Spray Paint or Plastidip for my wheels???

My stock wheels are very pitted and chipped and look like crap. My tires still have a lot of tread so I am going to delay buying new wheels until I can get tires at the same time. For now I want to put a wire brush to them and sand them down and paint them black. I was thinking like a matte black Rustoleum but I've heard good things about plastidip. What would be easier and what would come out better and last longer?

 

I painted my stock wheels with rustoleum wheel paint and it held up for 6 years while I owned them. I ended up wire wheeling mine to get all the flaking clear coat off, then used an etching primer followed by the wheel coating.

I used the matte black but it was slightly satin.

 

Plastidip is easier.

Paint will last longer. Also, when the paint chips (and it will chip, because it's a wheel), it's just a chip that you can touch up. When platidip chips it starts to peel up and then you might as well peel the whole thing off.

I used paint + a tube of bondo to fill in some pretty bad curb rash that I had on one of my old cars. 3 years since and it still looks good, can't see where the curb rash was.

 

i used rostoleum as well

 

Agreed. Plastidip is a lot easier. It can be done with almost no prep work. Paint will last a lot longer, but will require cleaning, sanding, primer etc. to get a good looking job.
If you are planning on getting new wheels soon anyway, plastidip might be an option. Several years out, it will be worth painting.

 

Having just removed Plastidip off of some perfectly good wheels, I'll say - DON'T PLASTIDIP!! Getting that stuff off is a royal pain. And, no, it doesn't just peel off like the videos show.

 

For all the time spent I'd paint them and be done with it for a lot longer time than plastidip. It's just a matter of preference.

 

My vote is spray paint.

Better looking, more durable and a lot easier to touch up.

Say you spend 6 hours prepping and painting your wheels vs 2 hours of plastidipping.

5 years from now are you really going to be put out by that four hour difference?

 

Spray em

 

How long before the new tires and wheels? If it's just a year or two, plastidip them... or just leave em be.

 

You did it wrong. I've done and peeled a lot of dip, never had an issue. A chip doesn't peel off any more than paint does. You have to actively peel it off to make it come off.

I've gotten good results with dip and far less prep than recommended, really good results doing it right. With wheels a quick wash and dry and it's lasted years.

Rusto is cheaper, plasti is easier imo. Both can give good results.

 

Yup, this. Trouble taking the dip off is probably from not having enough coats.

I did like 5 or 6 coats on my fender flairs. While I did a fair amount of prep work (had to sand off all the clear coat because it was flaking off), it turned out pretty nice and has so far held up to some narrow trails with lots of overgrown bushes.

When in doubt, add another coat.

I've been thinkig about doing my wheels too, I like the flat black look, but I'm also cheap and don't want to buy new wheels. My neighbor did his wheels on his work truck a couple years ago and still looks good.

 

painting them gets my vote,

 

Thanks for the opinions. Now I just have to find the time to get this done