Paint & Body Work - painting wheels

Hey guys. Had my car painted black. It's almost done so now I want to paint the wheels since they look pretty bad compared to the new paint. I really want chrome but I already had these wheels and the tires are almost new so I'll use these until the tires are worn then get some different wheels. I'm not a fan of all black wheels so what I wondered was if I had the wheels repainted in silver and put a little bit of black in the clear coat what it would look like? Would it look silver with a slight black tinge to it? Anybody done anything similar? Here's a few pics of the car. Getting wet sanded now so will hopefully have her back soon!

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/4462/004qda.jpg
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/9440/002qxv.jpg
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/9893/001brp.jpg

Where's the Firebird logo on the bumper???

The logo on the front of lt1 firebirds is just a 3D decal. I removed mine too

Yep left most of that stuff off. Left the trans am off the doors and shaved the antenna also. Sprayed a light coat of black on the parking lights and taillights. He's going to mix a little black in the clear and spray a few of the silver center caps so we can get an idea of what it will look like and see if I like it or not. I'll post a few pics after he does it.

why not just spray them a dark silver?

I wanted to try and make the wheels look somewhat like a black chrome wheel looks vs a regular chrome wheel. Unfortunately I don't have chrome wheels so I thought I'd give it a shot with the silver.

Here's what they look like. Silver base with silver pearl and a little black in the clear coat. With direct sunlight they look more silver; in the shade they look more black.

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/2629/003cxw.jpg
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/7320/001xyg.jpg

Going to get tires mounted now :)

looks badass!

really like how those wheels came out!

i like em

They look good man. I was just asking this same question over in the wheel and tire section and could not get any answers. I have some black c6 zo6 wheels that I want to paint a gunmetal grey or the way you did yours. How did you prep them and what paint and paint gun did you use?

Looks similar to how my wheels came out, so I like them.

Thanks guys. Mr Safety a friend on mine going to college for autobody painted them for me. I'll try and find out that info for ya. I know they use Nason paint almost exclusively. Got the rears on and used a 1" adapter to push them out a little more. Front is torn apart right now getting Strano's/Bilstein's. BTW that's not my Kia lol.

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/8830/007twl.jpg
http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/894/006paw.jpg

They look good man. I was just asking this same question over in the wheel and tire section and could not get any answers. I have some black c6 zo6 wheels that I want to paint a gunmetal grey or the way you did yours. How did you prep them and what paint and paint gun did you use?

He said to prep them he used 400 grit dry sand paper then a grey scotchbright pad for the hard to get area behind the center caps. Used self etching primer on the bare metal spots then primer surfacer to level it out. Painted with a Devilbiss SRI spot repair gun.

Thanks. will probably give this a try.

Definitely look better

The color looks great but I have never liked those wheels. Especially on birds.

The color looks great but I have never liked those wheels. Especially on birds.

Feel the same way, some cars pull it off but I usually stick w/ pontiac/pontiac and chevy/chevy....plus your rotors look like they have seen better days...new slotted ones are only a Ebay hit away.

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n226/Antz97znj/avatar1.jpg

50 bucks and a can of caliper paint can do wonders :)

If he had 18" C5 DD in that same color that would be a completely different story. But the thin spokes dont look good 95% of the time.

Damn you guys are already trying to get me to spend more $! lol Honestly these wheels weren't my first choice but I had them on my blazer before I bought this and had an almost new set of tires on them. I don't have the $ for a new set of wheels and tires so I figured these can get me by for a while. I really want 10.5 or 11" rears and 9's in the front. Also not a huge fan of 17's in the front/18's in the back. I wasn't really going for the "murdered out" look either- even though it kind of happened. The car sat for about 3 years before I bought it- and then almost another year until I had some $ to spend on it. I didn't know you could get drilled/slotted rotors that cheap- I'll definately have to look into that. Are the ebay cross drilled/slotted rotors pretty good? Any sellers to avoid?

they aren't that bad for the price...