Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
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Car: 1986 Camaro Drag Car
Engine: 383 on Ethanol
Transmission: Automatic
Axle/Gears: 3.90 Currie 9 inch
Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
What a major pain in the a$$. I knew it was gonna be a job, but it was way worse than I expected. Prepping them was absolutely TERRIBLE. I was able to get the OEM Paint code for the gold. The wheels were in REALLY tough shape. Clear coat peeling all over, corrosion, etc. They turned out pretty nice for what we started with....
BEFORE......
LIPS POLISHED.........
AND AFTER PAINT......
BEFORE......
LIPS POLISHED.........
AND AFTER PAINT......
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Car: 1986 Camaro Drag Car
Engine: 383 on Ethanol
Transmission: Automatic
Axle/Gears: 3.90 Currie 9 inch
Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
Thanks for the compliments, fellas!
DynoDave, I'm really not that interested in doing another set any time soon lol. They sucked, soooooo bad!! I even made my own scotch brite tool to use on my drill to get in all of the 100,000 little holes, but still had to do as much work by hand. Then used an etch primer, sealer, basecoat, then clear.
DynoDave, I'm really not that interested in doing another set any time soon lol. They sucked, soooooo bad!! I even made my own scotch brite tool to use on my drill to get in all of the 100,000 little holes, but still had to do as much work by hand. Then used an etch primer, sealer, basecoat, then clear.
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Car: 1986 IROC Z
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Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
Thanks for the compliments, fellas!
DynoDave, I'm really not that interested in doing another set any time soon lol. They sucked, soooooo bad!! I even made my own scotch brite tool to use on my drill to get in all of the 100,000 little holes, but still had to do as much work by hand. Then used an etch primer, sealer, basecoat, then clear.
DynoDave, I'm really not that interested in doing another set any time soon lol. They sucked, soooooo bad!! I even made my own scotch brite tool to use on my drill to get in all of the 100,000 little holes, but still had to do as much work by hand. Then used an etch primer, sealer, basecoat, then clear.
Since wheel rehab is such a popular topic, you might want to post a very detailed list of the materials and procedures you used so that others can follow and get the same good results.
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Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
Great job dagwood. I need to re-do mine but I haven't found the time. I know its a job ive done a set before but I used single stage instead of basecoat clearcoat but not next time
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Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
The wheels look great. I have a question. Where the lips of the wheels polished from the factory or did they have a machined finish?
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Car: 1989 IROC-Z 305 LB9 AT Convertible
Engine: LB9 305
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Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
Great job!
I polished and cleaned (no paint, it was good) the gold "Snowflake" wheels on my 1979 Trans Am SE ("Bandit") and must have spent 20 hours doing so!
I polished and cleaned (no paint, it was good) the gold "Snowflake" wheels on my 1979 Trans Am SE ("Bandit") and must have spent 20 hours doing so!
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Car: 1986 Camaro Drag Car
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Axle/Gears: 3.90 Currie 9 inch
Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
From the factory they are a relatively shiny machine finish, and then clear coated over that so they would maintain the shine without having to polish them all the time. On these, the clearcoat was removed from the bare aluminum, and polished a lot to a mirror finish, but I only cleared over the painted part, so they will require a lot more future polishing to keep them looking like they do now
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Car: 87 Trans Am
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Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
What a major pain in the a$$. I knew it was gonna be a job, but it was way worse than I expected. Prepping them was absolutely TERRIBLE. I was able to get the OEM Paint code for the gold. The wheels were in REALLY tough shape. Clear coat peeling all over, corrosion, etc. They turned out pretty nice for what we started with....
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Car: 1986 Camaro Drag Car
Engine: 383 on Ethanol
Transmission: Automatic
Axle/Gears: 3.90 Currie 9 inch
Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
What a major pain in the a$$. I knew it was gonna be a job, but it was way worse than I expected. Prepping them was absolutely TERRIBLE. I was able to get the OEM Paint code for the gold. The wheels were in REALLY tough shape. Clear coat peeling all over, corrosion, etc. They turned out pretty nice for what we started with....
It would have been a WHOLE lot easier to paint brand new ones! These things were disgusting lol
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Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
Once you polish a set you have to keep on polishing them from then on. Getting them wet dulls em quick. Dagwood those look great you do some good work👍
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Car: 1986 Camaro Drag Car
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Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
Thanks man! Yeah, they'll require some maintenance, but the car probably wont be driven much.....and more than likely only on top down, sunny days
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Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
Whoa! I like that. But, there is no way I'm spending that much time on mine! I'll keep them black centered.
As for the polished lips, mine are also polished. I have to re-polish about every 6 months and the car sits outside all of the time. They'll stay shiny quite awhile as long as they are wiped off occasionally.
As for the polished lips, mine are also polished. I have to re-polish about every 6 months and the car sits outside all of the time. They'll stay shiny quite awhile as long as they are wiped off occasionally.
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Car: 91 Trans Am Convertible
Engine: LB9 5.0 TPI
Transmission: 5 SPD
Axle/Gears: Posi Rear
Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
Dagwood - My goal is to make mine impress like yours do. I am about to get started on removing the gold paint (I already removed the clear on the aluminum rims last fall). Did you remove all of the old paint or just smooth it out and scuff before painting over it? Not sure if I want to CC the entire wheel or just the gold paint. Right now, I'll take any advice I can get.
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Car: 1986 Camaro Drag Car
Engine: 383 on Ethanol
Transmission: Automatic
Axle/Gears: 3.90 Currie 9 inch
Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
Dagwood - My goal is to make mine impress like yours do. I am about to get started on removing the gold paint (I already removed the clear on the aluminum rims last fall). Did you remove all of the old paint or just smooth it out and scuff before painting over it? Not sure if I want to CC the entire wheel or just the gold paint. Right now, I'll take any advice I can get.
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Car: 91 Trans Am Convertible
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Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
Thanks, Dagwood. I think that I will do the same. My gold just looks old and needs to be refreshed. The rims are holding up well with an occasional hit of Mothers polish after I removed the CC.
#29
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Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
Trouble with the stock wheels was the clear coating really needed to be waxed regularly just like the paint. Most people would sooner eat healthy and live debt free before waxing wheels. A lot of enthusiasts have entered into a doomed "strip and polish" project with stock wheels that really just needed some TLC like a neglected paint job. The factory clear coating actually responds pretty well to claybar, cleaner wax, wax/polish, etc. Not to say that it can always be saved, but if the coating isn't peeling, I'd recommend trying to save the coating instead of stripping.
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Car: 1986 Camaro Drag Car
Engine: 383 on Ethanol
Transmission: Automatic
Axle/Gears: 3.90 Currie 9 inch
Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
Trouble with the stock wheels was the clear coating really needed to be waxed regularly just like the paint. Most people would sooner eat healthy and live debt free before waxing wheels. A lot of enthusiasts have entered into a doomed "strip and polish" project with stock wheels that really just needed some TLC like a neglected paint job. The factory clear coating actually responds pretty well to claybar, cleaner wax, wax/polish, etc. Not to say that it can always be saved, but if the coating isn't peeling, I'd recommend trying to save the coating instead of stripping.
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Car: 1986 trans am
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Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
the wheels do look great,what are the products/methods you used and what is the exact paint color?(if you don't mind)
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Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
Man that's a lot of surface prep. I was thinking you just had the painted center blasted, then primed and painted.
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Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
I could have gotten away with only 2 coats of basecoat, but with all those holes and all the different angles to spray to cover everything, I put on 1 extra coat just to make sure I didnt miss anything
Last edited by dagwood; 04-03-2019 at 11:07 PM.
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Car: 1986 Camaro Drag Car
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Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
Here is the PPG ENVIROBASE formula for the gold....
#35
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Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
Theres a company called OER that make a third gen wheel paint factory color California gold #691-K89335..
I just had my wheels chemically stripped so I could repaint them an polish them..
I just had my wheels chemically stripped so I could repaint them an polish them..
#36
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Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
I ended up using $137.00 worth of paint materials. But that was mixing everything on the scale and only paying for what I used. If you didnt already have it and had to buy everything in new, full containers, it would have been SUPER expensive.
You will want to get some kind of adhesion promoter......paint doesn't like to stick to bare aluminum worth a damn
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Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
I've never looked into it much beyond just happening to see at one point or another that there were a couple different shades of Gold used. Mostly just throwing it out there so that someone doesn't come through, see the discussion, get paint mixed, and then get all upset because his repainted wheels don't exactly match the OE color.
Maybe it's only my luck that is so good that I could Google up a paint code and get something painted only to find out after there's some other code. LOL Sometime I'll tell the story about needing a door for a maroon Lumina/Monte Carlo, getting a killer deal on a junkyard pair of doors the same color, then getting them back to the project car and discovering there was more than one shade of Maroon that year. Or the time my buddy got paint mixed to repaint the front clip on a Cavalier he was rebuilding for resale, only to find out Chevy used three shades of bronzish gold that year. Or the 5 cans of Olive Drab Green paint on my shelf that never are the exact shade of whatever ammo can, helmet, or whatever I'm trying to touch up. Seems I never get colors to match.
Maybe it's only my luck that is so good that I could Google up a paint code and get something painted only to find out after there's some other code. LOL Sometime I'll tell the story about needing a door for a maroon Lumina/Monte Carlo, getting a killer deal on a junkyard pair of doors the same color, then getting them back to the project car and discovering there was more than one shade of Maroon that year. Or the time my buddy got paint mixed to repaint the front clip on a Cavalier he was rebuilding for resale, only to find out Chevy used three shades of bronzish gold that year. Or the 5 cans of Olive Drab Green paint on my shelf that never are the exact shade of whatever ammo can, helmet, or whatever I'm trying to touch up. Seems I never get colors to match.
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Car: 1986 Camaro Drag Car
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Re: Painted my Dad's Trans Am wheels today
I've never looked into it much beyond just happening to see at one point or another that there were a couple different shades of Gold used. Mostly just throwing it out there so that someone doesn't come through, see the discussion, get paint mixed, and then get all upset because his repainted wheels don't exactly match the OE color.
Maybe it's only my luck that is so good that I could Google up a paint code and get something painted only to find out after there's some other code. LOL Sometime I'll tell the story about needing a door for a maroon Lumina/Monte Carlo, getting a killer deal on a junkyard pair of doors the same color, then getting them back to the project car and discovering there was more than one shade of Maroon that year. Or the time my buddy got paint mixed to repaint the front clip on a Cavalier he was rebuilding for resale, only to find out Chevy used three shades of bronzish gold that year. Or the 5 cans of Olive Drab Green paint on my shelf that never are the exact shade of whatever ammo can, helmet, or whatever I'm trying to touch up. Seems I never get colors to match.
Maybe it's only my luck that is so good that I could Google up a paint code and get something painted only to find out after there's some other code. LOL Sometime I'll tell the story about needing a door for a maroon Lumina/Monte Carlo, getting a killer deal on a junkyard pair of doors the same color, then getting them back to the project car and discovering there was more than one shade of Maroon that year. Or the time my buddy got paint mixed to repaint the front clip on a Cavalier he was rebuilding for resale, only to find out Chevy used three shades of bronzish gold that year. Or the 5 cans of Olive Drab Green paint on my shelf that never are the exact shade of whatever ammo can, helmet, or whatever I'm trying to touch up. Seems I never get colors to match.
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