I tried searching for any relevant posts, but didnt find anything. Anyway, Im getting tired of the stock 16's. Has anyone ever painted thier rims? I was looking to get almost black / dark grey type of color. How do I go about painting them? Any info is appreciated. Thanks.

NeoVB
1997 Eclipse GS

Don't remember who it was, but someone on the board has them painted gunmetal color....I think that's what you're talking about right? Maybe he will see this post and reply. They looked real nice.

Well I painted my rims black, Eclipse804 has his rims painted gunmetal and there are 1 or 2 more that have gun metal.


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Ya I did gunmetal. I first used Duplicolor black high temp engine paint as a base coat (after lightly scuffing the surface with a scotch brite pad). Then I painted Duplicolor gunmetal, and then high temp clear coat over it. I used at least 4 layers of each. The key is to do it slowly in thin layers, letting it dry in between.

they all copyed me, I painted my stock 14s a year ago aqnd started all the craze

Where did you get the Duplicolor paint? Was it a local shop or is it available at a nation wide retailer? Thanks for your help, and yeah it was gunmetal for some reason it just wouldnt come to my head when I was writing the first post.

NeoVB
1997 Eclipse GS

Duplicolor is sold by most auto chain stores. I got some at kragen, but they only had two cans left. It cost me 20 dollars total for paint. 2 cans gunmetal, 1 can high temp black, 1 can high temp clear. HadesOmega inspired me when he painted his battle wheels gunmetal.

Hey Marcus, some of the guys at RRE think your car is there again. They thought my car was yours cause the blue paint and gunmetal wheels. It was kinda funny.

hey eclipse804. is there anyway you could do a simple write up on painting the wheels? I realize it's pretty simple but i dont want to mess it up. just the steps and what paints you used and when.
thanks,
jeff

>Hey Marcus, some of the guys at RRE think your car is there
>again. They thought my car was yours cause the blue paint
>and gunmetal wheels. It was kinda funny.

Hahaha that's pretty funny. I bet they think all the NT guys are ricers into body kits and paint jobs huh? A couple of the workers asked me about my rims too, not knowing what car it came from.

Here is a simple write up.

1) Spray in warm weather in the day, in an area away from the wind (I did mine at 2 am which is not a good idea since it was about 40 degrees and I couldn't see in the dark).

2) Wash the wheels good (I used some bug and tar remover on them too to remove any sticky stuff).

3) Sand the wheels lightly with either 400 grit wet sand, or the brownish red scotch-brite pads (the ones people use to sand the door jams and under hood area of their cars when doing paint jobs). We just want to scuff the surface a little, but I barely sanded at all. Might not even be necessary.

4) Put masking tape around the edge of the rim (between the rim and tire). I had to use a lot of small 2" long pieces of masking tape since the wheels curve. I tried to get it as deep under the edge of the rim as possible, to keep any paint from getting onto the tire. Make sure the tire is dry before you try to tape it. Then I used more tape along the edge of the tire nearest the rim, to cover it up real good. Finally, I taped pieces of newpaper over the time to protect the entire tire.

5) lay the wheel over some newspaper, and spray your base coat. You want to wait at least 5-10 minutes between each coat. A few coats of high temperature base is probably good. I used high temp black Duplicolor paint (500 degree). Make sure it dries between coats, and do thin layers. Patience is the key.

6) Spray your actual color (gunmetal in my case). Again, thin layers, waiting preferably 10 minutes between each layer. I used probably about 6 layers of gunmetal.

7) Let the gunmetal dry very well, longer than 10 minutes, and then spray the clear. Clear goes on a lot quicker than the base, and it's hard to see drips. So again, do very thin coats. I wasn't careful and dripped the clear in a few places. 3 -4 coats of clear should be good.

8) You're done, but keep in mind your wheels are painted. If you go get an alignment like I did, and they clamp those metal clamps onto your rims, it will scratch off a bit of the paint. You can always touch it up. Powder coating is the best way to do it, but costs around 200 and you have to take your tires off and have a spare set of rims. The total paint cost was $20.

Ok, dang, I think I'll put that write up on my site sometime...

Here is a little trick ive seen done also. Take some shampoo and spread it on your tires before you paint. After you are done painting then wash them off, the paint comes right off with the shampoo.

Even if the shampoo dries by the time you finish? The whole process is about 1 to 2 hours depending on how impatient you are in waiting between coats.

Oh and the paint itself takes at least a few more hours to dry before you can spray water on it. It says 24 hours is best time to let it dry.

hey thanks for the write up.
jeff

Damn that means im going to have to do one wheel a day... Im definately gonna look rice driving around with 1 gunmetal rim :)

NeoVB
1997 Eclipse GS

Well I did two wheels at a time (since I only have two jack stands). I let it dry overnight and it was fine to put back on the car the next day.