had already done them silver however when cleaning off the brake dust the paint actually started to come off and since I had already got 4 tyres fitted and balanced I couldn't stomach taking them off again!

I refurbed a set of Momos a couple of years ago for my 306 and I remember it being a lot easier, probably because I didn't do them silver so the imperfections didn't show up as much! Plus they were 4 inches smaller

 

[saxo_man]

All I can say is good luck! The darker colour was forgiving, white or silver would be a right mare. Look forward to the updates.

 

[Kerzo]

Well I managed to recover it a little bit but I got a bit excited and rushed the lacquering tonight as the light started to die (was doing it in a shed type area out the back with no light) and got a few runs. Gave them a blast with the heat gun and will leave til the morning to try to recover.....hopefully they won't look too bad in daylight!

 

[saxo_man]

They'll prob look ok, it's easy to be critical that close up, but once on the car you'll not notice any small runs (least that's my plan )

 

[Kerzo]

LOL! You have it right there, I wouldn't be happy if I paid for it but for the sake of £30 or so in rattle cans it will do fine rightly for quite a while!

 

[rustybin]

For what its worth, ive painted a couple sets of rims and the paint always seems to flake after about 6 months, specially if the wheels get heated from heat soak from some 'spirited' driving and braking. Im preparing another set up to be painted and was speaking to a guy who does painting, and he told me, you really need to dust any bare bits of aluminium with etch primer before you spray on normal primer. Seemingly the etch primer burns into the aluminium and forms a far stronger bond than plain primer, so etch primer bought this evening, and his windies getting put in, if hes lying ;o)

 

[DaddyDave]

awrc, 20nups

Did you sandblast your wheels or were they beed blasted?

 

[natogreen16v]

dont sand blast them. get them bead blasted. i did a set which were sand blasted and it was rediculous getting them to a smooth finish

 

[DaddyDave]

Anyone know anywhere in the northwest that does bead blasting?

 

[Nath_123ni]

Use sandpaper 2 take of the shine of alloy and then brush with acid (make sure to use gloves and a paint brush) to take of the excess. then rinse with water and leave to dry. then use grey/white primer and then use watever colour u desire to spray them.

 

[pablo]

Acid? Bit strong there lad thinners is grand.

 

[hixeylad]

wee tip for yous folks when im painting wheels i get the tyre pushed back on the rim in tyre centre,then its easier taped up and when there done just pump it up and the tyre pops back into place,also saves damaging them fitting tyres.

 

[Skee]

can u use the same tecqnique as for a cheap pair of steelies for some banter?

 

[Ben]

dont sand blast them. get them bead blasted. i did a set which were sand blasted and it was rediculous getting them to a smooth finish

Lol, I take it that was my set?

 

[natogreen16v]

yip. are they still the same after you got them back and have you tried painting them yet?

 

[Ben]

Lol. They're doing alright. Just the normal wee chips you'd usually find on year old wheels. Ive only painted the one. Waiting for the laquer to harden and then see if it matches my other ones before i do anything else! It came out really well though, pleased with it!

 

[thomas_lad]

painted my rs6's, black with purple spec, check out video, please remember these are only for winter and for the craic!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNqjka2CghI]YouTube - RS6 wheels, black purple speck[/ame]