studmuffin

Hey guys, well i have seen so many threads about painting rims so i want to do mine, the only thing is i think mine are aliminum alloy, dont think there steel, ill get some pictures later, but its weird because they are stock rims too,

Is there any wat to paint them? Can i do the same thing as steel or is there a different process i must do?

Destro

Just clean them really well and use an etching primer as a base coat. I will be doing this to my stock aluminum wheels soon too, I just found a fourth matching wheel today!

studmuffin

so i dont need any kind of paint stripper or anythin? also should i sand it down or jus use primer?

Destro

You can use stripper on them (I'm not going to) to make sure you don't have any issues with paint/primer reacting with the clear coat from the factory. I have messed with the aircraft stripper in the past as well as done some without and had about the same results. Just clean them well and sand/scuff (3M scuff pads work really well) then primer, paint and enjoy. :-) Make sure to mask off the Jeep logo in your centercaps if they are like mine and flat. The set of rims I am looking at getting (I like them better than the ones on the Jeep) have a 3D Jeep logo in them and they will be painted black then the logo painted in silver.

studmuffin

haha thank you i surely will, ill try to pos them up, If you do yours post them up i would love to see them from a more experienced hand.

studmuffin

well mine do not have center caps they are jus like thar with a jeep logo on one of the spokes. you can see the lug nuts. but thats how they are they are not missing.

Destro

Sound just like the set I am working on picking up- 5 star spokes with the Jeep logo in one of the spokes, no center caps. They look like this:




My old ones (that I only had 3 of with the Jeep until today) are like this:




I want to paint both black (my wheels are not nearly as nice as the pic above!). The spoke set will get mounted with my new 31X10.5s and the hole rims will get the set of 29.5X9.5 that I have. The 29.5 will be my winter tires.

bsljacques

I have a set of American Racing 15x7 alum. wheels that are on the jeep that are so ugly that I want to take off and paint or polish.....haven't made up my mind yet. They came with the Jeep...I plan to put my "new to me" factory steel wheels on for now....I like them better anyway.....but what to have a spare set of wheels and tires for different occasions....since this is a daily driver. Both sets will sport 31" over time.

studmuffin

Yup those are exactly how they are, black is what i wanted or some kind of charcoal, you have any idea of how to paint them, or jus use the traditional way.

Destro

Well I am planning on painting the top set with a three step process-

Primer with some good etching primer, then paint wheel silver mettalic. After the silver I will mask off the Jeep logo with liquid mask and tape off the lower sections in the cutouts of the spokes (hope that makes sense). Then I will be doing a gloss black.

The other wheels will get a primer step and a semi-gloss black paint.

Cheers!
~Kevin

PS- just got done wrenching for the day. Got it running and took my "new" XJ on her maiden voyage. All went well so far but only went around the block. I ran out of daylight so I still need to bleed the PS pump. That will be done tomorrow as well as oil change and maybe diff fluid changes.

monkey

if you are ever interested id like to purchase 2 of the wheels shown here because i too only have 3.