tribaltalon

I've got zr1's on my Z, and they're boring. I thought about painting them black, but everybody does that. And now since nobody makes gunmetal zr1's anymore, the odds are even less likely of seeing another car set up the same way locally. my question though for those of yall that have painted wheels gunmetal, which paint did you use? i'm just gonna rattle can it and clear it, i'm not expecting 100% perfect, but i dont want it to look too light gray or too dark, if you know what i mean. should look pretty sweet with polished lips on my black z28.

MYSS02

Any thoughts on Powder Coating?

Robert

tribaltalon

cant afford it, and dont have another set of wheels to roll around on. this way i could just put the car up on the lift at work on a sunday when we're closed and pull all the wheels off and prep em and paint em all and have them all done in one day. with powdercoating i'd have to pull the wheels, pull the tires off the wheels, take them to powdercoater, wait a couple days, and reverse process. alot more work and cost involved. i'm definitely doing the gunmetal, just gotta figure out which exact brand/color is going to give me the desired finish.

DriftR

iTrader: (4)

Duplicolor makes a specific rattle can paint called "wheel coating" in a gunmetal color. It is chemical and chip resistent. With proper prep you will be impressed with the results. They also have a clear you can put on top if you like.

silvergto115

Dont know how cheap you want to go? But rustoleum makes a color I think would look good Annodized Bronze. Its a semi gloss. It kinda looks like heavy brake dust, but I still think it would look good. Just my 2 cents

DriftR

iTrader: (4)

This is the one I used. You will not be disappointed.

phantomzer0

iTrader: (17)

After shots?

Photochop

iTrader: (74)

I'd stay away from the wheel clear, from my experience it dulls the finish significantly and puts a metallic hue over the top (cleared some black ones I did with the same series of paint and it ruined the sheen of the black IMO).

lemons12

iTrader: (71)

Can we post some pics of finished products.. Just bought some C5Z rims for the girls car and am going to paint within the week.. Thinking a lite silver.

DriftR

iTrader: (4)

Sorry, no after shots. Did it on my dads truck and he sold it almost a year later. It looks like gunmetal in color, comes out of the can and lays down real smooth and held up really well. I did not use the clear on top.

DennisTA15

I've used that duplicolor before. I would never use the clear again because is started cracking off the first winter, and I don't even drive my car in the winter. I used self etching primer after I sanded the spokes and then used their gun metal paint. I cleared the whole wheel after I polished the lip. The cracking started on the lip, and thats where I thought it would end, that the clear would just flake off the lip. Boy wat I wrong. If I did it again, I wouldn't clear them. Let me get some pics for ya.

DennisTA15

Here's my wheels with the exact paint above plus clear. Painting the clear was the hardest part as there is a very fine line between too heavy and too light of a coat. Too light and it will be dull, too heavy and it will run. I also ended up with different amounts of clear on the wheels to make them match as the clear will cast them a little bronzer, or golder....whatever lol.

DennisTA15

Here is a pic of the wheel after color and no clear. This is where I should have stopped, but I was tired of polishing these wheels.



Here are some pics of the flaking clear. Most of it has come off, but not all of it. It makes my wheels really look like ****. You can see where some chips of color came off too. If I really did it all over again I would powder coat them. I hope these helped.

1slo_camaro

iTrader: (2)

or just paint the centers and dont clear the lip and polish the lip. good polish will make it shine real nice.

DriftR

iTrader: (4)

Wow... that's a shame. I wouldn't think clearing over the shiny lip would work, you need to sand whatever you paint, to get some "tooth" for the clear to grab on to. I don't know why the clear wouldn't stick to the color coat though. As long as the clear was put on within an hour of the color coats it shouldn't have been a problem.
I'm in the process of stripping and polishing one of the sets of wheels for my T/A now. You would have to do the same... Aircraft stripper on the lips, sand and paint the centers, It is a lot of work though!..

1slo_camaro

iTrader: (2)

**** i just saw where the clear was cracking off the gunmetal area. damn that sucks. im not really sure what to do there. sorry lol

DennisTA15

Yeah I know its a lot of work, I pretty much did that already lol. The clear was put on per instructions on the can. IIRC within an hour or wait 7 days or something. I opted to wait because I was doing all 4 wheels at once. The clear was duplicolor wheel clear made for exactly what I did. Oh well. I'm probably gonna just get new wheels and tires anyway.

DennisTA15

I had thought about chroming them but that almost cost as much as new OEwheels.

DriftR

iTrader: (4)

If you didn't clear within an hour (chemical adhesion) and waited the 7 days for the color coats to cure, you need to clean and scuff the color coats for a "mechanical" adhesion of the clear.
Even with proper technique it sounds like the clear has some issues so I'm glad I didn't use it and to be honest it doesn't need it! The color coats have an even, satin sheen and are durable by themselves.

1994formulalt1

oh boy what you know about that 99cents spray paint son!! i did my stock wheels for fun because i hated them and i was getting my c5's a week from when i painted my stockers