Painting stock wheels

RaZe · #1 (**permalink**) 11-26-2009, 10:14 AM

As i am knocking off all of the things i need to get for my truck i realized that some nice, black, 20x10 wheels are not going to be on the way for a while. So i decided to do something with what i have. Me and my buddy Drew (who has a 10 second Srt-4) decided to paint our wheels black a couple sundays ago.

This is what you will need...

- Painters tape or Duct tape (duct tape sticks better)
- 2 Cans of VHT Header Paint or paint of your choice
- 220 grit Sand paper
- Wheel washing materials
- A peice of cardboard to protect exterior from overspray (optional)

First wash your stock wheels very well and get all of the gunk an brake dust off of them.

After they are completely washed start sanding your stock wheels with the 220 grit sandpaper while they are still a little bit wet. Sand the ENTIRE wheel very well untill there is white scratches and white powder covering the whole wheel. (THE BOLT CAPS WILL NOT SAND AS EASILY AND THIS IS OK BECAUSE THE PAINT STICKS TO THESE JUST FINE)

Once you have sanded all of your wheels and they have a very rough texture to them spray them off with a hose or lightly wash away all of the left over dust from sanding.

Once this is done dry off your wheels completely. COMPLETELY. This is where i had problems. I dried mine and then 10 mins later a couple of drips of water would come down and appear out of nowhere and i would have to resand that part and respray.

After the wheels are washed and sanded and dried completely....take your tape and tape off the tires. This will take multiple strips of tape about 10-12 inches long. DONT be anal about this because if there are spots where the paint will get on the tire its ok it will wash off after a couple car washes.

Once your tires are taped off now its time to start layin on the coats!
I put about 6 coats of FLAT BLACK VHT on my wheels before i was done, but then that turned out to have a BROWNISH TINT to it. So the next day i bought High Gloss Header paint and put 4 more coats of that on.

If you have the right paint color that you want your going to want to put on a total of about 10 coats. wait about 1-2 minutes before you add on your next coat.

Once you are done remove the tape and there you go! Looks much better than stock to me!

Tell me what you guys think