painting s13 stock wheels?

[vancouverbc]

anybody done that? do you strip first? what colour would you paint them to go with red exterior on 91 240sx?

[CaoBoY]

leave them stock, or gunmetal.

[Bruno240]

leave them stock

[vancouverbc]

yeah, i think i like silver the best. i guess i will strip them down and paint them silver.

[Axel Grungy]

id go with gunmetal, i picked up some 7spokes that were powercoated

[vancouverbc]

i assume gun metal is black? black rims seem to blend in too much with the black rubber of tire.

[Red coupe]

IMO black rims = sexy as hell on a red car...I have steelies right now, but when its dark enough for them to just look like some black rim its pretty hot...

[nismo521]

I did mine in black w/ the duplicolor wheel paint. Came out pretty good. I'm gonna get 'em powdercoated eventually. There is some clearcoat on there you need to strip off. Nothing some aircraft stripper and a wire brush can't take care of, just pull 'em off the car first. Then just clean 'em off w/ some simple green, stick some index cards between the rim and the bead to mask off the tire, then hit them with 5 or 6 very light coats.

[MinisterofDOOM]

i assume gun metal is black?

As do most people.

Gunmetal is acutally and extremely dark semi-metallic blue that LOOKS black.

[vancouverbc]

Thanks:) Very nice. It looks more modern and more original.

[GripR]

stock color is the best...

[vancouverbc]

what does stock look like after it is redone? everyone seems to go black.

[lonelywanderer]

what about paint it black and polish the lip.... seen one where i live and it looked pretty good....

[skydragoness]

IMO black rims = sexy as hell on a red car...I have steelies right now, but when its dark enough for them to just look like some black rim its pretty hot...

That's what i'm going to do with mine!

[StrangeLove]

Paint them black

I scrubbed my wheels to get them as clean as possible. Then I sprayed 3 coats of primer. After that I did another 3 coats of glass black spray paint. They came out really nice. Its been over a year and they still look great.

[Re_Joshua]

Here is a shot of the wheels I painted for my 240sx. They were in really bad shape so I used a thing of Degreaser and while that was sitting on the wheels I used ultra-fine steel wool and "sanded" on then wheels to get all the dirt and crap off of them. After that I taped off the lip and used that "special" wheel paint (black colour) and after 2 coats I put 2 coats of the "special" clear on them. Cost about $25.00 to do all 4 wheels.

[vancouverbc]

looking goood:) thanks:) i will look into to doing it without a primer. i think i will go with silver of some kind.

[240sxHitman]

I painted my black

[Re_Joshua]

I didn't use primer...the "special" wheel paint doesn't need primer.

[Rusted_PS13]

i just did mine today, black with polish lip. I'll try to take some pics tomorrow. I'll have to redo it though, some area the paint wasn't sticking cause i was to lazy to sand the rim down, im gonna try Nismo521 way of doing it when i have some time and cash.

[vancouverbc]

I started stripping tonight. THere is a clear coat that comes off. The aluminum looks quite good . only a few spots need sanding. Don't see any point to painting silver? the aluminum looks good by itself. just put a coat of clear coat over aluminum? how would i polish aluminum? i will experiment with inside of rim.

[Rusted_PS13]

I polished my valve cover with Mother's Aluminum and Mag wheel polish. What i did was apply the polish to the valve cover then took some 800 grit sand paper and sanded with the polish on the valve cover. Then wipe it off, then apply another coat of polish without sanding, then wipe off

[vancouverbc]

I sprayed auto paint remover on rim. most of the clear coat came off but i still have to sand some of it off. used mothers alum polish which works well. steel wool before that. I think this looks better than painting it. the grooves from original machining are still there. i guess it would look better if i got rid of that completely. this is going to take a long time.

[Rusted_PS13]

post some pics when your done, can't wait to see how it looks

[vancouverbc]

I finally finished one rim. I took it outside and with the sun i could tell i had not sanded it enough. I think i will like it after it is properly sanded. it is darker. i thought the stock was too whitish. it definitely gets rid of any unsightly scratched to old clear coat. the stock spokes are very rough and should look better with a good sanding. hell of a lot of work, though. i spent most of my time sanding the clear coat in the spokes . it did not want to strip off. pictures don't show much.

[Rusted_PS13]

yeah it does look better, and it will take you awhile but don't rush it. It took me approximately 25 hours to finish my valve cover.

[Rusted_PS13]