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View Full Version : What paint to use on my GQ rims?



Johnno
16th June 2010, 04:35 PM
Howdy all,

Has anyone painted rims before, if so what paint did you use.

Ive been slowly fixing the old girl up and was considering painting the rims black.

Not sure if thats a good idea either black?

Do you use just enamel, acrylic or would 2 pack be better?

Cheers guys!

Fitzy
16th June 2010, 06:28 PM
Definatly 2 pack otherwise acrylic and enamel will just chip in no time.

Powder coating could be an option, depends what works out cheaper.

Timbo
16th June 2010, 08:03 PM
Hi Johnno,

I painted my mates white sunrasia rims black and they turned out great. There's 2 ways really, a cheap quick way and a more expensive, labourous way.

Cheap and quick...

1. Depending on the finish you want, either paint strip your wheel or sand them back with some 800 quickly, or just scuff the paint up with a scotchbrite pad. If you use sandpaper or scotchy, it's best to clean the wheel prior with "wax and grease" remover, Methylated Spirits or Prepsol. This just stops you from rubbing in grease and waxy stuff into the paint with your sandpaper/scotchy which doesn't look great when you paint over it as the paint wont stick.

Buy a pressure can of grey primer and a can of black. You can get gloss or matte/satin finish. When wheel is clean, use the primer as directed by the can. ie: Shake it really well, hold it about 30cm from surface, use smooth steady strokes from left to right and make sure you try to overlap your last pass by at least half. Painting on a warm day with no wind is preferable. Wait about 15mins between coats, and make sure the coats aren't really wet and heavy. It's the same process for applying the black. You want to do a "haze" coat first, which is just a really really light coat first, just to get a fine film of paint on the primer to bite in. After that, you can apply heavier coats. Anyway, I'm sure you've used a spray can and it's pretty hard to stuff it. If you do, strip it off and start again. :)

More expensive way.. (way i did my mates wheels)
1. (2pack paint) - If you own a spray gun and you're confident enough to try it out.. go down to your local auto paint supplier and grab some 2pack black paint with hardener to match. 2Pack comes in different mixing ratios. I'll list 3 brands and the diff mix ratios.. but there are a lot of brands out there, all varying quality. 2K which is 2:1, DeBeers 3:1 and Autothane 4:1. Out of these, I'd say Autothane is your best bet for price and the quality is more than fine for your application.

I used Autothane which is a 4:1 mix. A 1lt tin of hardener will match a 4lt tin of paint. The mix is, 4 parts paint, to 1 part hardener. You can usually pick up a measure stick from an auto paint supplier or a general panel beating supplier. From memory, a 4lt tin of Autothane white was $100 a couple years ago at trade price. Black shouldn't be much more at all as it's a basic colour. If you get a 4lt, you can always redo your bull bar, tow bar, roof rack etc... if of course all of that is black on your car :D

Anyway, same initial process as you would do for pressure can painting. Prep your surface to the standard you want. In my case, I used an electric sander on the really damage parts where rust had gotten under paint etc.. and I'd sanded all the wheels with 800 sandpaper. If there was any bare metal showing through, I "puffed" or "spotted in" a couple of coats of primer waiting about 5 mins between coats until the area was covered completely. When the problem area was fully dry, I sanded the primer area with wet and dry 800 paper again until smooth, careful not to break through the primer.

With the paint gun, it can be tricky to get it setup right with the air/mix ratios. One knob will be air and the other will be mix. It's hard to show you on through typing so all i can say is.. get a piece of sheet metal, shiny waxy paper or something else that resembles what your painting on. Stand it up vertically and practice painting on it whilst adjusting the mixes. It's very hard to tell if you've never done it. If you have an air gauge on the gun, I'd set it to about 30PSI and leave it.. then you only have to set your paint mix knob... winding the knob IN will give you less paint/material coming out. You can tell because your trigger wont pull in as far. Winding the knob OUT will do the opposite and you'll be able to pull the trigger in all the way.

So, try have about 30-35PSI and wind your material knob all the way in (closed), then wind it out 3 times. This should be a rough starting point for you.

The painting process is virtually the same as pressure can. Nice steady even stroke from left to right, the right to left, over the surface. 30PSI is quite powerful, so you may want to hold the gun back further. Make sure to overlap your strokes by half. It's better to do 10 light coats and cover the surface nicely than 2 really thick wet coats and have it run or bubble up because the solvents didn't get time to release. Allow 10mins between your coats and you shouldnt get tiny pin holes (solvent boil).

Try to paint in a warm environment with no wind/dust.

Sorry for the long winded explanation. Goodluck!

Any questions just ask.

Johnno
17th June 2010, 08:04 AM
Cheers for the detailed response G-Unit, sounds like you have done that before...haha

I like doing things properly so I will give the more expensive way a shot i think.

Thanks for your reply.

Timbo
22nd June 2010, 07:16 PM
Hey Plasnart.. yeah it's quite a read.. It actually sounds a lot more involved than it is. Probably took me 30mins to paint in real life... probably took me an hour to type it. lol.

Johnno
24th June 2010, 09:42 PM
Holy moly that's a full-on way to spray G-Unit. Gotta say I wouldn't go to so much trouble on rims personally. I painted my GU steelies very quickly and simply a couple of years ago: Step 1 - Wash and degrease. Step 2 - Spray can grey primer. Step 3 - Spray can satin black enamel (2-3 coats). Haven't had any issues with chipping or scratching and these wheels get used pretty hard.

Definately wouldn't powdercote Johnno. If you chip the powdercote it's stuffed. You'll need to strip it and start again. If you leave it chipped you'll get moisture in below the powdercote and you can't see what's going on in there till too late! At least with spraying them you can just touch up if you need to.

Cheers.

Cheers mate, nah I won't be powdercoating after hearing all this.

Thanks for all your help guys.

I'll check back in after spraying and let ya's know how I went.

red92gq
25th July 2011, 10:24 PM
Give them a good clean ,rub them down with scotch bright an then wipe down with thinners.
Use compressed air to blow the rims dry an then give them a light coat of etch primer, wait about 1hr an then spray them with vht epoxy
Give them about 5 or 6 coats an they should be right .
I've painted both of my sets this way an it's lasted for the last 3 years with out chipping etc .
1 can etch
2 to 3 cans of the vht epoxy

gqboss
25th September 2011, 07:42 AM
good info timbo top read ive learnt heaps off hat

anwarg
18th November 2011, 12:24 PM
Sandblast the rims....and then get them painted...prevents chipping.

Bigrig
18th November 2011, 01:08 PM
Crikey - I just hit mine with zinc paint each time they get scratched to prevent rust ... now I feel cheap and nasty!! lmao

canuck
19th November 2011, 07:24 AM
I like a hammer finish enamel. It hides the defects and is very easy to touch up. Up here where the roads get sanded in the winter, your rims also get sand blasted.