I'm getting ready to do the paint work on my set of GTA wheels. The entire wheel was stripped down and the rim polished. My question is what type of paint should I use. Regular spray paint? High temp engine paint? Wheel paint? I'm looking for something durable and that will last. I've seen wheels done in the various wheel paints available and they seem to start flaking off after a short period of time. Anyone with long term results on a project like this please post here. I was looking into the etching primers to help the paint stick as well. I'll be painting them black if anyone is wondering.

 

I had a Pontiac steel wheel sandblasted, primed, then painted with two-part epoxy paint. The finish is rock-hard and durable.

Aluminum wheels are different, I can't see a person getting a hard, durable finish on it at home. Powder coating perhaps? It's hard to get paint to stick to aluminum, especially if the surface is polished.

 

I'm restoring these wheels to better than new condition. The rim is supposed to be polished but the center(crosslace) section is rough cast and is the section that is being painted,not the rim.

 

I think the flaking problem is due to prep process, if you don't get all the brake dust of and sand the alminium before paint then they will flake no matter what paint you use. Also When you paint the wheels let them cure for 4 weeks before you mount them, this will give the paint time to cure without being heated unevenly due to brake heat. No long term experience 1 month so far still looks as when I put them on the car.

Look at page 2 on the cardomain site in my sig. for pictures

Oh yea its dupli color wheel paint, 4 coats per wheel.

 

Well, paint was sprayed this afternoon. I had previously stripped the wheels with aircraft paint stripper to remove the clear and paint. I then polished the rim out thoroughly to smooth out the fine machine lines and get a mirror shine. I then used an etching primer on the center and topped it off with gloss black high temp engine paint with ceramic. Thanks Aviator857 for the tip on curing. I was planning to get them mounted next weekend but now I plan to wait a few weeks before I do that. I plan to have them on the car by the spring Auto Fair in Charlotte.