[johnbarberr]

i painted my rims black this past weekend. here's some pictures of the outcome. i think it looks really nice.

[thetrooper31]

looks good man

[HMUSN]

not bad at all.

[tjames]

looks good, give me some instuctions man

[ChrisJ]

Actually looks pretty damn good...

[BWAL]

very nice

[johnbarberr]

i googled it and followed a bunch of differant peoples instructions and also asked the guy at the auto store i went to for some help. I used 2 can of duplicolor black high performance wheel paint. they have all sorts of colors. 2 cans of duplicolor high performance clearcoat, 400 grit scotch bright scouring pad, painters tape, and one of those cool adapters for spairpant making it kind of like a gun.

I thought i should use self etching primer to get started, but the guy at the auto store told me that was a bad idea. If my rims were aluminum, which i think they are, it'd proably eat through them. So instead, he told me to roughin up the surface i was going to painting with the scothc pad.

After putting my car on all jacks and removing the wheels and scouring the rims, i tapped them in the pattern i wanted, with the silver lip as you can see. The lip idea is very tedious and can get frustrating. I took breaks inebtween taping each one due to frustratedness.

I then taped newspaper around the wheels to prevent them from being sprayed. I neglcted to make sure i taped evenly on the inside of the rim, so i had some areas i had to fix when i was done.

Then came the spraying. I did it in my basement since there's a dehumidifier in there. you're only suppose to use the paint when the humidity is 50%. I started with 2 thin layers, then 3 thick layers of the black 15 min between each layer. I then waited an hour and did 2 thin layers of clearcoat and a thick coat of clearcoat. I needed up going back and putting on my clearcoat a total of 4 times becuase they were'nt glossy enough, and i still feel like they need more.

I then waited a full day to put them on the car. The hub-cap part i've notice easily chips, such as if i were to remove it to get to the lug nuts, or let it hit the ground, it will have chips on the side. I'm not sure if this is due to not roughing it up enough on the dges, but i've found its good to keep touch up paint around just in case.

as far as the actually wheel, there's been no chipping. I've even been able to take it to an automatic car wash without the paint chipping at all. I still keep the paint in my trunk just to make sure i'm ready if it ever really does chip.

[ROUSHME661]

do u have any close up pics of therims ive been wanting to do this but havent gotten to it

[johnbarberr]

here you go. i struggled in my mind on what to do about the stock ponys painted on the hubcaps. i saved myself the frustration of even trying to tape over them. i tryed a razor but it started cutting through the alluminum. Luckily its already indented so you can kind of see it, just not as well as before.

[ROUSHME661]

looks good i think im gonna go for it ... i have the exact same rim just different center cap

[tjames]

ya i might give it a shot too

[johnbarberr]

make sure you have lots of time. took me an entire weekend

[redstang14]

Wow that looks so good.

[tsp_2177]

+1 i'm thinking of doing the same thing with my wheels cept letting my brother in law and his dad help me ( they have a good body shop with a paint booth and all) and still leave my aluminum lip there too

[tsp_2177]

o and i love the tag to lol

[BrandonJD25]

k so,several months later...how's it holding up johnbarberr?