Painting wheels - are mine too far gone?

[jennjoyner]

So, after searching around on the forums, I see that a bunch of y'all have painted your wheels and they look AWESOME.

I've priced getting them sandblasted/powder coated at a local shop, and they want $125-150 per wheel...I'm not really looking to spend that much money on powder coating, when I could most likely find new wheels for just a little bit more.

I actually like the look of my SR5 wheels, so I'd really like to try painting mine, but I'm not sure if they're too far gone for me to tackle them myself. The Runner is in great condition overall, but there's obviously some bubbling and corrosion and I'm absolutely terrified of messing them up. What do you guys think??

 

[Beaumont67]

Hi Jenn - I see your from Virginia and I expect the winter roads, have deicing rock salt on them.
- here in Ontario, wife's 2008 RAV4 Limited v6 rims / have similar corrosion blisters, on the aluminum alloys
- if sandblasted, the corrosion bubbles would expose deeper pits
- could take 2 powder coat applications (was told, by shop), to fill & level out the new baked finish
^^ Est. cost $500-600/set.

Another repair would be to bead blast / epoxy prime with hardener (for good adhesion) / urethane top coat
^^ Est. cost $300-400/set

Note - To paint aluminum is tedious and must be done in a painstakingly careful way. Alum has a natural oxide on it that protects it from corrosion.
It is transparent, you can't see it but it is there. For paint to stick you must remove the oxide by etching and them paint with a good aluminum primer
and then with a good paint that will last. Other wise the paint will not stick to the aluminum and in no time at all it will look like crap.
https://www.boatdesign.net/threads/can-aluminum-be-painted.31754/

I would buy a new set of OEM takeoffs for 3 season use and downgrade the corroded rims to winter use.
- I had 2 sets of tires, for our RAV4 / All-season & Winter rated
- so a brand new late model Toyota set off aluminum rims @ $800 Cdn (= $600 US$) / off a 2013 Highlander
- a dedicated set of 3 season rims, was a good option / in a modern rim style, that looks refreshing

 

[gmhotch]

I'm in the same boat you are...Mine look about the same. I haven't done anything to mine yet. I'm finding out about media blasting them, then primer and paint myself. I'm going to try and do one this weekend. I'll post back with results.

 

[OliviasDad]

My wheels were corroded as well, and looked very similar to yours. I basically sanded them down [substantially, scraping off any loose aluminum etc.], and then primed them, sanded again [and again], and then eventually put multiple coats of paint on them. I'll likely touch them up again this summer. There is still some minor evidence of the corrosion [if you look carefully], but they look 100 times better than they did. I will likely buy new rims at some point, but I see no reason to pay someone hundreds of dollars to re-purpose old, corroded rims. You could buy new rims for the cost of what they would charge to re-purpose old ones.

Here are few pics of mine...

 

[jennjoyner]

I'm in the same boat you are...Mine look about the same. I haven't done anything to mine yet. I'm finding out about media blasting them, then primer and paint myself. I'm going to try and do one this weekend. I'll post back with results.

Would love to see the results, thanks!!:clap2:

My wheels were corroded as well, and looked very similar to yours. I basically sanded them down [substantially, scraping off any loose aluminum etc.], and then primed them, sanded again [and again], and then eventually put multiple coats of paint on them. I'll likely touch them up again this summer. There is still some minor evidence of the corrosion [if you look carefully], but they look 100 times better than they did. I will likely buy new rims at some point, but I see no reason to pay someone hundreds of dollars to re-purpose old, corroded rims. You could buy new rims for the cost of what they would charge to re-purpose old ones.

Here are few pics of mine...

I couldn't see the pics of yours, but I totally agree with the money part - I just can't justify spending tons of money to fix these up when I could buy new ones.

 

[tb-av]

These guys do a pretty good with basic tools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZpzf5Ll_L8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WQiqYlpxoY

 

[jennjoyner]

These guys do a pretty good with basic tools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZpzf5Ll_L8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WQiqYlpxoY

Thanks very much. Something to watch on my lunch break op2: