Diggler86

the wheel place wont repaint the black part... the painter didnt even want to do it.

is there somewhere that will repaint the crosslaced part place and shine up the outer?

DriftaGMCamaro

paint it this color

Diggler86

no.

Russ-So Cal

I haven't had any direct experience, but there was a discussion on one of the Third Gen boards I frequent a few years ago about painting vs powdercoat, and someone posted that they had painted the crosslaced part of their wheels and polished the rim and two years later it was still looking good. Just be sure to clean the wheels thoroughly with soap and water and blow them off good with air before painting so there is no chance for any grease or oils (even body oils from your hands) to keep the paint from sticking. Once you've cleaned the wheels, wear nitril or latex gloves (available cheap from Harbor Freight) until you have finished painting. That way you will not get oil on any surfaces to be painted. Right after I post I always think of something else to add. After painting the center and polishing the rim, and allowing time to dry, paint the entire wheel with clearcoat to protect it.

Pablo

iTrader: (1)

i did it on mine, came out superb.. basically just get some high end rattle can stuff made by rustoleum called hard hat and go to town. Polish the aluminum first though. You have to keep it up though by polishing every so often. My car has been sitting for a few years without my attention so they dont look quite as good as they did in this pic and i havent had a chance to get around to spending some time on them.

www.geocities.com/topfuelcyclist/crosslace.jpg

youll have to cut and paste that into your browser

Russ-So Cal

Have you considered clear coating the wheels after polish and paint?

Pablo

iTrader: (1)

I did, and wont for a few reasons, first, they are so highly polished that I think clear will have a hard time sticking to them and second I dont think it would look as good as the bare polished metal. Clear coat isnt perfectly clear. Course I never tried so it could very well be that It would be the way to go. Keeping them polished isnt that hard though when you work a normal 40 hr a week job unlike myself

one thing i forgot to mention is that you need to completely strip the wheels of paint before you do anything. Get some paint stripper from home depot, the spray on kind i think its even sold as aircraft paint stripper. If its the right stuff it will make the clear and paint curdle up in minutes and practically fall off

Mikos_89

I have a slightly different dilemma. I purchased a set of Classic Industries 16x8 diamond spoked wheels some time ago and I need to paint the centers gold like the originals. The rims are MIB.

I remember Frankie Rider (GTAsource page) mentioning something about this when he had his painted. I don't think he actually stripped all the old paint off, but he did mention that he made sure to have his painter thoroughly sand and scuff all areas of the spoked pattern to be painted over. IIRC, I don't believe he had any kind of clearcoat applied over the paint either.

Russ-So Cal

Pablo mentioned aircraft type stripper. If you go to Home Depot, Lowes, etc to look for stripper, READ THE LABELS CAREFULLY, most of the paint strippers they sell have warnings posted about use on aluminum. I'm sure aircraft stripper is good for alloys since that is what most planes are made of, but the general purpose paint removers may destroy your rims.