Painting factory rims, what is the BEST METHOD and MATERIALS

[octanejunkie]

My green 3rd Gen would look HOT with darker rims and I don't wanna drop $$$ on aftermarket rims - so I figured I'd clean and paint mine

I know plenty of members have posted about this, but I'm looking for input from guys with the best results. Plus, this is my DD, so I can't be down for days waiting for paint to dry. So, given all that:

1. What materials?
2. Steps and time involved?
3. Can I do it well enough without un-mounting tires?
4. Am I a total fool for asking?

Thanks in advance, please be gentle with #4

 

[skiyota76]

Plasti dip works great, take a deck of cards and insert all the way around Tire/rim. Yes make sure it is off. In sweeping passes spray on at least 3 coats. Dries in 15 minutes. Cures in 2 days.

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[octanejunkie]

Plasti dip works great, take a deck of cards and insert all the way around Tire/rim. Yes make sure it is off. In sweeping passes spray on at least 3 coats. Dries in 15 minutes. Cures in 2 days.

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Drivable while curing?

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[OleMissRunner]

It's fairly straightforward. Here's what I did.

1- Removed any dirt, etc from rims with a pressure rinse. Moved to a bottle of Simple Green to remove any oils, grease, etc and used my wire brush to remove any deposits.
2- (Optional) Used Citri-Strip to strip off anything left behind (my rims had been painted at some other point). Cleaned again with Simple Green.
3- Sanding. Started with 120 and moved to 220 to create a smooth, uniform surface on the rim. When I finished this, I wiped the wheel down with mineral spirits to remove any sanding dust. It wasn't entirely necessary to do this, but I had a few rough spots on the wheels that would have bothered me.
4- Primer. I started with acid etch primer because I had bare metal exposed. I did one coat of acid etch, let it dry, and sanded lightly. I then went back over the wheels with a grey metal primer sanding when needed in between.
5- Paint. I used a rattle can of VHT Wheel Paint in graphite (needed 3 cans total). I believe in total I did two coats. I allowed the paint to cure for two days.
6- Clear coat. Again using a rattle can, I applied three coats of matte clear coat. I allowed it to cure for another two days.

Center caps- Pretty much the same steps above, except I used a plastics-specific primer. In between the paint and the clear coat, I used a detail brush and painted the Toyota logo white with some Testor's enamel I had around. Clear coated this as well.

I didn't take pics when I did it, unfortunately, but it's held up well. I'll see if I can't get a pic later today. You can sorta see it in my sig pic, but it's rather dark.

 

[octanejunkie]

Thanks for the reply and details [MENTION=92349]OleMissRunner[/MENTION]

I'm interested in graphite too, I'd love to see pics!

 

[cfranck1]

My green 3rd Gen would look HOT with darker rims and I don't wanna drop $$$ on aftermarket rims - so I figured I'd clean and paint mine

Maybe check out this thread?
Lots of ideas and procedures..

3rd gen paint thread

 

[Lakers]

Interested in this as well. Thinking of going the plasti dip way since if I don't care for the way it looks I can always just peel it off and try something else out.

 

[A.Wilson013]

Interested in this as well. Thinking of going the plasti dip way since if I don't care for the way it looks I can always just peel it off and try something else out.

Make sure you lay that stuff on THICK. When I plastidipped my wife's old wheels I spent hours and hours taking that crap off. Any spot where the coverage wasn't VERY thick it just came off in little pieces. I was doing one wheel per night and spending about 2 hours per wheel. It absolutely sucked.

 

[octanejunkie]

Make sure you lay that stuff on THICK. When I plastidipped my wife's old wheels I spent hours and hours taking that crap off. Any spot where the coverage wasn't VERY thick it just came off in little pieces. I was doing one wheel per night and spending about 2 hours per wheel. It absolutely sucked.

I've read this too, and every video online stresses the same. One can per wheel seems to be the recommended dosage.

I'm gonna try to tackle this over the long labor day weekend.

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