Finally after weeks of debate, and countless hours spent on careful preperation and painting, my wheels are done. Well, they actually have been for about a week now, I just got around to taking a few quick pics.

If anyone is wondering, I used Dupli-Color "Graphite Grey". It has tons of metal flake in it, so it sparkles nicely in the sun. I know this isn't as important as a swap or anything, just wanted to share my results.

Before...



After...


"Close-up" of the front wheel...


Thanks for checking it out guys...


[Modified by ThunderLips, 2:53 PM 6/5/2002]

 

it looks VERY nice

 

Nice wheels man, i like before AND after...both look really good. Do you happen to have a closer shot so we can see those flakes you speak of?

 

I like it. Nice choice of color.

 

Hey, you finally sobered up and decided to join the civilized world. Welcome back!

 

nice job, what steps did u take to paint them? i'm thinking of painting my gsr's that color. did you take the tires off before spray painting them or kept them on and just taped it off? how many coats is that? thanks

 

I didn't remove the tires, I'm on a really tight budget. If I was to remove the tires, I would have just powdercoated them instead. I sat the car on blocks for two days and took my sweet *** time painting them.

I degreased and cleaned the wheels thoroughly before wet sanding with 500, then 800 grit paper. I then allowed time to dry in the sun, masked off the tires with high quality masking tape (same used in body shops) and thick card stock. I tried the 3x5 card technique but found they didn't wedge well between the tires and lip of the wheel. I started with several light coats, and built the paint up over time. I don't really remember how many coats, but I used basically half a can on each wheel. Dupli-Color recommends using their clear coat, but it leaves the wheels very glossy, which wasn't exactly my goal.

In person, the finished wheel is slightly matte, almost flat. But, since there is a considerable ammount of flake in the paint it gives it a very nice sparkle in person. It's exactly what I was expecting, and I am very pleased with the results. I now can go weeks without touching my wheels and they still look "clean".


[Modified by ThunderLips, 4:18 PM 6/5/2002]

 

Looks cool. I like before better though.

 

sort of resemble the color of OZ Superlegga's

 

Can't believe you ruined a rare set of CP-Fs ( I think thats them).

Definetly a no for me

 

Looks real good, Thats the same type of paint i used to paint my 95 GSR's. and i also love the sparkle kind of look to it, i was very pleased with the 10$ bucks i spent. i'd post pics also but i have none of them since i painted them.

 

looks hard....

 

Rare for someone that doesn't have a set...And It's not like a tattoo, the paint can be removed down the road and I can re-coat them at a later date. Why don't you just say you don't like the color.

 

Just bumping once in case anyone hasn't seen this yet...Not that it's that important.

 

Much better! I just bought that paint today, I'm gonna do my LS rims.

 

It looks good. I give it a big

 

looks good

 

th easiest way to paint them without spraying the tire is to use index cards. place them all the way around inbetween the rim and tire and just spray away. i just pinted a se of my boyyestrday seriously from start to finish theywere back o the car in under 2 hrs with a professional looking finish.

 

thunderlips, thanks for the info.

 

I don't think the index card method works with all wheels/tires. I have 205/50/15's, and there wasn't enough room to slide the card in between the lip. I just used masking tape...

 

Definitely looks a lot better than it did...

 

Oh, so I guess my car is just okay now...

 

super super tiiiite

 

looks nice

 

nice wheels..