painting aluminum wheels

[85crownHPP]

So I want to paint these HPP wheels... I want to keep the rim polished and paint the spoked area black.
Should I got ahead and get a cheap sandblaster? If so what do you paint bare aluminum with? Is primer needed? It would be a pain in the ass to try to scour all that area with sandpaper...
Also should I cover the whole wheel with a clear coat to seal it all off? Last time I tried to clear coat something it came out a foggy mess.

[91grandmarquis]

I would clear coat it, and automotive paint should work fine, If your going to spray bomb it I would go with the dupont cans although they are like 15 bucks a piece, Primer is good too for the parts your coloring. Oh an have fun with sandblasting - make sure you buy like 3 extra face shields and shave your head.

[pantera77]

When I painted the center of my turbines, I didn't scuff them up at all. Just made sure they were nice and clean. I put down a few coats of primer, and then a lot of coats of some generic $.99 black paint. I was going to clear coat them, but I didn't have any on hand and the paint seemed to be pretty strong without it. They came out pretty good even though the rims had huge chunks of the factory clear coat missing.

[91grandmarquis]

Also there are guides on polishing aluminum wheels, however if you don't clear the area that is polished DO NOT SOLVENT WASH YOUR WHEELS! we have some american racing bajas and any solvent ie, whitewall cleaner leaves marks and stains that don't come out, even that goo they use to mount tires left stains and they had to order 2 more for us.

[85crownHPP]

Yeah acidy cleaners are hell on bare aluminum... i wasn't talking about polishing them down to bare mirror shine or anything - really just to buff off crud from what i guess is the coating it has now. Mirror shine would be sweet though...
I mostly just don't want the black to flake off too soon, lol

[1987cp]

I think sandblasting is an excellent idea. Seems the worst part of getting anything to look right is to remove any previous contamination. I definitely hope to be able to blast my aluminum wheels if I ever do anything else vaguely constructive with their appearance. (which in my case will involve upgrading to a real air compressor over this dinky oilless one)

[87gtVIC]

[hemihotrod402]

sandblasting would be a good idea. Im fairly sure they would fit in a normal sandblasting cabinet (we've blasted my 15 inch steelies before with no problem) so if you have one or know of one that does, thats where I would start. As long as you prime it well, and use good paint, you shouldnt have to worry about it flaking off for at least a while. Dont know if you want gloss or not, but if you do, shoot it with 2 or 3 coats of clear.

[P72Ford]

If you want to do it the right way, Pete...

You have to remove the factory coating on the lace. You could blast it, or use chemical stripper, etc. If you sandblast the lace, DO NOT sandblast the lip as it will make it a pain in the ass to bring back to a polished finish. I'd use chemical stripper or elbow grease to get the coating off the lip.

Polish the lip, and mask it.

Prime and paint the lace. Unmask the lip, and clear everything. I've cleared polished aluminum in the past, and it has held up well. I was concerned that the paint wouldn't adhere to a really smooth surface, but it worked pretty well.

If you don't clear it, you'll have to polish it every month... and it'll be messy with the black center.

[91grandmarquis]

If you want it nice sandblast, its just a pain if you dont have a cabinet and have to do it outside in your drive way... Anyway with proper prep, a nice coat of primer and clear those things will last as long as factory.

[marquisman]

when my bro repainted the wheels for his trans-am from gold to black he sand blasted them with a small blaster i got. then he used duplicolor aluminum primer and duplicolor black with clear on the end. with carefull blasting, enough coats of primer/paint and a week of labour and curing time, they look good.

[CheeseSteakJim]

use self etching primer on the bare aluminum. that'll help it stick a little better.

[DriverSideImpact98]

I painted my standard 98 aluminum wheels with Rust Oleum's wheel paint. I don't think i used primer either. I just lightly sanded them with high-grit paper and sprayed away. It looks pretty good... and has held up pretty well. Just a few little chips here and there.

The Duplicolor stuff works good too. A buddy used that stuff on his Powerstroke's wheels.

I agree with the self-etching stuff. I really should have used that. Tape the lip and then primer and paint...