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anyone here have wheels they painted themselves? how long has it lasted for you? i'm picking up an extra set of wheels for winter and i'm trying to decide if i should paint em myself or go with the extra cost to get them powder coated

Well my roommate painted his wheels on his Hyundai and its lasted 2 summers so far. Mind you, he has winter rims too, so they are only used in teh summer. He has touched them up here and there, but only 1 true paint job.

I'm planning on doing mine in the winter when I got my steelies on.

I painted mine with the duplicolor wheel paint + wheel clear I think it would be going on 3 years now (daily driven in all weather).. with very little maintenance (I don't clean my car with a toothbrush every 2 days like some guys on here do :P ) they still look pretty good. I'd say they aren't quite as shiney as when I first painted them but the paint has held up perfectly.. the only flaw in the paint is on one rim I had a flat tire repaired and they must have scraped some paint off with the tire machine.

If you're going to show your car then I'd get them powdercoated, but the paint is actually a really decent product.

Mine have lasted two years so far. I dont winter drive the car at all though.

This is a recent pic.

ask puppet he has the best wheels

DD1,Sep 3 2006, 07:38 AM Wrote:ask puppet he has the best wheels
[right][snapback]205223[/snapback][/right]

But Steve had his wheels powder coated.

euro_zx5,Sep 3 2006, 09:29 AM Wrote:

DD1,Sep 3 2006, 07:38 AM Wrote:ask puppet he has the best wheels
[right][snapback]205223[/snapback][/right]

But Steve had his wheels powder coated.
[right][snapback]205224[/snapback][/right]

no.. they were wet painted... way gay gunmetal grey.. and they started chipping at the 1st tire change... but my circumstances are a bit special as it was done by Tuner Transformation and the boys and Wheel and Tire Zone for under $200 (if I recall correctly).. they didn't do a good job.

thanks guys!!

guilty/flo how did you guys do your wheels? tape off the stuff you don't want to get painted, sand down the rest with 1000 grit sandpaper and then have at it with the paint and clear spray cans?

naz,Sep 4 2006, 07:03 PM Wrote:thanks guys!!

guilty/flo how did you guys do your wheels? tape off the stuff you don't want to get painted, sand down the rest with 1000 grit sandpaper and then have at it with the paint and clear spray cans?
[right][snapback]205314[/snapback][/right]

I went at it 600, 800, then 1000 & wet.

Added 3 coats color, 2 coats clear.

And yes, I taped off the lip to keep it silver & the tire for no overspray.

I had used some tire-black spray on my tires a while before I had painted.. tried taping off the tires but it wouldn't stick.. so I figured if tape wont stick to the greasy tire, neither will paint. I cant remember what grit sand paper I used, but scuffed it up good, laid down 2 or 3 coats of color and a couple coats of clear, then the overspray just came right off the tires.

I'm almost ready for new tires though and I expect to have a lot of the paint on the lip scraped off by the tire machine.. I'll just touch them up after I get new tires mounted and balanced. I guess masking off the lip and keeping it silver would avoid that problem though.