Brian's Duplicolor 3rd Gen Wheel Painting - A How To Story

Honda photobomb time! :)

Actually there's a point here, a lot of the car is actually painted Toyota Graphite (Honda color was too expensive) so half of my car (trim, side skirts, etc) is painted with Duplicolor. Sorry, bad lighting, the car is parked in a multistory.



This car has been in the family since 2010 and it looks like this now after 4 years. I did it myself the day I got it because Honda wanted something like $1800 to color match and paint the trim pieces, so I just bought them myself and did the painted for $450. Duplicolor I say is a medium quality finish, the finish is well on it's way to being worn and it gets waxed frequently, so it's been taken care of, but the trim pieces that were painted and such are really starting to fade, and it chips easier as well.

Anyway, just a heads up for Duplicolor users, don't expect a factory 10 - 15 year finish for durability sake, but for a few years it'll look pretty good.

All in all, mixed feelings. Duplicolor cans over the years I've used on old cars are crap. They tend to spit heavy splotches of paint which ruin the consistent finish. I remember I had to hang my wheels from the ceiling of the shed so the painted surfaced was parallel to the ground so the splotches wouldn't land on the wheels. However, it was cheaper this way :)

EDIT: something that a lot of people don't know, you can order some higher quality paints that are much nicer. U-Pol, Omni, I forget the other brands off the top of my head.

i.e. U-Pol clearcoat/primers/etc (used on my old Mitsubishi) is really good stuff. It's $20 a can, but over here Duplicolor is $10 a can, so although double the price, to me it's worth it in retrospect.
 
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[MENTION=94545]MTD[/MENTION]

So you did Duplicolor Graphite as well? (I see a rustolium can in the picture)

Did you do a clear coat?

Yep dupicolor graphite. Like I said I live in a house of car guys my roommate was painting his motorcycle tank at the same time.

I did a gun applied duplicolor clear over the rattle can graphite color.
 
They can dry paint to the touch in 15 min and cure it in like 4 hours.

I found that my side skirts took about an entire week to cure sufficiently hard to wash them, and even then they weren't quite hardened enough.

Only reason I remember is because I ruined one of the pieces and had to repaint it because I washed and waxed it too early.
 
I found that my side skirts took about an entire week to cure sufficiently hard to wash them, and even then they weren't quite hardened enough.

Only reason I remember is because I ruined one of the pieces and had to repaint it because I washed and waxed it too early.

Did you read the entire post lol.... they only harden that fast with a high power UV paint dryer...
 
I did and missed a crucial part.

I read a post talking about the sun curing it, and then your about UV light drying it quickly (so I missed the dryer part). For some reason I thought you meant that the sun would cure it in 4 hours.

Yeah, totally missed the point, my bad. :doh:
 
I did and missed a crucial part.

I read a post talking about the sun curing it, and then your about UV light drying it quickly (so I missed the dryer part). For some reason I thought you meant that the sun would cure it in 4 hours.

Yeah, totally missed the point, my bad. :doh:

Don't let it happen again!!!! :p lol I would be slightly concerned if the sun baked paint that fast lmao sunscreen SPF 10,000
 
Only reason I remember is because I ruined one of the pieces and had to repaint it because I washed and waxed it too early.

Just me but I wouldn't try to wax it for like 2 weeks at least. A soft soft wash and dry after 5 days sure but waxing? No way man.
 
Just me but I wouldn't try to wax it for like 2 weeks at least. A soft soft wash and dry after 5 days sure but waxing? No way man.

I sold my autobody shop last year. But we were using some awesome stuff. One clear made by PPG we could use on small panel repairs would dry to the touch in about 20 minutes, and you could color sand and buff it after an hour. All without heat or infrared drying. Of course unless you were going to use a gallon it is prohibitively expensive. Just sayin' :confused:
 
If you have the two part hardening paints/clears you can do that. Just the sprayable air dry Duplicolor stuff and other paints take a lot longer. Cheaper too of course.
 
I know you said to not use sandpaper, but if the clearcoat on my factory finish is flaking wouldn't I need to sand it off? Is there a better way to get rid of it?
 
If the surface is rough or flaky and you need to use sand paper then go ahead. I'd suggest doing a wet sand with about 180 or 220 grit paper.

But if the surface is undamaged and smooth then you probably don't need to use sand paper just scratch pad.
 
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^^180-220 is a bit rough unless that's what you're using to take off big flakes of paint or pits. On the final sanding pass, do 400 grit.
 
I actually put some tape around the outside of the logo but left about 1/2" gap between the tape and where I was painting red. You don't really want the tape right against the logo because unless you have a good seal it may slip under the tape and spread like a spiderweb. This happened to me on the first one and I tried to wipe it away fast.

All you really need is a steady hand and a good set of precision paint brushes.

For your polished aluminum wheels (pictured above) I would suggest removing the caps, cleaning them, then hand painting in a coat of primer .... then about 3 coats of red paint.

I used Duplicolor Chrysler FLAME Red.
 
They look great Brian. Now you just need some red D-links!

Connor is just jealous.

I'd love to do these to mine but the pitting and such from the salt water and sun has me on the lookout for some FJ rims such as fellow member Brilliant has.
 
I have read this and several other wheel painting threads and there is one thing I have not seen answered. Are you guys painting the inside of the wheels? If so how? Got all my material and planning to start one wheel at a time tomorrow.
 

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