DIY: Painted Wheels

[Phi Kai]

I haven’t seen a DIY for this so I thought I would be the originator!! Anyway, I really like the look of stock wheels. Keeps the vehicle looking factory, but you still have the ability to have all the fancy things. I had a friend who had painted his wheels for an old car of his and I had just been waiting for the right vehicle of mine to do it for. Anyway, I’ll get right in to this because I think it will be a bit on the long side.

Author: Phi Kai
Date Published: May 10, 2007
Contact: via PM

Title: DIY Painted Wheels

First of all this will cover all the steps for painting your wheels. However, with my particular set of wheels I went with black with a silver lip look, so it includes a few extra steps.

Supplies Needed:
Aircraft Stripper
Spray Paint (Any Color)
Automotive Spray on Primer
Clear Coat
1” Plastic Putty Knife
Small Wire Brushes
Sand Paper (Fine Grit)
1” Painter’s Tape
Notecards (optional if you have tires)
RUBBER GLOVES (absolutely have to)




Step 1: Take the center caps out…I know obvious


Step 2: Tape up parts you don’t want painted…(in my case that means the lip) and for everyone that means the valve stem (assuming tires are on). Make sure to do a good job with the taping.

[Phi Kai]

Step 3: Put your rubber gloves on…at times I doubled up on them… This part is a little laborious and the fumes plus the chemical are killer so be careful. You will be using the aircraft stripper to take the factory paint and coatings off the wheel so that you have a non painted service to work with. It takes quite a while and several sessions of this spray on application to take all the factory paint off. During these steps you will be using the putty knife and the wire brush to scrape everything off. You want to make sure you get everything otherwise you’ll have an uneven surface when you go to apply paint. After you do several coats and have scraped and brushed all the factory paint off, grab a water hose and spray everything clean.





Step 4: After you get everything stripped and cleaned you will need to use a fine grit sand paper to scuff up the wheel and give the paint an even better surface to stick to. I removed the tape after the stripping because between the water and chemical it has a tendency to un-stick the tape.

[Phi Kai]

Step 5: See above about taping everything up.

Step 6: Apply the primer in light even coats. Its probably not crucial to do the primer, but I had some bad luck the first go on these wheels with the top surface being to slippery. I’d give you all tips on spray painting things, but well I’m not so good at it. So do your best.



Step 7: Paint the Wheels color of choice. Once again I chose black because that’s what I want to do. I probably gave them between 3 and 4 coats of the black…it was on a black primer so it was kind of tough to tell…


Step 8: Time to work on the Center caps…you were probably wondering since I had left them out up until now…Anyway, I tried to just use the primer and was going to paint over that, but it didn’t stick. I then went to Krylon Fusion, but it didn’t really stick that well either…I ended up giving the center caps a quick light sand to get the paint to stick. You’ll also notice that I left the center circle silver…I had originally tried to tape that part up, but it wasn’t working out so well. Fortunately enough the cap to the aircraft stripper is a perfect fit inside that circle and worked well to keep it silver.

[Phi Kai]

Step 7: Headed back to the wheels to remove the blue tape covering the lip. Turned out pretty good…


Step 8: It was time to clear the entire thing…but the tires still needed to be protected. For this I used note cards and stuck them around the outside of the tire to protect the wheel while I sprayed the clear coat. I did about 3 coats of clear.


Step 9: Get them mounted…I haven’t had a chance to do this as I work and well…the paint is still curing.

Hope you guys enjoy this tutorial…

[Roland]

Good job with the paint and the guide.

If I attempt something like this I would practice on the spare to be sure I like the finished look before doing all four wheels.... I'm careful like that.

[lsocoee]

Someone is making a splash. Thanks for the tutorial. I've been thinking about doing this for a while.

[Phi Kai]

Originally Posted by lsocoee

Someone is making a splash. Thanks for the tutorial. I've been thinking about doing this for a while.

Go Big or Go Home...cause I care...It has more to do with the fact that I feel happy looking at this forum...therefore I like to contribute more...and more willingly

[Phi Kai]

Originally Posted by Roland

Good job with the paint and the guide.

If I attempt something like this I would practice on the spare to be sure I like the finished look before doing all four wheels.... I'm careful like that.

I wish I had a spare around to try it on...I'd kinda helped my friend do it once on a set of wheels...but still...

I would have done the aircraft stripper several more times...taken WAY more time with tape...and gotten the tires removed...other than that I'm happy...

Need to get the can of paint out next week when I have some time and touch up a couple of spots on the wheels...no biggy though

[jhodge83]

when i did mine i didnt strip anything and the only thing i taped off were the valve stems

[Phi Kai]

Originally Posted by jhodge83

when i did mine i didnt strip anything and the only thing i taped off were the valve stems

I had read and seen before that stripping the original factory coating off was a good plan...not sure its necessary, but a good idea...

I taped off the outer rim, only cause I wanted that silver...