Painting OEM steel wheels Black...

So I read another post on here where someone painted their ALLOY wheels black... It says they did a little bit of sanding, scotch pad, some more sanding, maybe an self etching primer, then hit the wheels with some either A. Duplicolor Wheel Paint or B. High Temp Engine Enamel...

So, heres my problem...

I did all of that, cleaned the wheel using soap and water, and even some standard cleaning spray... Sanded the clear coat off the steel wheel (except the center cap which i am keeping silver) I even got down through the silver paint to the black primer used in production. The surface was pretty rough once i made the first coat... so I taped off the center cap, and around the tire of course... I decided to use Duplicolor High Temp Engine Paint Enamel, And hit the wheel lightly on the first 2 coats, then a pretty solid final coat.

I used a hair dryer to ensure a good, fast adhesion.

Now, even after a few hours, i can still touch it with a fingernail and its still making a nick in the paint... there are also spots on the wheel that look more "glossy" than the others. Is this just a drying issue? Or is the paint just not sticking to the wheel? Should I have done anything else? I only did one wheel to start with as a test run...

Any advice on painting steel wheels would be great :exclamati

patience is a virtue

For me when I use a rattle can I let it dry naturally over a period of 24hrs. Even then it still smells of paint and is easily nicked. Depending on the humidity and temp of the weather it may be different. I never like to force dry spray paint, it just seems to dry the outer layer of paint too fast and the inside can't outgas the solvents.
This also leads me to ask, are you putting on too thick of a coat? I know it's tempting to lay it on thick because it looks real nice and shiny when wet, but if it's too thick, again, the inner most layer might not get a chance to dry. Put on several light coats (I know, light coats look horrible, but just be patient) and when you are done, color sand em and polish em to a glossy finish.

Dont paint alum, only way to go is powdercoating it. Get yourself a kit, then powdercoat everything you own! and start powdercoating peoples stuff.

There a kit at HF, and It does great work. Ill be gettin one later on!

CustomCrawler said:

Dont paint alum, only way to go is powdercoating it. Get yourself a kit, then powdercoat everything you own! and start powdercoating peoples stuff.

There a kit at HF, and It does great work. Ill be gettin one later on!

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I believe he's painting STEEL wheels, hence the title "Painting OEM steel wheels Black..."

While powder coating would be the way to go, I have painted aluminum with success. You just have to use that self-etching primer.

CustomCrawler said:

Dont paint alum, only way to go is powdercoating it. Get yourself a kit, then powdercoat everything you own! and start powdercoating peoples stuff.

There a kit at HF, and It does great work. Ill be gettin one later on!

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It's not that simple, Is your wife going to let you bake those powdercoated items in her oven! :flamemad:

Definitely glad I only did one wheel. Just went out and checked it about an hour ago and it seems to be drying pretty well... eventhough my girlfriend decided to run her fingernail straight across the wet paint when i told her it may not be dry... put a nice scratch on the top coat... but its a Jeep!

But yes, patience is a virtue... I will give it until tomorrow afternoon and see how it dries. If i am still having problems then I may just start from scratch again and spend the couple bucks for this self etching primer rather than the krylon multi-purpose primer.

As for spraying to thick... that could be an issue, although I do have pretty good experience from painting all the fenders black as well as an old brush guard i snagged off a busted XJ in a junkyard!

Ill post some pictures tomorrow of the final results... as of right now, the black looks really good, and thank God i wont have to clean them anymore!

SuperRA said:

I believe he's painting STEEL wheels, hence the title "Painting OEM steel wheels Black..."

While powder coating would be the way to go, I have painted aluminum with success. You just have to use that self-etching primer.

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I must have sniffed to much fumes frmo my XJ cat today! :flame:

cjcargo said:

It's not that simple, Is your wife going to let you bake those powdercoated items in her oven! :flamemad:

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Who said anything about HER oven? You can get ovens on craigslist for 50 bucks, doesnt need to be the best ovenout there!

The creeping menace of rust means that the OEM steel wheels on my XJ need repainting too. I have the 5-hole 5-spoke slightly concave ones (not the same as the Wrangler style).

Doing the outer face seems straightforward enough - lots of prep and lots of patience. But what about the inner side? Mine are pretty heavily rusted, and it's quite difficult to get down into that area where the two parts of the wheel are joined (and where water collects and rust starts....). Any suggestions for the best way to strip and prepare that inner surface?

Can I re-do the wheels effectively without having to take the drastic step of removing the tyres and either bead blasting the entire wheels or dipping them in some sort of bath of paint-stripper and rust-remover?

br1anstorm

I used black engine enamel on the steel rims of my honda, which are covered by hub caps. Did that 7 years ago and they still look great. Last fall, I used duplicolor silver wheel paint (primed first) to paint the steel rims on my 97 XJ SE. It came out awesome. I prep'd the heck out of them: washed, wet-sanded, even used the pressure washer. I did this just before getting new tires, so I didn't care what happened to the tires. In fact, when I went to have my new AT Dueller Revos installed, the old tires had silver paint on them and my car looked like crap. After the new tires, holy smokes! I got so many looks from people after that. I remember coming out of a post office and some dude was standing there by my xj, just staring at the wheels. I'd be at traffic lights and people would stare at the wheels. Friends and family went ga ga. Sweet. It looks pretty cool with the center caps off, too, but I just got a new set a couple of weeks ago and I'm going to keep them on for a while. I can't decide which look I like more.

But, the key thing, as others have pointed out, is patience and prep work. Prep work is always what you should be spending most of your time on. Then build up light coats, within the recoat time specified by the manufacturer. Also, pay attention to the temp and humidity, as has also been pointed out. Then let it cure for some time before polishing/waxing.

Don't paint the wheels! An uneven coat of paint will throw off the balance of the wheel and cause uneven distribution or force and cause Death Wobble in the front end! LMAO! Or so i was just recently told...Yeah Right!

br1anstorm said:

The creeping menace of rust means that the OEM steel wheels on my XJ need repainting too. I have the 5-hole 5-spoke slightly concave ones (not the same as the Wrangler style).

Doing the outer face seems straightforward enough - lots of prep and lots of patience. But what about the inner side? Mine are pretty heavily rusted, and it's quite difficult to get down into that area where the two parts of the wheel are joined (and where water collects and rust starts....). Any suggestions for the best way to strip and prepare that inner surface?

Can I re-do the wheels effectively without having to take the drastic step of removing the tyres and either bead blasting the entire wheels or dipping them in some sort of bath of paint-stripper and rust-remover?

br1anstorm

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You can check out POR-15 www.por15.com

If they're rusty enough, you might as well have them blasted and powder coated in your color of choice.

Finished all 4 wheels today (will have some pictures up tomorrow) I must say they really look good. although, I am weary about the clear coat i sprayed on them... it seemed to get really cloudy and dusty looking... ill let them dry over night and then hit them with a rag in the morning. Also, I would reccommend using a Rustoleum paint rather than the DupliColor Engine paint. The stuff I used (duplicolor high temp engine paint) seemed to have a semi rough texture to it. Almost like a powdercoating. Ill give them a day or 2 then throw some polish on the things and hope they smooth out. Thank God i dont have to wash my wheels anymore though!

lowrange2 said:

Don't paint the wheels! An uneven coat of paint will throw off the balance of the wheel and cause uneven distribution or force and cause Death Wobble in the front end! LMAO! Or so i was just recently told...Yeah Right!

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So mud will cause deathwobbles then if it's caked to one part of the rim?:laugh3:

Also whats the big deal about you washing your wheels? You make it sound like something deathy.

It takes longer for paint to dry when it is humid. Espesially if it is sprayed on liberally.

I haven't painted my XJ wheels yet, but here is a write up I did when I painted the wheels on my Acura. I figure I'll throw it up here and it might help someone who is searching.

http://tl.acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150483

It's all in the prep work.

They look fantastic!

I like how that dbag replied saying the rim color doesn't work for him. Well who cares?

Blaine B. said:

They look fantastic!

I like how that dbag replied saying the rim color doesn't work for him. Well who cares?

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Thanks.

I think I'll be doing the same thing with my steelies on the Jeep, only in black. Maybe I'll redo my write up with the Jeep to post on here.