I need help with the prepping of the wheels to paint them?
The last time I changed the coating of the wheels it was because I bent two wheels on my last car and bought 17s cheap. They started to chip.
Can any one give me tips for the correct way to prep the stock wheels so I can paint? I am not going to buy rims right now because I sold my supercharger and am trying to get the rest of the money for a turbo kit. I AM WORKING ON THE ENGINE RIGHT KNOW.
Please help
i forgot to tell you guys that they are 05 ls sports rims.
the first thing would be to strip whats on there. you can either buy the chemical alluminum wheel stripper or a light sandblasting would do it, but becareful not to pit the wheels.
there used to be a really good how to i read on here once about painting or preping wheels, but now i cant find it. do some searching on here for it and it will give you some better direction.
i would highly recomend using the chemical stripper though, most people dont have the patience to sandblast at low pressures so things dont pit.
also in order to do a good job, i would prime atleast one coat, preferably two, with sanding in between coats. paint about 2 or 3 coats, wet sanding in between and about 2 coats of clear with wetsanding again.
the more patience you have with this, the better it will come out.
Injection is nice but id rather be BLOWN!
I have heard that the Chrome LS sport wheels are harder to paint then the machined ones. If you have the Chrome ones, I would trade someone for the machined ones.
it looks way better then i expected.. and he did it the worst way you possibly could... they are spray painted black with no prep work besides a good cleaning to them. They were chrome ls sport wheels. But if you do try it i would personaly strip them and get them powdercoated
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98' Pontiac Sunfire SE
Prepping wheels is basically the same as prepping a car's body for paint... you sand... paint... sand... paint... wetsand... paint.
It just depends on how good you want them to look. The easiest/dumbest way I've ever heard of to sand the wheels is to put the whole car up on jack stands... bolt one wheel on the front... start the car and put it in first (or drive, whatever).. let it idle.. and just hold the sand paper against the wheel as it turns. It works but it isn't really safe.
You can thank the geniuses on Pennocks Fiero forum for that one. www.fiero.nl
I painted my wheels but they chipped so easy that I just ended up getting them powder coated and so far so good
Reality is an illusion caused by lack of drugs
ok I have another question on this. do you guys mask off the tires? or take em off? or do you just paint away, and then use something to get rid of the overspray on the tires?
thanks beforehand
heh he didnt even tape off the tire... i dont notice the overspray anymore. i dont know if its bad for the tires or what not...
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98' Pontiac Sunfire SE
I used Envelopes when I did mine this weekend. As long as you dont get carried away with the overspray, eith index cards are envelopes will work.
"Go IRISH"
