The $40 solution.

[IanS]

Some of you may remember my search for wheels.

zerothread?id=467839

Well, as I mentioned at the end of that thread, I found a set of G35 coupe wheels. Well after a week and a half of waiting, I got a package in the mail. To make a very long story short, they were NOT as advertised. Every wheel was trashed, and they were absolutely not worthy of being put on my Max. After a lot of arguing, and some decent leveraging on my part, I was able to secure a partial refund.

Though I was happier, this still left me with an issue. The car will still need wheels come spring, and I already dumped money on these. What to do, what to do? Time to get crafty.

The bad.



Every wheel had damage.



First things first. I took a trip to the local hardware store and picked me up some sandpaper, a couple cans of primer, paint, some clear coat, and tack cloth.

Now some of you may scoff at rattle can painting wheels. In reality, if the prep is done right, and you know what you're doing, you can create a good looking durable finish, for cheap.

Getting started. My friend J-lak was painting some wheels of his own for his WRX. Luckily we had a really nice day, so we decided to get to work out in the driveway.



At a distance, the G wheels dont look so bad, at least not in pictures.





After using a razor blade to remove the Nismo stickers, I started attacking them with 320 grit sand paper. It was enough to remove most of the minor imperfection. The deep scratches and gouges will need something to cover them, but I wanted to see how good they would look with just sand and paint.



I did a lot of sanding, then I layed down some primer.







Between every coat, I rubbed all the wheels down with tack cloth to remove any dust or spatter that stuck to the paint.

After a couple coats.



Its hard to tell these are the same wheels. Some of the major scratches are still visible, but you have to really look for them.



Then I started laying paint. I chose a dark silver metalic. Light coats people light coats.

Coat 1





Coat 2



And Coat 3. They look a lot lighter in the pictures. They are darker in person.



Ooh sparkly.



At this point, the temp had dropped enough where we had to get the wheels off the floor. Even with the heat on, the concrete was hovering around 40 degrees F.

We built a rack with some saw horses and a ladder.





I started laying down clear. Remember, light coats.



After 2 coats of clear. They look really good. The camera still does not show the color properly. Nor does it show how much light the metal flake reflects.



Besides the scratches, I doubt anyone will be able to tell these aren't wheels straight from the factory.



All I have left to paint are the center caps. Lucky for me, these wheels use the same caps as the factory wheels, even though they are from an infiniti. I picked up a set off ebay, and I will paint them up once they get here.

This just goes to show you, sometimes all it takes is a little know how, and some serious elbow grease.

Tell me what you guys think? Upgrade?

I will update this once I have tires mounted, and they are on the car.

PS, should I get some more Nismo stickers? When I first saw them, I didnt like them, but they kind of grew on me. They are not really Nismo wheels, and badging them as such is sketchy, but I dont know. I kind of want to give it a shot.

[loystock]

Nice job! You just have to be resourceful at times. Just make sure the 2 clear coats totally covered the metallic silver paint. This type of paint is unstable when exposed to elements and may fade or even peel off .Given the ambient temp, I would have placed a series of 100W bulbs (or higher) over each wheel to ensure paint adhesion. But looks like you got very good results. Let us know how it holds a year from now.

[lino]

Well done! They look great. I'd use them and enjoy them until you get bored and want something else and if it were me, I wouldn't put the NISMO stickers back on.

[tigersharkdude]

good job, you should however take them and get them cleared with real clear, just to be safe. Spray can clear is very thin compared to automotive clear. They look really good though

[IanS]

Nice job! You just have to be resourceful at times. Just make sure the 2 clear coats totally covered the metallic silver paint. This type of paint is unstable when exposed to elements and may fade or even peel off .Given the ambient temp, I would have placed a series of 100W bulbs (or higher) over each wheel to ensure paint adhesion. But looks like you got very good results. Let us know how it holds a year from now.

The ambient time was actually around 70 degrees, but the floor hovers around 45 because the concrete wont warm up. As for the paint, it did lay down kind of goofy, but Im not worried about it. I will likely tear the tires off next fall and fix them right. With some filler puddy, and a new color. I love having access to tire machines.

good job, you should however take them and get them cleared with real clear, just to be safe. Spray can clear is very thin compared to automotive clear. They look really good though

Im not worried about it. Ive painted wheels in this fashion before. One set I ran as winter wheels for 3 years without any peeling or discolouration. Plus then it wouldn't be the $40 solution then would it?

[The Siath]

Really nice write on on the work involved, great photos to show it...

I don't have rims for my 99 Max, but I plan to get some eventually, problem is my Max is white, and very very few rims come white (especially the used ones that I can afford in a short while)... so I'll be doing this too.

[nissangirl74]

VERY impressive. Way to make something out of nothing.

Makes me want to find an old set of wheels and see what I could do with them.

[rogue240sx]

Nice work, I did a similar thing to my 5zigen wheels I got that had several layers of poorly laid paint. I ended up using aircraft remover to strip all the paint off and then prepped the wheels pretty much the way you laid out. A lot of people don't realize they've been rattle canned.

[crayzitalian3]

quick question, i didn't read the replies to the op so kick me in the butt hard if this was asked lol, how much time in between all the coats did you wait before applying the next coat for primer and paint and clear?

[IanS]

quick question, i didn't read the replies to the op so kick me in the butt hard if this was asked lol, how much time in between all the coats did you wait before applying the next coat for primer and paint and clear?

It really depends on paint type, temp, and material. For the wheels, I was allowing around 20 min between coats. Just enough time to harden enough for me to tack cloth them.

Rattle can paint dries exceptionally fast, witch is good and bad. It makes painting small stuff fast, but for big stuff, you end up with streaks. Thats why its very tough to paint a car with.