Painting rims this Saturday... and advice?

[Trv89]

Ok, i will be painting the rims of the TR MS3 this weekend.... and me and a few of my friends agree a Flat Black will look the best.

we have painted stuff before.. but not rims... any advice as far as it goes? (rei)

[Kain]

Clean.

[mazdaspeedster3]

Flat black is ok if you never plan to have ANY shiny effect to your wheels. Maybe flat black with a glossy clear coat over will help out. It is hard to explain but shiny helps the looks of the car after you wash it. trust me. Good luck though and post up pics when done.

[Sport6]

Yeah clean and clean and clean. Wet sand the rims first, some say you need a primer but when I did it I didn't use one. Light coats that are layers look better then 1 heavy coat.

[mazdaspeedster3]

Getting between the spokes evenly is where I struggled. The rims are not as nicely finished there and needed a lot more care while painting.

[Trv89]

can u perhaps get me a closeup of your wheels? and mabye some detail on how u mananged to get between the spokes/ what technique u used?

[essejkcamraw]

go with semi-gloss or a satin black, it will look good man, did my rota torques in semi-gloss an they turned out great.

[Trv89]

What about a dark gunmetal?

[BillTheCat]

Yeah clean and clean and clean. Wet sand the rims first, some say you need a primer but when I did it I didn't use one. Light coats that are layers look better then 1 heavy coat.

QFE. 2 most important bits of advice possible.

[hawaii3]

flat black is nice if done right. i have a black mica ms3 and painted the rims flat black. what i did was put the wheel up on its tire and spray inside the spoke roll it spray again and so forth. after that i would just spray the face and do over for more coats.

[slowex98]

first you need to sand with a fine piece of sand paper and then clean well very well than i would recomend a primer then the caots of what ever you want

[Trv89]

any recomendations as far as paint and primer goes?

[Sport6]

Duplicolor makes some great wheel paints, they will have the actual wheel paint, the primer and a clear coat.

[clos561]

i used airplane paint stripper, it removes the clear coat on the rims, then i used a primer and a few coats of w/e paint ur gona use, if u dont remove the clear, it will flake off easy because it cant hold onto the rims material.

[Shiroi_ms3]

i used airplane paint stripper, it removes the clear coat on the rims, then i used a primer and a few coats of w/e paint ur gona use, if u dont remove the clear, it will flake off easy because it cant hold onto the rims material.

did you have the tires off the rim when you used the paint stripper? I was just wondering if I could leave them on to use it.

[coololddude]

90% of the work is in the Prep.

[Darth Vader]

Aircraft stripper is pretty mild. Remember its application is removing paint from airplane skins, which are ~5 thou thick aluminum. Anything aggressive will weaken the skin or bore right through it. Use playing cards around the rim to keep it off the tire, if you're concerned.

[Shiroi_ms3]

Aircraft stripper is pretty mild. Remember its application is removing paint from airplane skins, which are ~5 thou thick aluminum. Anything aggressive will weaken the skin or bore right through it. Use playing cards around the rim to keep it off the tire, if you're concerned.

Thank you, the playing cards sound like a good idea. I will have two weekends off in a row so I am hoping to do it over one of them.