DIY: Wheel painting guide

[dorifto]

Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY and neither myself nor TOCAU take any responsibility for the outcomes of someones else doing. You hereby acknowledge these risks by undertaking this guide and do so at your own judgement.

Aim: To change/renew the look of your wheels with fresh paint.

1. What I initially began with: IMPUL RS's. 14 x 6.5 +15 PCD100. As you can see the dish part of the wheel had water mark stained into the metal but overall they were in good condition with minimal gutter rash and no buckles.

2. I started sanding with 600 grade wet/dry paper. The whole wheel will get painted so the entire thing gets sanded. The purpose is to smooth out the wheel to make the primer adhere better.

3. Valve removal. Pretty self explanatory

4. Once complete with 600 grade, work on 800 grade next. You don't have to but I wanted a smoother finish.

5. Give the wheels a good wash, make sure you get into all the edges and corners.

6. Let the wheels air dry. You can see that the IMPUL RS decals have now been sanded away (that's ok, I'll get to that later ;)). Prep your area for painting, make sure it's somewhere free from wind and direct sun light.

[dorifto]

7. The primer and paint cans I used. You can opt for a cheaper alternative really, but I wanted to test out how the 3M products would turn out. All up, the 3 cans set me back about $45, $15 a can. Add your sand paper and your looking at about $50.

8. Primering. I decided I wanted to paint the underside as well so if you intend on doing the same, do the underside first so you don't scratch the spoke side afterwards. I did 2 coats of primer before going on to painting.

9. After primering, get out your spray can and shake vigorously. The first coat should act as a "guide"/"base" coat, never over do it.

10. This is the subsequent second and last coat for the underside; I didn't need it done 100% as it's behind the spokes anyway.

[dorifto]

11. Down to the business end. Start with primering the hard to get bits; the lug nut holes, the centre and the corner of the spokes. After that, primer the entire wheel and even it out where needed. The wheel in the background has primer coat no.1, the other is onto no.2

12. Both fully primered. Awaiting paint.

13. Coat no.1 of painting. It's quite thin and that's how you want it really, then again I'll leave that for you to judge.

14. To put into perspective after coat no.2. Really starting to take shape now!

15. Ok, so I got lazy to take any photos of the following coats but you get the idea. Even coats at your own pace until fully covered. Then let air dry in the sun :D

Close up of matte black finish.

[dorifto]

OPTIONAL PARTS

I decided from the get-go I would not run the centre caps as they were easily nicked and so the centre would look quite bare.

Out came the centre caps with the screw on cap. The bottom two were punched out and had the double sided tape cleaned up. The top two are as per arrival-from-Japan. Only that the top right still retains the C clip. What I did was, took them all out and cleaned up the tape and then used Mothers' Plastic Polish on them.

Got into contact with my custom vinyl cutter a few days before completion and placed an order for IMPUL RS's decals and some IMPUL RACING ones'. I didn't like the look of the IMPUL RACING on the dish so decided not to use them. Centre caps now buffed with plastic polish.

Had them wrapped in some semi slicks, doing some track work in about 2 weeks.

Thanks for looking and please take this as a guide only.

[dwee.]

Good work mate! But you did not go bright green? :P

[rob323]

I prefer to use an etch primer or 2pac primer on alloys.

[ELEGNT]

very good write up and rims look great.

i did this for my old enkeis

tuned out well, but not as well as yours as mine had gutter rash :(

EDIT: dude just realised i was reading your thread on jdmst and then it clicked you where the guy that brought my pod lol

Edited October 15, 2010 by ELEGNT

[dorifto]

I prefer to use an etch primer or 2pac primer on alloys.

Ideally etch primer would have worked better with the metal but I just totally forgot about it. Will have to see how this primer turns out.

very good write up and rims look great.

i did this for my old enkeis

tuned out well, but not as well as yours as mine had gutter rash :(

EDIT: dude just realised i was reading your thread on jdmst and then it clicked you where the guy that brought my pod lol

haha yehhh that was me who bought your Pod. Got it and installed it the same day, cheers!

[Buff Hamster]

Would the paint be able to withstand soap washes when cleaning brake dust off?

I see some of the paint has disappeared with the tyres on. Was the due to putting the tyre on?

Edited October 18, 2010 by A Buff Hamster

[dorifto]

Thats actually not chipping paint, its the gel they put around the tyre before fitting that has come onto the wheel. If you want it to adhere better, use ETCH primer. That will withstand alot of the soap washing and high pressure rinsing.

[johnnieboi]

Looks very good trung. Quite an effort but well worth it. Great stuff!