Painting aluminum rims

Hi all any ideas on painting aluminum rims, I want looks and durability thanks everyone

 

Are you speaking of stock alloys?

It can be done. Proper prep and correct primer is the key.

 

It would be easier to just take them to a powder coater. Most places I have seen will do the wheels for around $250-300. Pretty cheap for something that is going to look better and have much better durability than painting.

Usually you can tell when people paint their wheels. It tends not to look as nice and they almost always end up chipping and peeling. I think for a couple hundred bucks save yourself the time and hassel and just powder coat.

 

Take a 3m Scuff pad and scuff the entire wheel; that'll create a good enough surface for the paint to adhere to. Get some wax&grease remover or rubbing alcohol and wipe the wheels down; Get a can of Self-etching primer and spray that on; about 1 coat is good enough; let that dry for 10-15 minutes then start painting. Put on 2-3 coats of paint(Dupli-color wheel paint is recommended) with at least 10-15 minutes of drying in-between then 2-3 coats of clear coat and you should be good. I recommend Du-pont Automotive clear coat; this stuff is a little pricey but it'll protect the paint and finish for a long time. You can get it in a pre-mix spray can.


I use these steps on all the wheels I spray; no chipping; no peeling. I use to do body-work and paint for a living.

 

You'd have to blast the stock aluminum wheels because they have a clear coat on them, I've painted mine over a year ago and they're still holding up great! I paint for a living, used base coat/clear coat. I'll try to post a pic manana.

 

Sandblast them to powdercoat I believe, I went over the clear coat with adhesion promoter and sealer, then bc/cc.

 

I have a story about that. Several of my friends and I bought a used school bus years ago (1994) to make into a camping/party bus. We painted it with rollers and brushes, using gallon buckets of green and white tractor paint purchased at Fleet Farm. The bus had yellow wheels, of course. When someone started painting the wheels, I tried to stop them and got into a big argument where I was ultimately over-ruled on painting the wheels. My thoughts were exactly the ones above...that the paint would peel and then there'd be hideous yellow patches sticking out of green wheels. And being that this is Green Bay Packer country and part of the bus's planned usage was to go tailgate at Lambeau, a green and white bus with yellow wheels would look about right.

Today the bus is non-operational, sitting behind a barn. After 23 years there's no peeling on the wheels whatsoever and I've been ribbed about my "Don't paint the f'ing wheels" tirade ever since.

 

I had a set of old American Racing wheels I got of Craigslist for $120 and had them powder coated satin black for $300. Look like brand new. And din' t chip or peel wjen new tires were installed on them.

 

Oh, they are aluminum too.