Advise on painting or plasti dip chrome plated OEM wheels?
- Thread starter SWUtah
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You don't even need to take the wheels off your car, check out dipyourcar.com and they have some instructional videos.
The only prep you need to do is give them a thorough cleaning, and I think there might be a product meant for prepping before plastidip but I doubt it's really a requirement. All that does is prolong the life of the dip.
There is a thread where a user outlined his steps, in a very minutely detailed way..
As Chris mentioned, don't bother taking your wheels off. Take a deck of playing cards, and insert them in the gap between the rim and the wheel. I stuffed wrapping paper in the spaces behind the rim and then rattle can painted with 4 coats of primer, two coats of paint and then a gloss coating. It took time, but the results work ..
Note: I wasn't in love with the plasti-dip product for the wheels, so I used rattle can sprayable primer and then flat enamel paint...Agree with your idea about not using cards for plasti-dip, but if your'e spraying, it makes it easier to tape off the wheels, not that you really have to just saves paint..
As Chris mentioned, don't bother taking your wheels off. Take a deck of playing cards, and insert them in the gap between the rim and the wheel. I stuffed wrapping paper in the spaces behind the rim and then rattle can painted with 4 coats of primer, two coats of paint and then a gloss coating. It took time, but the results work ..
Note: I wasn't in love with the plasti-dip product for the wheels, so I used rattle can sprayable primer and then flat enamel paint...Agree with your idea about not using cards for plasti-dip, but if your'e spraying, it makes it easier to tape off the wheels, not that you really have to just saves paint..
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If you're dipping your wheels, DON'T do this! simply mask off the rotors if you want to, then go ahead and start spraying. Fonzi has videos on it that you can find on YouTube. Make sure to have about 4-5 even coats so when you go back to take it off it will peel off very easily. The reason you don't want to do the note card method when dipping is because you want over spray on your tires so when you go back to peel the overspray off your tires it gives a very clean line along the borders of the rims.
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My real issue is these shiny chrome wheels Any suggestions on what would be easy to cover the wheels while on the 100, and look good and be durable. Would the primer then a dull black enamel paint be a more durable longer lasting solution? Plan on doing this myself. Thanks
If you're planning on wheeling it then plasti dip may not be the way to go, but if you aren't planning on dragging your rims on anything then dipping them is a non permanent but also a long lasting solution. It will last 2-3 years if its not drug on rocks.
Spray painting is definitely the more permanent solution, so if you don't mind painting straight onto your rims then go ahead and spray them up!
If you're planning on wheeling - buy some Tundra steelies and store those pretty OEM wheels - you may (gulp) sell the truck one day. Just the profile of the OEM wheels begs to get scratched.
I've just did two tundra wheels in plastidip. Not happy with the first one (grainy/sandpaper like ) finish so I pealed that off. The second wheel finish is coming out better... May have been my technique or the fact that I started with an almost empty can and it came out funny.
Question: do I need to sand down the tundra steelies before painting or would just a good coat of primer do the trick?
Question: do I need to sand down the tundra steelies before painting or would just a good coat of primer do the trick?
A good coat of primer will be fine. I debated doing the same, but they've held on quite well....
I did a couple of coats of primer and then flat black enameled them until I was happy. But the truth is, I would have been fine if I had just a few coats of primer to get complete coverage and then flat black enamel for 2 coats just to get a consistent finish. They looked fine by then and I didn't improve anything after the first two coats.
Bang for the buck, painting Tundra steel wheels is a good value approach...
I did a couple of coats of primer and then flat black enameled them until I was happy. But the truth is, I would have been fine if I had just a few coats of primer to get complete coverage and then flat black enamel for 2 coats just to get a consistent finish. They looked fine by then and I didn't improve anything after the first two coats.
Bang for the buck, painting Tundra steel wheels is a good value approach...
I took the wheels off, cleaned them, and sprayed two light coats, then 3 heavy coats.
How have they stood up? I just came in from the garage from peeling the plasti off the two wheels I did. Not sold yet on the durability and the need to try and touch up in the future.
In my experience a thick base coat and 3-4 moderate coats over that serves pretty well. I have dipped my grill and rear badges so far and am incredibly pleased with the results, get compliments all the time. Next piece to get dipped will be the side louvres and then in the near future I will be dipping all of my wheels. Still deciding on how to mask the sombreros on the hub caps. I want to keep those silver. That looks great though Bama!
Not sure I understand the love of plasti-dip.
Why not just paint them? Clean, scuff, prime, paint. Looks great, will last a long time and easily touched up.
To the OP, if you decide to paint the chrome wheels, I'd do the "scuff" step above a bit more thoroughly. Maybe 320, then a red scuff pad, then prime. Need to cut that chrome a bit to give the primer something to grab.
Why not just paint them? Clean, scuff, prime, paint. Looks great, will last a long time and easily touched up.
To the OP, if you decide to paint the chrome wheels, I'd do the "scuff" step above a bit more thoroughly. Maybe 320, then a red scuff pad, then prime. Need to cut that chrome a bit to give the primer something to grab.
I have commitment issues.
But seriously, I just don't feel like painting them permanently yet and plasti dip is super cheap.
Ok, so these are the ones I'm doing. The black one has the plasti on it, I have since pealed it off. I dont think they will stand up on the trail well at all, one little rock or a stick....
I'm wondering if anyone else has experience priming and painting right over the existing OEM tundra paint with primer and paint verses sanding and/or brushing them down to bare medal. Seems like its not a big deal to just put a wire brush on a drill and take it down but would be nice if there were primers out there that would just do the trick.
