Help!! Stock Wheel Painting Went Wrong!

Help TW!

After reading all of the threads about painting stock rims, (and receiving permission from the boss) I decided to take the plunge yesterday to paint my stock O/R rims.

I got the 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper, the green scotch-brite pads, self-etching primer and Rustoleum flat black paint.



My wife and I spent 2.5 hours sanding the rims and then we cleaned them real good with soap and water and then again with denatured alcohol.

We went to 5 stores and couldn't find any Rustoleum self-etching primer. The guy at NAPA said that they had Duplicolor S.E.P. but the stuff we got was much better quality. So we spent the extra $5 and got the good stuff. We put 2 coats of the primer on (gray in color). Then we did 2-3 coats of the flat black paint. we followed all of the directions on the cans and this is what we get 20 hours later (the paint can says to wait 24 hrs for full curing).

I don't know any other way to describe it other than that it is fuzzy. When we rub our finger on it, the paint kinda rolls off.


You can see in the pic below the primer showing through where I very gently rubbed my finger.



The pic below shows a spot on the back of the rim where I rubbed a bit harder and the paint rolled off.



Did this happen to any one else? Is it normal? I don't want to get the wheels back on the truck and it look like crap and have to redo it. Should I wash the paint off and try to repaint it? Is the paint bad?

On a good note, the center caps that my wife did turned out awesome!! We used the same painting technique and the paint is coming off the same way.



Thanks for the help!

 

Center caps look badass! My best advice would be maybe another coat or so of black and just let it sit. Not too sure if that would help or not, but that's what I would do myself.

 

Hhhhmmm....the only thing I can think of is maybe there was still some residue from the sanding? I would wait for it to dry completely, sand them down a little more, and then repaint. Maybe use that keyboard dust off stuff or an air compressor to make sure there is no residue from sanding and whatnot. I hope that helps

 

Thanks Jacob and Kaite!

I tried adding extra coats last night and it kept getting worse.

I'm not sure if its a cleaning issue. The primer went on like a charm and had no problems with fuzzy-ing up.

If I sand it down will I have to re-primer it?

Thanks again for your help!

 

You can re-primer, but I don't know if it's a must or not. Definitely wait until you do any more painting because it will do that funky orange peel effect if the layer beneath isn't completely cured.

 

That is because the of two things.

1. The wheels were still covered in some kind of residue. All the soap and water is nice, but denatured alcohol has caused me problems in the past. Just soap and water.

2. Rustoleum, I have had that happen several times with Rustoleum. Use duplicolor or Krylon.

Just my two cents.

You have to start over. Their isnt a good base their. When I did mine, i just washed them and painted. No sanding or anything fancy. Not even primer. Its been about a year or so and Its holding up real well.

 

Not too sure on that but it seems like it might be the best option to sand it down a bit and repaint it a tad.

 

I used water to clean the mud and road junk off, then mineral spirits to clean after I did the sanding. I had good luck using the same flat black Rustoleum, but it can be touchy if you don't wait long enough between coats, including the primer.

 

Yea, the rough flakey texture you are getting is due to poor adhesion. Sand it down, and keep the cleaning to basic soap and water, and you should be good to go. The most important coat is the first coat, since its adhering to the wheel.

 

Thank you all for your help!

Chris is running to the store to get new paint right now. Which kind should he get? Rustoleum? Krylon? Duplicolor?

-Chris's wife

 

I've had this happen with rustoleum a couple of times, generally when it goes on too heavy initially. Maybe try lighter coats or try another paint.

 

I have never had a problem with Duplicolor wheel paint, but others havent had issues with Rustoleum, so its a matter of choice.

However, my vote is for Duplicolor wheel paint.

 

Krylon or Duplicolor doesn't specifically matter. Good luck, and great work on the center caps!

 

It almost looks like its overspray. I've had that happen before when painting something. You can wipe it off with your fingers.

Sand them down again and start over. Take your time and do many LIGHT coats.

By the way, tell the wife those center caps look amazing!

 

Thank you all for your help again!!

We just finished the new paint job and it worked MUCH better!

We were actually spraying TOO light which was the problem. We found this out when we started painting with the dupli color and the issue was still occurring. We decided to go ahead and try to paint a little heavier and it worked amazingly!

Here are the new pictures. We redid the center caps as well, they look even better than before

-Chris's wife

 

Also Chris told me to put on here that OReilly's has a deal going on until Tuesday for the duplicolor general spray paint- buy one get one free.

 

looks great...
good work to you both

 

Looks good. Good tire choice too lol.

 

Wish my GF liked doing things like this with me.

Wheels look good.

 

Great job guys! Glad it turned out