Paint, Powder Coat, or New Rims?

New member! I have a white '04 Dbl cab, thats totally stock. I wanna black out the wheels, but I don't know if I should paint (plastdip, duracoat?), powder coat (about $400?), or buy new rims? I can get a set of 16'' black XD enduros for $480. How well does painting hold up, and if painting is a bad idea, should I powder coat or get the new rims? Thanks! (I may have pics of the truck up later)

**Also, How much do you guys think I could get for the alloys that I have now if I sold em?**

 

What do you do with the truck, do you off road with it? Powder coat is more durable than rattle can paint but if it does get a chip in it, you can't just touch it up yourself. If you rattle can, taking your time in prep can make a huge difference. Rattle can paint isn't overly durable so you'll probably have to redo at some point. Depending on how good of a job you do initially and the abuse your truck sees, you might not have to repaint for 5 years, you might end up repainting next year. I'm not familiar with those wheels so I'm not going to say anything about them. If you like the look of them I'd go new wheels before I spend almost the same money powdercoating the old ones. Good luck!

 

I'm not some hardcore offroad type of guy, but somewhat, like to go out to the deer lease and stuff...In that case should I just paint? Oh and here's a pic of the rims I'm looking at

 

Those are pretty nice! You're kind of talking personal preference. If your old rims are in nice condition and you just don't like the styling or whatever, you might be able to get some money on here for them (I'm not sure what you're running stock, steel wheels or alloys).

My opinion would be if your running steel wheels and looking for an upgrade, I'd get the new rims. If you've got the upgraded factory wheels, I'd save some money and rattle can 'em and plan on touching them up every 3 - 4 years or so. You'd also save mounting/balancing costs since you don't have to take the tires off the rim to paint. I'd also go with paint, not the bed coating stuff but that's my preference.

EDIT: FWIW, I rattle canned a set of ATV wheels once. Did minimal prep, a crap job painting and then beat the hell out of the quad. The paint holds up pretty well, the repainting is more for cosmetics than anything, just to get rid of smears, swirls and little chips. If you can live with them, you won't need a repaint for a long time.

 

Rattle canning your rims will result in chips pretty quick. Its a cheap alternative to powdercoating, but you'll probably repaint them at least twice a year. Most places can will charge about $75 per wheel...I think your quote of $100 per wheel is a bit high and I would check some other places. If you have alloys, I would just buy the new wheels and sell your stockers to offset the price. If you have steel wheels, then I wouldnt even consider powdercoating them because they arent worth anything anyways. Rattle can would be your best option for them.

 

I'd personally look at the XD Enduros... Even though you might do good prep work with the wheels before painting them, they won't look as good as powdercoating and won't be nearly as durable.

 

I would go with the rattle can paint for now. It doesn't cost much at all and if you are thinking about getting new rims down the road, the black stock rims might hold you for a while and give you the change of look on your truck that you are wanting. I have the stock alloy wheels on my truck and painted them black about 6 months ago. I was actually surprised at how well they have held up. I took my time and sanded each wheel thoroughly. I haven't had to touch them up once. I have been offroad several times since then as well, not serious wheeling but definitely enough to test the wheel paint. See my pics for my black wheels.

 

go with the rims

 

go with new rims! spending 400, which as mentioned is a high quote to powder coat wheels, would be insane when you can pick up a nice set of new black rims for that price. Not to mention getting a different offset in order to get a wider stance and possibly fit bigger tires if that's what you're going for. Plus, you can sell your old wheels and offset the price of the new ones, making new rims cheaper than powder coating stock wheels. just my opinion!!!

just picked these up for $103 a wheel!!!

 

new rims would be my first choice but if wanna keep ur current ones id sooner prep ur wheels really well then paint them instead of powdercoat for the simple reason of having to do touchups from time to time. also for the price of powdercoating its more worth it to just spend a little more and get new wheels.

 

Maybe.. if you use regular old spray paint and dont prep properly...

But If you wet sand the rims, then clean and dry them completely, then take your time priming and painting they will hold up surprisingly well. I cant vouch for regular rattle can but I used Rustoleum high performance wheel paint, and its legit.

its really a difference between spending $20-$30 and spending >$400.

for me its a temporary fix, but one that makes me not care how long it takes to get new rims


and by the way.. those rims you are looking at are SICKKK

 

I like those a lot and they are available for five luggers too!
Painting is a good, cheap, temporary fix. It's what I did 'till I can get new rims and tires.

 

where there F did u find those for 103 a wheel?? slammin deal bro. i got the atx mojave and new those are like 150 a wheel, ur truck looks awesome by the way.

 

picked up the raceline renegades for 103 a piece from les schwab. I have a long time friend who is the head manager of one of their locations here in Oregon. He hooks me up with good prices as I, as well as other family members, have bought multiple sets of tires/wheels from him over the past 8-10 years.

ALSO, to elaborate on my previous point... Spending anywhere near $400 to powder coat stock wheels does not seem worth it to me. I just sold my stock rims alone for $200 cash within 30 minutes of posting them on TW and craigslist.com. That recoupes half of what I spent on my new wheels.