How to paint hubs and wheel spacers to match your wheels.

Sheepdog · Sep 17, 2010

Ok well this is my first writeup so please bear with me.

I decided to repaint my hubs since they were starting to chip and it looked ugly in contrast with my wheels. So since I had nothing to do today, I figured I would repaint them and do a writeup.

First off, I had to find a way to paint the hub without getting the paint on the rest of the break housing and studs. So I got a peice of cardboard and cut out a hole for the hub to fit in nice and snug, the diameter was 4.25". Then I had to make holes for the studs to slide through. All I did was line up the holes for the hub on the cardboard and wheel spacer then I marked the center of each hole for the studs and drilled them out. I messed up the first time so that's what those big black dots are next to where the studs poke through. My paint catcher thingie ended up fitting perfectly. Now I had to put some tape around the studs so the paint wouldn't get in the threads. Heres some pics of what it looked like installed before the paint. I didn't paint the front hubs because they still looked good and weren't all half golden and half black.

Now all I did was lay a few coats of satin black Krylon on there and wait for it to dry. Since both wheels and drums were off, it was really easy to rotate the axel so I could get a different angle with the paint. So every 5 minutes, I would turn the axel about 90 degrees and lay on another coat. I didn't bother sanding the hub because now that I have the stencil, I can just take the wheels off and lay on another few coats whenever they need a touch-up.

Now while the hubs were drying, I went over and started painting the inside of my wheel spacers. I don't like chrome so I didn't want there to be a big shiny spot between my black hubs and the black wheels. That's why in the pictures you can see that only part of the spacer is painted, the part that's going to show... Also note that I'm not the best painter so that's why you can see really bad drip spots. lol

Once everything was dry, it was time to install. Puting on the rear wheel spacers was easy because with the drums on and the E-Brake engaged, nothing spinned as I torqued the lug nuts down. The front, however, was a bit more difficult so all I did was get a metal handled hoe and put it through the studs to keep the axel from turning. Redneck but still effective...

Now before everyone chastises me for putting the lug nuts on the wrong studs, I want to say that I did it on purpose. These wheel spacers are meant for a Chevy. That being said, the acorn lug nuts that came with it are 14X1.5 because that's the threading Chevy uses. Toyota uses 12X1.5 threading. So in order for me to intall the spacers, I had to use MY lugnuts on the studs on the truck to bolt on the spacer, and then I had to use the acorns to bolt on the wheel. I did it this way because I wasn't about to go drop a hundred bucks on lug nuts.

After the spacers were on, I went to take it for a test drive and before I even got out of the driveway, the truck was shaking like a dog shitting peach pits. 285's with a 2 inch wheel spacer makes the tires swing about .5" too far. So when you crank it hard to make a sharp turn, the outside of the tire rubbs on the rear part of the wheel well where the firewall is. Even with my bushwackers, that claim to give 2 inches of extra clearence, the tires swung just a bit to far. So I took the front spacers off and left the rears on.

I appologise for not posting better pics of the final product, but by the time everything was finishsed, it was too dark to get a good pic and the flash didn't make a good pic either.

Well that's it, my first writeup. I hope you guys enjoy it and it sparks some ambition in a few to go do it.