Painting your own wheels the right way

[itsslow]

Some members off the forum are asking me for instructions on painting wheels, if you saw my last thread you'll know what I mean. Please have patience with me, as I'm not too good with giving instructions or educating people.

What you need:

Small air compressor

Compressed Air Paint gun

A pint of whatever paint you choose (A pint was just enough for my wheels and I did about 5 coats)

Paint reducer

Clear (You're going to use about a cup and a half)

Paint Hardener

6 of the 350 sand paper

10 of the 1000 sand paper

5 Colored towels

Wax and tar remover (From autozone right next to the paint and
laquer thinner, come in a black bottle like buffing compound)

Paint mixing stick

About 10 large foam cups

Purple Power (Autozone)

Almost everything can be bought at a car's paint store. If you don't know of one, call a local body shop and ask. I know a body shop can mix the paint for you, but I doubt they'll sell you the hardener and reducer.


YOU MUST TAKE YOUR TIME AND HAVE PATIENCE, IT TOOK ME THREE DAYS TO DO MY WHEELS AND I'M NOT COMPLETELY HAPPY WITH THE RESULTS!

Instructions:

I had wheels that were mildly scratched, but I wanted the best out of it. If you have a wheel that has deep scratches, I can't help you. Take it to the body shop and have them fill the scratches for you.

Go over the scratches with 350 sand paper until you can no longer feel the scratch, after you got all the scratches out, wet sand (Soap and water) the WHOLE wheel with 1000, and you have to do it well or the paint will not stick. Make sure you don't miss any spots!

Spray some degreaser (Preferably purple power) on the wheels, and scrub the wheels really good with a brush and then pressure wash. Make sure they are COMPLETELY dry, I'd let the sit over night!

Whenever you're ready to paint the wheels, make sure you wipe them down with wax and tar remover using the colored towels! Make sure you don't miss any spots!

Mixing the paint:

Go ahead and turn the compressor on and let it fill up with air. Get about 6 large foam cups, the paint, and the paint reducer out and move everything else out of your way.

The Paint:Reducer ratio is 2:1. Fill up half of the cup with paint, and then 1/4 of the cup with reducer. This should be enough for 2 wheels if you use wisely!

Before you do anything else, I'd watch a video on youtube on how to adjust and operate a spray gun

Pour the paint in the spray gun, and connect the gun to the compressor.

Go ahead and start spraying the wheel, if any of the paint drips or runs, you can TOUCH the running paint with a colored towel and paint over the spot you dried, IT WILL NOT SHOW!

Cleaning the paint gun:

Cleaning the gun is very important! If you don't clean it after painting whatever, the paint gun will ruin!

Pour some paint thinner into the gun (Same place you put the paint) and shake the gun, disconnect the spray gun from the compressor and pull the trigger on the spray gun, it should shoot a stream of the paint thinner, just do that until it stops. If it doesn't shoot the strea, connect it back into the compressor and then pull the trigger. Once you empty the paint thinner, disconnect the compressor again and do the first step over again, it should shoot a stream.

Let the wheels sit for at least 12 hours

Mixing the clear:

The ratio for clear:hardener is 4:1

Mix the paint, and then wipe the wheel with wax and tar remover, make sure you don't miss any spots!

Spray the wheel and make sure you don't miss any spots and spray the wheel COMPLETELY equally, if you spray more clear on one spoke than on another, it will stick out like a sore thumb!

Cleaning the paint gun again

Let the wheels sit for 24 hours, throw them on the car, and enjoy!

 

[Sky Render]

Nice write-up! How well does that paint stand up to abuse?

 

[muztangman93]

Well not to be mean but I see why you didn't get the results you desired. The 320 grit is what give your starting surface its tooth for the paint to stick too. 1000 grit is very fine sand paper and on certain paints you can literally buff 1k grit sand marks out. Never sand to that high of a grit for applying paint. 320 then 600 at the max. On a wheel I would stop at 400 grit. When you are painting you never fill a cup then poor thinner in it and put the lid on and shake it you will never have proper mixing that way. Poor into a measuring cup the correct amounts of each and stir with a paint stick. Strain the paint when pouring into the paint gun. A cup of paint in a paint gun is more then plenty to do 4 wheels. Do what I call a dust coat to make sure no fisheye or anything of that nature. the 3rd coat you can go on wetter but you should never get a run in basecoat itself it dries extremely quick and should never be put on thick enough to run. When you are ready to clear never use any wax remover between paint and clear after its dry to the touch if you desire use a tack cloth to remove any dust that has settled on the wheel then you can proceed with clear always start with a dry coat and let it tack up then a wetter coat and on the last coat as wet as you can without any runs to get that deep shine. Always mix your paints and clears in a mixing cup to ensure they are mixed properly. You should clearcoat within an hour after spraying the paint if you don't then scuff the paint and apply a drop coat of paint before you do clear for them to chemically adhere to each other properly. I know a guy who painted a truck it came out slick but he painted it a solid color then wet sanded the paint flat up to 2k grit then cleared it boy it was slick but the clear did not have any tooth to adhere to and flaked off in a few months

 

[itsslow]

Well not to be mean but I see why you didn't get the results you desired. The 320 grit is what give your starting surface its tooth for the paint to stick too. 1000 grit is very fine sand paper and on certain paints you can literally buff 1k grit sand marks out. Never sand to that high of a grit for applying paint. 320 then 600 at the max. On a wheel I would stop at 400 grit. When you are painting you never fill a cup then poor thinner in it and put the lid on and shake it you will never have proper mixing that way. Poor into a measuring cup the correct amounts of each and stir with a paint stick. Strain the paint when pouring into the paint gun. A cup of paint in a paint gun is more then plenty to do 4 wheels. Do what I call a dust coat to make sure no fisheye or anything of that nature. the 3rd coat you can go on wetter but you should never get a run in basecoat itself it dries extremely quick and should never be put on thick enough to run. When you are ready to clear never use any wax remover between paint and clear after its dry to the touch if you desire use a tack cloth to remove any dust that has settled on the wheel then you can proceed with clear always start with a dry coat and let it tack up then a wetter coat and on the last coat as wet as you can without any runs to get that deep shine. Always mix your paints and clears in a mixing cup to ensure they are mixed properly. You should clearcoat within an hour after spraying the paint if you don't then scuff the paint and apply a drop coat of paint before you do clear for them to chemically adhere to each other properly. I know a guy who painted a truck it came out slick but he painted it a solid color then wet sanded the paint flat up to 2k grit then cleared it boy it was slick but the clear did not have any tooth to adhere to and flaked off in a few months

I'm only not happy with the way the clear coat came out, but thanks for the tips! And I mix all the paint in the cup and then pour into paint gun, sorry I didn't make myself clear. I clear coated after 24 hours of paint drying, and I think that's my issue. They came out really nice, just doesn't satisfy me enough (I'm very picky). Everyone that looked at the wheels thought a professional did it, and I am by far no professional.

 

[muztangman93]

Clear is alot harder to spray. Ideally you want to put a coat of clear on somewhat dry make sure you have it covered it will be peely looking just get it covered and let it flash so the next coat has something to stick too without running. Clear is very tacky once it starts to flash. THen lay it on wetter. Let it flash and the last coat lay it on slick A wheel has alot of tight places to hit so for someone who hasnt done alot of painting it would be easy to leave a lot of dry spots and even get runs as well. Pics look good and it being a wheel noody is really going to get down and look at it anyway. Im kind of a perfectionist on paint work and if your the one who does it you see absolutely every flaw there is because you were the one doing it. To the average consumer if it shines thats good enough most body shops do as little as possible and if the customer complains then they fix it if not they made money and worked half as hard as they needed too

 

[Stage1]

Just an extra tip for you, base coat has a flash time of 7 minutes give or take.. Then you are ready to spray more base. Base all the hard places first, same goes for the clear. Like muztangman93 said you car spray your clear after an hour or so. Take his advice and you will have better results.. You did somethings correct, but really painting something depends on how well you prep it. Good luck ...

 

[itsslow]

Thanks for the tips guys!

 

[gizmo5]

Can we get picks of them on the car? I have brembo wheels and Im thinking about painting them

 

[itsslow]

Look at my for sale thread