Wheel painting with pics!

Hey everyone, Thought I would post up my recent experience with painting my wheels. Ill start off with the supplies that I needed/used.

-1 can Flat black rust-oleum primer
-1 can Semi-gloss black rust-oleum professional high performance enamel
-few sheets of 220 grit and 400 grit wetordry 3m sand paper
-rust-oleum acetone
-dish soap, sponge, and bucket of water

and obviously along with that stuff you also need to be able to take off your wheels. (jack, jack stands, etc...)



I started off by jacking up one side of my truck and doing two wheels at a time. I live in an apartment complex and some obnoxious neighbor called the front office to complain about me taking off my wheels within the first 5 minutes of me taking them off. Annoyed but not ready to give up, I ended up only doing one wheel at a time.

Before...


It had begun...


Got my wheels inside/on my patio and started by cleaning them with warm soapy water and the green side of the sponge. After that I was ready to start wet sanding


Doing this is all about the prep. I started off with a 200 grit sand paper and moved next onto a 400 grit sand paper. I tried my best to get all the factory clear coat and what not off. Doing this by hand was by far the worst part. I would recommend using a sander.


After the sanding, the wheel should be noticeably duller/less shiny. After you are satisfied with the sand job, clean them really well and dry them off. After I finished, I chose to clean them with acetone to make sure I got everything off and also help them dry faster.


Do the same for you hub caps


After they are cleaned and dried sufficiently, it is time to do your first coat of primer. I chose to do 2 fairly thin coats of primer. I happened to fail to take pics of this step but you should know the difference between thick or thin coats.

After your primer coats are dry, you are ready to start spraying them with your desired paint choice. I did three coats of semi-gloss black. Don't worry about spraying the actual tire. The paint will come right off the tire when it drys.



Rinse and repeat for all four wheels. It really isn't a very hard process and I am very happy with the look.


Also, here's my cat.


Thanks for reading and if anyone has questions or concerns, I will try to address them to the best of of ability. I am definitely not a pro at this sort of stuff but I thought I would share my experience with my fellow tacoma owners that might be interested.

 

Nice job! Did your cat assist or just get in the way?

 

Thanks! He definitely assisted haha. He was very eager to help me pass the time while I waited for paint to dry between coats.

 

Looks great. I've been wanting to do this. Maybe I'll be motivated to do it now.

 

Looks good man...

 

All I see is a bum toe.


Nice write up btw.

 

Yep, my toe has seen better days. Smashed it or something while I was helping my brother move. and Thanks!

 

Yea, I planned on doing this 2 years ago haha. Finally got it done and am very happy with it.

 

thanks!

 

Great job and thanks for sharing the picture of your cat

 

Thanks! And my pleasure. My ragdoll loves the camera

 

Nice work....gives the truck a whole new personality for $20..!

 

Flat cat looks like he got hit with a little overspray.

Wheels look good.

 

Thanks! Definitely an awesome mod for broke people like myself

He definitely caught a couple sniffs of fumes haha...and thanks!

 

sweet truck btw. I am jealous of that supercharger!

 

Really? It comes off easily? How did you remove it? Also, what made you choose semi-gloss? I am torn between gloss and semi-gloss and trying to figure out what I wanna do. I'm gonna wait until it warms up a bit before I do it, though.

LOOKS GOOD, BTW!

 

Looks great! I plasti-dip'd my wheels flat black and love the look. They've held up through a good amount of off road driving and if they get too chipped, I can just peel the paint off and do it again. Only took two cans~ $15!

But I like the glossy look on yours!

 

I chose semi gloss because I felt like it was a safe medium. Flat black would most likely hold up the best as far as looking good long term I would think. I still like the shine though so decided to go semi gloss. My thinking was that scratches would be more visible with gloss rather than semi gloss.

I couldn't be happier with the look of the semi gloss. Only time will tell how it will hold up to wheeling and time.

And as far as the paint on the tires, it literally just flakes off them. I drove to school and back (about 20 minutes each way on the freeway) and the tires were almost completely free of paint when I got back. Then I just took a green scrub pad and wiped anything remaining right off.

On the flip side, I have also seen many people use index cards and place them around the tire. Not necessary but if I were one to try and cover the tires from overspray for whatever reason, I would chose that way over painters tape.

 

I used the base paint as the primer. still good 4 years later

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/wheels-tires/51358-painting-stock-rims-easy.html

 

Thats awesome. Plastidip is something everyone seems to use that I have never played with. Been thinking about doing the last of my chrome with the stuff.