Painted stock steelies black

ATweezy · Jan 22, 2012

So last weekend I finally pulled the trigger on painting my steelies black instead of going out and buying new rims. I did a lot of research here on TW beforehand so I pretty much knew what was going on prior to starting the project. The total cost was under $40. This project took about 24 hours from start to finish, but most of the time was letting the wheels dry. There are other threads covering this topic as well, but I just wanted to contribute something to TW. Enjoy!

Here is the paint that I used.

I dismounted the front two rims and scrubbed them down thoroughly using regular car wash soap.

After letting them air dry, now was the time to scuff them up in preparation for paint. I used your standard scotch brite pad. And scuffed both the inside and outside of the rims.

My wife had an old hair dryer that I used to remove most of the crap left over from the wheel and scratch pad. Once I did that, I sprayed Isopropyl alcohol and wiped them pretty good.

Up next was prepping for paint. I started with the inside of the rim. I used some large index cards and taped them to one another.

I layed the first coat down on the inside and let it sit for about 10 minutes and then sprayed the final coat. I let the second coat sit for another 10 minutes or so and then flipped the tire over.

I layed down a good first coat on the front of the wheels and let sit for 10 minutes and then applied the second coat. I started from the center of the rim and worked my way up to the lip of the rim. Once the paint was applied I let them sit in the sun for about 90 minutes give or take.

I also painted my center caps black. I did the same process as the wheels: cleaning, scratching with scratch pad, wiped down with alcohol, and applied two coats of paint.

Here is a side by side comparison of the first wheel I painted.

Here is the first rim mounted on the truck.

Repeat the same process for the rear two rims.

And here is about 24 hours later with all of them mounted on the truck. I did let them sit overnight on the truck before I drove anywhere just to give them a little more time to dry. YMMV.

Much cheaper alternative to buying new rims! Thanks for looking!