Wheel Re-Finish

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AKcruiserfreak said:
Look great! Now you need to get rid of the "lowrider" stance. ;-)

TK
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Already done. here are a couple of photos of the lift. I will be getting some new tires soon. My little bro helped my install the lift. 851's with 1 inch spacer and 863's out back. Nice combo.
IMG_1943.webp
 
This post inspired me to give this a try, and it worked out amazingly well for the price. My factory alloys looked like scat. I needed new tires, so ordered new terra grapplers from discoutntiredirect. I removed my old wheels/tires and took them to walmart to have the tires removed. Brought the wheels home and stripped them with some aircraft paint remover (spray type I got at walmart). After applying the stripper and waiting the 20-30 minutes recommended on the spray can, I hit them with a pressure washer. After they dried, I primed them, and painted with Duplicolor wheel paint according to the directions (WP101 Silver, I was trying to get stock wheel look].

Having the tires removed from the wheels made it much easier. The only thing I would recommend is buying two spray cans of the aircraft stipper. It was only 5-6 bucks or so at the walmart. After stripping the wheels, I still had a little bit of clearcoat left on a couple of wheels. I was out of stripper and decided to press on. After painting, you cant really tell unless you are looking for it. The wheels look 99% better. Not perfect like factory new alloys, but heck this is a 14 year old vehicle. I was very pleased with the results, and especially the price compared to buying new "quality" new wheels. If you are on a budget and have a little time, this is the way to go for improving the looks of your wheels.

I am missing a center cap that I need to get ordered from cdan. After I take care of that and get the center caps painted, I'll post some pics.

smokethedog
 
What color did you paint them?

DougM
 
smokethedog said:
This post inspired me to give this a try, and it worked out amazingly well for the price. My factory alloys looked like scat. I needed new tires, so ordered new terra grapplers from discoutntiredirect. I removed my old wheels/tires and took them to walmart to have the tires removed. Brought the wheels home and stripped them with some aircraft paint remover (spray type I got at walmart). After applying the stripper and waiting the 20-30 minutes recommended on the spray can, I hit them with a pressure washer. After they dried, I primed them, and painted with Duplicolor wheel paint according to the directions (WP101 Silver, I was trying to get stock wheel look].

Having the tires removed from the wheels made it much easier. The only thing I would recommend is buying two spray cans of the aircraft stipper. It was only 5-6 bucks or so at the walmart. After stripping the wheels, I still had a little bit of clearcoat left on a couple of wheels. I was out of stripper and decided to press on. After painting, you cant really tell unless you are looking for it. The wheels look 99% better. Not perfect like factory new alloys, but heck this is a 14 year old vehicle. I was very pleased with the results, and especially the price compared to buying new "quality" new wheels. If you are on a budget and have a little time, this is the way to go for improving the looks of your wheels.

I am missing a center cap that I need to get ordered from cdan. After I take care of that and get the center caps painted, I'll post some pics.

smokethedog
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post some pics sounds nice. I would like to see how the silver looks.
 
Silver, then (missed that). Pictures?
 
I'd like to do this too, but I'll be using my rig for a DD this summer. How long does it take for the paint to cure? If I could knock it all out in a weekend, I might be able to make it work.

Also, I noticed that most of you don't have tire weights on the outside of the rim. Do you use sticky foam weights or did you get them mounted on the inside? I asked the guy at costco to use the clamp on weights because I have had the sticky ones fall off from pressure washes etc. He said they could only be mounted on the outside of the wheel.

Is this correct or is it just some policy because they don't want to deal with suspension components rubbing them off?

If it would work, maybe I could just swap the weights the the exact opposite spot on the inside of the rim.

Thoughts?
 
Time: I did mine in a day. The cure time they say is 7 days however I mounted mine back on the car extra careful and I have been driving ever since. You can get it done in one day. Paint one day. leave them in the sun for the 2nd. You will be fine.

I had very little weight on the tires so I took mine off the outside. I am getting new tires in a month so no worries. In the meantime I cannot tell any difference without the weights. I have clip on weights. However when i go to have my new tires mounted I will be having them use the tape weights. I like the look better.
 
lndcruz said:
looks nice. Im debating between this color or matte black
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Unfortunately I have upwards of 7oz of weights on some of my tires. :eek: I might look into swapping them to the inside if I can. I do like the look of the sticky weights better, but they haven't stuck very well from my experience.

I just found out that my dad took my bratty sister's trailblazer away from her for a while so I think I could drive it and let the 80 wheels cure for longer if needed.

I can't decide what color to go with. I really like the color you chose, but I also like the black. I used to anti-black wheel when I was a teen, but they have grown on me over the years.

I can't remember who's truck this is, but it gives me an idea of what mine would look like.

1 black wheels.webp
1 black wheels.webp
 
Nice job!
I am going to do this soon too. I am also debating between matt black and this color. My rig is black and will put new 33's on. I think black will be looks good with 35's since I remember people said it will make your tires look smaller.
 
Interesting, I guess I haven't seen a lot of blacked out rims to notice if it makes the tires look smaller. I thought it might make them look a bit bigger since the rim/tire boundaries are less pronounced with black wheels.
 
7 Months later. Update:

The wheels have held up well. There are a couple of knicks from rocks, etc... However no cracking, flaking of any kind. You just have to be carefull with your impact wrech otherwise you will mar up your nice wheels. here is a photo from a couple of days ago. Finish still looks great. Still very happy with them.

I also used the same color to repaint my rusty running boards & hitch. Running boards look great, hitch (sucks the prep was not the best). I'm going to mask and do my front grill here as its pitted and chipped.
IMG_4798.webp
 
jvazquez53 said:
I might try this on my "inherited wheels" from the 60. Before you guys mention the missing nuts, this was only a test to see if they fit and how they look.:grinpimp:
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Painted them and this is the final result. you can see the difference between front and rear.:steer:
Before and after 3.webp
Before and after 2.webp
 
looks good, I did my last year, taped around the tire and primed and painted. It was easy, cheap, and touch up when needed. I did it for around 20 bucks, too powder coat them they wanted 200 bucks a rim. Have recieved many compliments.
 
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