painting wheels

[etlsport]

I picked up a set of 15" wheels off an old toyota and figure i might as well make them look nice while they aren't mounted yet. There is some rust around the out lip of the wheel and some very light rust around the hub opening. I'm thinking i'll use some duplicolor wheel paint to bring 'em back.

when prepping the wheels.. what is a good way to evenly remove the rust? I'm thinking a wire brush attachment for my drill. how even do i need to be when removing the rust around the lip? will the tires hold air on the rim as long as there are no sharp edges/dents or does the lip of the rim need to be like a machine finish?

[tom4bren]

The tire 'beads' on the edge of the tire (the horizontal surface when mounted), that surface should be as smooth as possible but I don't think you need a machine finish. The outer surface of the tire near the edge will mate against the bead stop (vertical surface when mounted, this is where the bead lock be if there is one), that surface does nothing for sealing the bead.

Gunk, Slime, TireSeal - whatever you want to call it works quite well for sealing the tire if the bead is questionable. The only problem is that the guy installing your tires will hate you for using it (just blame it on the PO).

[mbeach]

I have done a couple of sets of wheels using the Duplicolor wheel paint, they only turn out good with fanatical surface prep. There's a slight metallic component to the paint that really highlights any surface imperfections.

In all cases, the best results were obtained using "aircraft stripper" on the wheels to remove paint (including clearcoats) and surface rust.
Any pits from rust can be filled with an epoxy like JB Weld, then hand sanded smooth.

See my gallery for the Bronze finish that I threw on a set of Nissan Frontier wheels for my Ironman. This took 1.5 cans of paint per wheel, painting both back and front, with a total of 4 coats.
The Duplicolor paint is pretty durable once cured, and even stood up to the tire irons wielded by our local Sam's Club tire jockeys.

[MSHardeman]

etl,

I would say if you can get them to a sand/ media blaster then do so. They will be able to remove all of the paint (and any rust) from the rims and give you a nice clean surface to paint. For an even more durable coating you could have them powder coated. It shouldn't be too expensive as I looked into having my wheels two toned and it was going to be $200-$300 per wheel to have the chrome stirpped off of them, prepped and two tone powder coated.

[etlsport]

yea ive contacted a very good local powder coater, he said $48 per wheel, $58 if i wanted them perfectly color matched to the vx.. which isnt bad.. but i paid $6.25 per wheel and they are only for offroading.. so not really worth it

[MSHardeman]

Totally understandable, but I would still stand by media blasting as the best/ fastest way to get all of the old paint and rust off of the rims. I'm sure a wire wheel on your drill would work fine, but some left over paint or rust might be hidding in a crevice somewhere and you might have to end up repainting the wheels in a couple of years, but if they are just for off road that might not be so bad.

[tom4bren]

Eric,

I have a sand blaster if you want to stop by sometime you are in the area.

Tom

[etlsport]

i'll have to take you up on that when im down that way