I have a set of Rays Lug Nuts that I have been using on my Volks (they came with the wheels). All of them have minor scratches on them that I would like to repair.

Is there any reason why I shouldn't paint them? I'm not so familiar when it comes to painting

I believe they are anodized.

If so, what would be the recommended process for painting them?

Should I sand them down using a high grit sand paper, use a primer, then paint?

 

I think you are going to have issues when you go to torque them, scratching them up worse than the anodize.

 

paint would chip too =/

I had the black ones .. used a sharpie marker to hide up the minor nic's .. if you got blue or red .. maybe try and blue or red sharpie =)

 

Black Sharpie has some funky purplelish effects under direct light. :-/

 

I have the same lugs/issue. i also thought about painting them but it would flake off the first time you put a socket on them and looks worse than they already do. i think the funky sharpie color might be hard to notice on something as small as the lugs

 

They make "padded" sockets to remove lug nuts without stripping the paint.

 

Henry, I don't believe paint will stick to anodized lug nuts even if you sanded all 20 of them down. Even if they were perfect, once you slipped that socket on and off of them (padded or not) the paint wouldn't last. Consider the time to paint them and the final out come, you're better off buying a new set....
Gary

 

The padded sockets I've seen protect the wheel not the lug nuts and you can achieve the same thing by taping the outside of your wheel/lock sockets which I've done for years....
Gary

 

Paint will chip, but its not as bad as some have described. I painted my gorilla locks to match my other lugs, and despite being removed 3 times now (once by me, twice by shops), only one of them is chipped. just be careful and touch them up if something happens.

 

you have to de-anodize to even make the primer stick.
use oven cleaner.

 

have you looked into just getting them re-anodized, theres this one crazy place called anodizing industries in alhambra that does everything when it comes to metal coating

 

That doesn't sound cheap though. After a certain point it makes more sense to buy brand new ones.

But why buy new ones when these are perfectly fine.

 

paint em

 

The paint will chip!

You cant put that amount of force on a painted object and expect the paint to hold up. You wont have to worry about scratching when chunks of paint are gonna flake off.

Even if you use automotive bc/cc... theyre still gonna chip. I guarantee it.

Powdercoat would probably be your best bet, but even that might chip after repeated on and offs

 

anodizing will chip, powdercoat will chip, paint will chip. with paint, you can repair it yourself if it bothers you.