So I'm going to paint my OEM wheels on my sedan
Originally Posted by DaveB
I do have a great powder coater I can use, but it's about $60 a rim, but their wait is around 2 months on rims. There's a local guy with a Viper, C6 Z06, TechArt 911, and E46 M3 and he's painted all the OEM rims on his cars black with rattle can. His wheels look great and all his cars endure road racing out at Heartland Park. I'll probably use his painting process except I'll be using more resilent paint compared to rattle can paint. If it doesn't come out the way I want, I paint them titanium.
damn. I guess you dont have much choice...
Originally Posted by Jeff92se
Careful on which PC process you use. Some Z wheels have broken because of the powder coating process used. ie.. too much heat to remove the base material ( I think)
The only heat process is when it’s in the oven after the powder has been applied.
I’m not sure why/how their wheels broke
I know the cast rims will show small blotches from out-gassing caused from air escaping while in the oven (it creates slight marks in the finish)… maybe the heat does something to make forged prone to breakage?
It was on the Z forum and most of the wheels that broke were cast. ie.. touring editions. Don't know if it was a bad batch of wheels or if the PC had something to do with it. I'll post the thread if I can find it. I know Nissan got involved in some way or another.
hmmm interesting... I'm not saying it can’t happen - I just don’t know what would have caused it... it’s a pretty safe process and very common for wheels.
Was it the same shop that kept breaking them?
Was it the same shop that kept breaking them?
Originally Posted by Jeff92se
It was on the Z forum and most of the wheels that broke were cast. ie.. touring editions. Don't know if it was a bad batch of wheels or if the PC had something to do with it. I'll post the thread if I can find it. I know Nissan got involved in some way or another.
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 6,573
Likes: 72
From: Kansas City
Well, I did it. Not gloss black though, just a rattle can job with anthracite wheel paint. I left the center caps silver to give a little more visual appearance to the wheels. Now when the car is dirty this winter, the wheels won't look out of place 
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 6,573
Likes: 72
From: Kansas City
Originally Posted by 2055g35
Looks awesome. Which process did you follow? I need to do the same thing.
1) Sprayed the wheels off with a wheel cleaner
2) Sanded the wheels with a 400-grit scour pad. You only need to lightly scuff the surface to the point that the clear coat becomes dull. You don't want deep scuffs.
3) Wiped the wheels clean with a wet rag followed be a dry rag.
4) Wiped the wheels down with rubbing alcohol to remove any remaining loose material.
5) I used 4X6 index cards tucked between the wheel lip and tire to keep paint overspray off the tires.
6) Sprayed with wheels with two light coats of Klean-Strip Bulldog Adhesion Promoter (aka primer). 5 minutes flash time between each coat.
7) After 15 minutes, the primer was set and I could paint.
8) Each wheel got two very light coats of paint followed by one medium coat followed by one light coat. Approx 10 minutes between each coat. A hair dryer was used between each coat to help speed up the drying time since it was 58 degrees in my ventilated garage (outside temp was 40 degrees). These paints need at least 60 degrees to set up correctly.
9) After minutes of drying time on the base coat, I hit each wheel with two light coats of clear. 10 minutes between each coat.
10) I let the wheels dry for 18 hours before handling them to make sure the paint had plenty of time to set in the cool garage.