Painting rims white . . .

[TRD_solaRa]

yo yo fellow solaRa enthusiasts . . . I got the TSW/TRD 17" rims, but have scratched up a couple of them schmall kine (excuse the Hawaii lingo). Anyway, I am a little pressed for cash as I will be installing my custom exhaust soon. So I was thinking about sanding the rims down and painting them an enamel or glossy white color. But I have no experience in this, so I'm goin out on a limb here. This might belong in DIY, but I felt like all 1-1.5 Gen owners might have some insight on this. Does anyone have any ideas or anything that could help? Thanks boiz and gurlz . . .

[dan99solara]

when i saw the subject of this thread i was hoping it was a late april fools joke. pleeeease dont paint your rims white, white rims look way too ricey.

[thealkimo]

IMO, if you are going to paint them, match them to the diamond white pearl paint of your chassis since different shades of the same color tend to clash...especially in certain lighting conditions. However...this may require taking it to a professional for paint matching. I'd say save some money and just have your rims restored

What kind of custom exhaust setup are you getting?

And what does "schmall kine" actually mean?

[TRD_solaRa]

What kind of custom exhaust setup are you getting?

And what does "schmall kine" actually mean?

Dual carbon fiber titanium mufflers . . . coming soon . . . to answer ya question. And "scmall kine" is like small kind or "a little" or "little bit". Something of that nature. Pigeon bra. Shootz.

[Turbosolara]

dont do DIY paint, bring it to shops powder coat!

[Jai_Jai_Binks]

^^ what he said...
diy rim paintings look bad. If u think ur rims look bad now...imagine them being 3-5 times worse when self painted!

[impactX]

Get your rims refinished and repainted / powdercoated into a different color.

[TRD_solaRa]

Damn, does it really come out that bad??? So if I should take it to a shop to "refinish and powdercoat", how much would it cost approximately? Has anyone done it? Also, would they have to remove the tires from the rim to do this kind of work? Thanks for ya input people . . .

[MalBandito99]

More input on the same talk that is still going on....


http://www.zer0.info/solaraguy/viewtopic.php?t=8259

[PEITRUS]

Since lots of people have been asking about my wheels, I figured I would make a how-to for everyone to see. First, I'll go through the process I followed:
1. Clean off wheels thoroughly, then lay wheel/tire flat on ground.
2. Scuff wheel with sandpaper, then clean wheel again.
3. Stick index cards around edge of wheel between tire and wheel to keep paint off of tires.
4. Spray several light coats of paint onto wheel. I used DupliColor Wheel Paint, graphite color, available from AutoZone, $4/can.
5. Spray several light coats of clearcoat if desired, depending on how shiny you want the final product to be. Clearcoat will also make the final finish feel smoother.

Now, after doing that, here is what I have observed needs to be done in addition to those steps above:

- Before painting, you should use an aircraft stripper to remove ALL original clearcoat and any paint that is on the wheel to begin with. Take it down to bare aluminum.

- Clean wheel, strip off clearcoat (use gloves, and try to keep the stuff off the tires), clean off residue, clean/wash wheel again, then paint as above.

- As far as primer, I'm not sure if that should be used beforehand or not. I didn't, but you might have better results if you use it.

And now the before:

And after:

[MaxBoostSolara]

i would powder coat them... just 2 b sure.. one of my friends painted his rims and the paint didnt last 2 long... ended up powder coating them anyways