hey guys i know what you are thinking, " Paint rims? Ghetto?" but this is all i have money for, i will save up for powdercoating later. Ok here is the 411. They are Konig Tuner 15X7 rims. I want to go from silver spokes to gunmetal spokes and a polished lip. I need to know how to get the clear coat off the wheels. What do i use? I only need to get the clear coat off and not down the the aluminum the wheels are made out of. The problem is, the clear coat is coming off on some parts. Here are the pics.



with the flash on



and finally



My rims look like this right now


and hopefully they will look like this...


Thanks for helping guys, i just need to know what to get the clear coat off with!
Also if i end up painting it, should i scuff up the spokes and just paint, or do you think its necessary for primer/clear coat? Thanks again!


[Modified by Civiclx, 4:03 AM 7/21/2002]

 

im not sure wat to do but the last pic looks good

 

Thanks! I wanna do this pretty soon. <Bump>

 

if u want it to look good, then wait to powder coat them. itll be worth the wait

 

try gold... yummy

 

gold would look good. any other suggestions?

 

you simply sand the clear coat off the wheel - wet sand it - try using 600 grit. If you sand the aluminum you can just work your way up to 1200 grit and polish them.

 

That's how ya do it. Wet sand 600 and I would go up to 2000(don't skip for best results 600,700,800,1000,1200,1500,2000). Just fold sand paper in half, dip it in a bucket of water and rub your little hart off. Warning it is alot of work. I did my valve cover and it took like two hours. But it looks good.

Get 3M brand for any hardware store like Home depot or Lowe's

 

My suggestion because your clear is coming off on the lip. Sand the whole wheel down including the lip using the grits JDM_EK posted and apply a polishing compound to the lip to make shiny again. Go to the hobby store and buy some clear coat in a spray can. Cover the spokes with some sort of sheilding. Spray the lip with very light coats of the clear waiting 10-15 min in between each coat to ensure no runs. Allow the lip to dry, remove covering from spokes, now cover the lip and paint the spokes gunmetal, again using very light coats and wating 10-15 min. in between each coat to ensure no runs. This is how I would do it IF I wanted to do it right. You might not want to spend the time though.

Edit: Grammar

BTW: If you wanted to take the time to do it, you could allow the clear to dry completely between each coat and lightly wet sand it with 2000 grit paper and a backing plate to make sure it is completely smooth.



[Modified by reVVin, 12:24 AM 7/16/2002]

 

I would suggest just sanding them like people have said...dont worry about painting them. It's going to look real bad if you paint them. Wait to powder coat.

 

Thanks for the comments i am gonna start tomorrow. keep comments coming!

 

ttt

 

good luck

 

damn thats gonna look sick on your car

 

Those wheels are gonna look awesome dude.

 

One last thing, when painting your spokes I do reccommend clear coating them but letting each coat dry and then lightly wetsand it down before the next coat. Wet sand the final coat with 2000 grit paper and then buff the small marks from the paper out with 3M Perfect It Rubbing Compound, then 3M Finesse It II, then 3M Swirl Mark Remover, then hit it with a good coat of wax (do the same for the lip). I know, that's a shitload of extra things to do but IDK how much $$$ or time you want to invest. If you invest the $$$ and the time, it might look so good that you wouldn't need to powdercoat the wheels.

 

Damn thanks reVVin thats really gonna help, ill update yalls lata. thanks all!

 

If they are done with just a one coat paint job and that's it, sure they will look like ****. But, if done right it can look outstanding.

 

yeah, im thinking of putting a pretty good amount of coats on there. i know some of you guys painted your rims. how many coats?

 

Dang guys, ive done two rims so far (lip polishing) and lemme say thank you for the advice! they look 100% better. the pics will be up shortly!

 

Despite what everyone says, painting wheels is not ghetto. If you do it right, it will come out perfectly flawless. Looks like you have got it covered though, I just needed to stick up for my wheel painting job.

 

yup. I sprayed mygsr's black and they came out great. Just take the time and do it right.

 

civiclx: I was going to suggest using aircraft stripper to get ALL the clearcoat off of the wheels, but I guess you've already started. I would have also said to polish the lip first, then mask it and spray the spokes, then just spray the whole thing with clearcoat. That way you're not trying to mask off any painted parts, which can get messy if you don't wait a long time after painting before trying to put masking tape over it.

Also, when sanding before you start painting, I would not go up real high in the grit numbers. What you want to do is scuff it up so the paint will adhere to the metal better. If you go up to like 600+ grit then you're starting to smooth it out, which is defeating the purpose of sanding before painting. Now if you want them really shiny after painting, then you will need to wetsand w/ grits up to about 2000. Be careful, though, as it's a pretty difficult process, at least for me. I always seem to end up removing too much paint or clearcoat and I have to do it all over again.


[Modified by PatrickGSR94, 10:53 AM 7/17/2002]

 

thanks for the reply, I have it under wraps and have begun to polish out the lips before even scuffing up the spokes. my plan is to get the lips dang polished with up to 2000 g sandpaper then scuff the spokes with 320 or possibly lower grit and spray away with gunmetal. I will let it dry and wetsand all of it with 2000 grit, and then spray again, wetsand, then finally top it off with a shot of clear which will take a coat of rubbing compound/polishing compound/and wax to cure it all! Thanks

 

I would sand the wheels all over w/ the lower grades of sandpaper, and then when you get up to a certain point, just use the higher grades on the lip and get them all polished. That way you won't risk scratching the newly polished lip while sanding the spokes... or you could polish the lip then mask it off before sanding the spokes... whatever works best for you.