Trying to figure an easy and cheap way to black out my 96 xj. Anyone find decent simulators that look good or even paint their own stock rims?

 

I recently painted my '99's black. I did it because the factory crap was flaking off and I got sick of looking like junk. A couple cans of RustOleum primer and paint, along with a 3M disk. Stripped them (for the most part) with the disk and then primed, painted. Took me 2 days because Im a driveway mechanic with a 3 1/2 year old and this is our only vehicle right now, so I did one side, then the other, so I wasnt completely screwed in case we needed to go somewhere. I taped off the tires really well and stripped, cleaned, primed and painted them. Makes a HUGE difference, even though its only temporary (looking at some of those soft 8's down the road). Pretty straight forward paint job.

 

No matter what you use to paint them, the most important thing is

PREP PREP PREP PREP PREP - not in minutes, but hours.

basically remove all the old paint / grease / dirt / etc down to bare or almost bare metal. Primer is a good idea too, but not necessary.

 

For wheels prep isn't so important.. No amount of prep is going to keep the paint on a wheel you bang against rocks or run through mud very offten.
I just clean them well and paint with rattle can. Clean and Respray as chips and scuffs appear.

 

Did my spare tire and one of these today. Doing the rest tomorrow because it rained. Opinions?

 

Looks good!

 

look at my profile picture i sanded ans spray painted them still holding up after about 6 months. i love it

 

I can't see it? Also do you know how to make a profile pic on here?

 

I had stock black steelies with jeep black center caps and that looked awesome my jeep at the time was black. But it was rwd and got totaled sitting in a junk yard cuz I was young and dumb ;(

 

or go to my page and look at my album. i think you have to pay to have a profile pic but idk

 

I took each tire off the rim completely and took them to work and sandblasted them. But honestly it wasn't worth it because the inside is all ready rusting from where the rim face is welded to the wheel. So basically only do the face. Face still looks good. I kept the center caps grey and bought some black lug nuts off eBay for $22.

Use a green scrub pad dry for in-between coats sanding. Any little imperfection you can see will be amplified by the clear coat. One light coat to tack it up, then one wet coat smooth but wet. Then wait, sand, wet coat if needed or next primer, base, clear.

 

I used a grinder to strip it to bare metal. Did front and back of all

 

click the user CP link at top left. youll go to your account page. on the left there is a bunch of options to change info. your profile pic will show on your profile, the avatar will show on your thread posts.