1st Gen Steel Wheels Repaint

2003 Extended Cab, all manual 4WD TRD, 61K when bought, 81K today.

Overall it's in decent shape but the chipped up wheels have always annoyed me, someone did a half assed job of painting them and they were a mess. I do have a compressor and paint guns but just wanted a quick touch up that would last so don't laugh at my choice of paints.

I said quick, the painting and rear brake job took all weekend. In retrospect I wish I had more time for sanding, but they look hella better than they were.

The Before
As you can see a lousy job with a spray can only makes matters worse.

The Prep
As mentioned I wish I'd have done a little more sanding. Started off with wire brushing on a drill, got a great deal on a full set of wire brush attachments. I wired the whole wheel, painting the inside of the wheels will have to wait for another day (maybe.)

I then hit it with H.D. 3M stripping pads and fine garnet -paper - I did not use carborundum and did not do any wet sanding (like you should) because I had a short time frame and wanted a quick job (yeah that part didn't work out so well.) After sanding I thoroughly washed it with acetone three times and used a tack cloth just prior to shooting the paint. Cleaned around the valve stem with acetone on Q-tips.

Blue 3M tape masking, then masked off the wheel and valve stem, gave it the last wipe down. Note what's going on at the lug holes. I have these plastic stoppers with a hole in the center, no idea where I got them but knew I'd find a use for them. I put them over the lug holes with a 10P nail through tape in the center to hold them in place. This was to mask off paint around the lug holes so it doesn't chip as easily. You can use large washers.

Here you can see a little bit of the old paint but it's been sanded smooth. A little bit of it still shows in the finished job but almost makes it look like a hammered finish.


The Paint

Even with spray cans use a paint mask, a real one not a paper mask. This stuff is nasty, don't tell yourself you can hold your breath, blow your nose after and you'll see. I have a 3M 6001 paint mask, invest in one, it will be useful for lots of jobs.

- Rustoleum Universal Bonding Primer, 1 coat
- Rustoleum High Performance Wheel, 2 coats
- Rustoleum Universal Clear Topcoat, 2 coats

I bought 2 cans of the silver and 2 of the clear, 1 primer BUT as it turns out I only needed one of each. if you spray light coats like you should you'll be able to do all four wheels with one can of each.

When the primer went on I thought to myself, "you really should sand this out" and wish I had time to. I could still see shadows of the original hack job and knew it would show a little, but reminded myself I had to work Monday and the goal was to get rid of the annoyance but put just enough into it so it would last a while.

Shoot at least 18" from the surface, take three trips around and have a heat gun handy and this stuff will set fast enough to go in with the next coat almost as soon as you're done spraying the previous.

The wheel paint is metalflake, and this has got to be one of the toughest mediums for a newbie to get. It will run like your paycheck if you don't spray as lightly as possible and keep the spray moving. Do three coats if you have to but keep away from the surface and spray lightly.

Once the last coat is tacky, remove the outer mask and the tire masking tape immediately. If you let it dry it will flake when you peel it and get in your paint. I pulled off the outside mask and set it aside, used the same outer mask for all 4 wheels.

Here's 1x primer, 2x silver metalflake, 2x clear coat, hit it with a heat gun, remove mask, done.


The Finish

All paints don't just dry, they harden, so give yourself plenty of time to let it do so before putting them back on. I didn't put any of the center caps on until Monday morning. As mentioned I did a rear brake job and bought new coated drums, you can see them here. The process was take off the wheel, paint it, do the brakes on that side, rinse and repeat. (I also had front pads on hand but the existing ones were hardly worn, cleaned them up with brake cleaner and called it good.)


Conclusion

Not a stellar job but acceptable. The goal was to rid the annoyance of those chipped up stock wheels, achievement unlocked.

The pics don't do the metalflake justice, it looks pretty good but you can still see shadows of the previous paint job if you look close.

And . . . .crap now I need new tires lol

 

I’ve been wondering how I’m gonna revitalize my stock wheels. Thanks for the write up!

 

It's in it's second year and only road rash chips. The key, even with cheap paint, is the prep.