Gonna paint my 94 OEM prelude rims. The 9 spoke or whatever they are. Should I lightly sand them first? Or go ahead and start painting.

 

If they have any sort of paint or anything on them M.E.K. them first or use aircraft stripper. If they are already down to the metal, id say give them a nice sanding then go ahead with the primer.

 

They're totally stock so I guess they're not painted with anything. You really think I should primer them too tho? I was just gonna paint them black then put on some gloss coats.

 

if they are in good condition then you will need to give them a sand with 400-600 grit wet and dry paper then use an etch primer before paint and then of course laquer and as the wheels are not going to be painted by a paintshop and therefor no oven to bake the paint on then i would suggest you keep them off your car and inside for a couple of weeks, unless its hot where you are.

this is the diy method and will not cost very much.

As i paint myself i would strip the finish off the rims with a stripper suitable for aluminium and then proceed with the steps listed above. ideally you want to get thye rims powdered coated as a paint finish will not like the abuse of the road too much, but as your going to do a DIY just look after them and they should be ok.

 

My experience with painting wheels (which is a lot) I've noticed that it depends what's on there already. If they're stock, then they probably just have clear coat on them, so honestly, it wouldnt make too much of a difference if you sanded them first. But DO make sure there aren't any noticeable imperfections you need to sand out first.
Definitely use primer though.
If you DO want to sand them, make sure you do a damn good sanding job, and do it all around. Don't leave parts unsanded. The hardest part is probably going to be getting that gloss coat at the end uniform. Good luck