Painting rims?

[jonnysteals]

I am thinking about havign an old set of 20's sandblasted. I want to paint them black. i know powedercoating is the way to got but just got a quote of 600 bucks to have them powdercoated with me sand blasting them.


Needless to say I am not paying that much for them to powdercoat my wheels. I have painted entire vehicles with great results so I figure i can try on my rims. After sandblasting is there any special primer or anything to use. Do I just use the usual base color and clear method. Any opionions would be helpful.

[BIGBILL105 45]

I'll do the powdercoating for half their cost.
But if you do paint them, I would primer them first.

[jonnysteals]

yea I would apply all the car painting techniques.
2 coats primer
sand
2 coats color,
sand,
as many coats of clear as I want prolly like 3-4. I use lots of clear in an effort to make it durable.

[Rohan]

I want to do this too to a spare set of wheels. for the primer, do you need metal etching primer, then regular primer?

My friend painted his swing arm on his sport bike and it's chipping very easily. He was told it is because he didn't lay down metal-etching primer first.

[jonnysteals]

im no painting expert so bare with me.

the only time we used metal etching primer was when the metal was very dry so to say and absorbed alot of the paint. We used metal etching primer because it provided a good base and wouldnt allow the more expensive paint to absorb into the metal.

That what we used it for but I am not sure for the wheel application. I am going to stop by the automotive paint store friday and see what they have to say.

[gerlbaum]

Just thought this might help, Duplicolor has aerosol wheel paint (variety of colors and clear coats). Also, the website has instructions on how to paint your wheels and even a video. I am not sure, but I believe Duplicolor can even make custom colors in aerosol - for example, if you wanted to paint your wheels to match your paint color. Anyway, here is the link:

Wheel Coating

[jonnysteals]

awesome thanks for the video.

[Rohan]

Notice in the video how the duplicolor has a fan spray pattern. I recommend that whatever paint you use, make sure it has that fan spray. It makes it so much easier to paint evenly and you get less over spray and bounce back. I'm still not a fan of duplicolor, but it not terrible.