painting rims

chitwnvw · Post by **chitwnvw** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 10:42 pm

Anyone had any luck painting rims with the tires on? Any tips? Hints?

hambone · Post by **hambone** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 7:25 am

Sand/prep, Mask carefully, first with a layer of tape where the metal meets the rubber, then tape a bunch of newspaper to it, all around where there will be overspray. It doesn't take that long.
Then a nice coat of primer followed by the color coat. I gotta do mine too!

spiffy · Post by **spiffy** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 7:37 am

Look at Durocshark's website for the Guac. He had an awesome idea to keep the paint off of the tires that does not require 2 hours of masking (that's how I did mine

).

I should have used a higher quality primer though, I do have some rust bleeding through after about 2 years of use.

chitwnvw · Post by **chitwnvw** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 7:44 am

What would be a good quality primer?

I was thinking of using Rustoleum primer.

Post by **Amskeptic** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 8:36 am

chitwnvw wrote:What would be a good quality primer?

I was thinking of using Rustoleum primer.

Don't use primer if you are doing factory wheel aluminum. Sand and clean the wheel, BMW wheel cleaner is an excellent surface cleaner, then use Duplicolor Engine Paint Aluminum. Spray two coats, a thin tack coat followed by a medium color coat. Then a medium clearcoat onto the aluminum within ten minutes, followed by a finish coat. Peel your tape/newspaper within another ten minutes and clean tire of any inadvertant overspray bits with a rag soaked with GumOut. Good for about 5 years and 80,000 miles.

static · Post by **static** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 11:05 am

Aluminum? Must be one them there poncy buses.

What I did for my steel wheels was buy a set from a wrecker and then send them out to be powder coated.
After I had them mounted onto my bus, I then took my old set and passed them off to a friend who had them powder coated, and then passed his old ones off to another friend.

RustyBug · Post by **RustyBug** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 11:20 am

I painted my rims recently (with tires on) and to minimize taping off I went to the hardware store and bought a 48" roll of 10" wide alum. flashing (for gutters/windows/siding etc).

It's really thin metal that is easily moved and manipulated around the rim.
I used some tape on one end to keep it at the same size.

I used a marine grade (gray) primer and then painted the wheels black. It took less than 1 hour to paint all 4 wheels.

Prep time, scraping/sanding took a little longer than the actual painting did.

Anyway...I thought the technique worked well enough to share.

Good luck!

-Billy

NWbuspilot · Post by **NWbuspilot** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 3:36 am

I didn't mask mine at all. I just brushed and sanded away most of the rust, then sprayed with Rustoleum Clean Metal Primer in white. Then I took some of my leftover Lift-Off (The stuff by Motsenbockers that I wrote about with removing the spraypaint from my bus) along with one of those green scrubby brushes and removed all the overspray.

Just make sure to spray the lift-off onto the scrubber, not the tire, as the drips will remove the paint from the wheels. It was much faster than masking, it took maybe 2-3 minutes per tire to completely remove the overspray. Only downside was that I had just applied tire shine a few days before, so it left me with a ring of not-as-shiny tire rubber where I scrubbed. I used the last of the bottle on one of the tires and it shined right back up like before.

Randy in Maine · Post by **Randy in Maine** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:34 pm

I just had my rims powdercoated at Awesome Powdercoating. I am pleased.

Sylvester · Post by **Sylvester** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:54 pm

Randy in Maine wrote:I just had my rims powdercoated at Awesome Powdercoating. I am pleased.

Nice Randy, what was the ballpark cost to get that done?

Randy in Maine · Post by **Randy in Maine** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 1:34 pm

I delivered them to Ohio and retrieved them on my way back to Maine. Shipping kills you when it comes to wheels. Not only does it cost a bunch, but the wheels can get beat up on the way back to you.

He sandblasted them, cleaned them all up, and made them just like you see them for $50 a wheel. I felt it was a fair price for the work performed. He really had to work to get the POR-15 and paint off my spare. I am pleased with how they turned out. He earned his money. That Jeep wheel was prettty rusty also as it is my spare that is stored under the bed of my Comanche pick up.

I wish I had had him high temp powdercoat my new thunderbird exhaust since I was there anyway. He says it is good up to 1000º. I should have read the website for what they do....

http://www.awesomepowdercoat.com/

hambone · Post by **hambone** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:23 am

Used Krylon primer and Rustoleum Gloss White. I was very impressed with how silky the paint came out and how easy it was to get an even finish. I think it's the best stuff I've ever used outa a can.
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mattg · Post by **mattg** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:31 am

I notice that those rims are solid - mine have little holes in them all the way around. Is that a year difference - btw the rims turned out nice - wish mine had a fresh coat of paint - I like the look of white - mine are still factory gray

hambone · Post by **hambone** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:55 am

Thanks, yeah the early bays had the old-style wheels. I think the '71 was the first year of the holes due to disk brakes in front.

hambone · Post by **hambone** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 10:21 am

Old yellow pages. Worked well.

Itinerant Air-Cooled

Itinerant Air-Cooled

painting rims

painting rims

Rims