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Blacked Out My Rims

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painting rims
29K views 49 replies 29 participants last post by  ChrisC 
#1 · (Edited)
I bought some cheap-o rims for my Blizzaks ... I kind of liked the blacked-out look.


So I decided to black the stockers, too.
I bought some of the Dupli-Color wheel and rim paint in black and clear, some tape, and some red scratchy pads and jumped right in.

Here's the stock look:



Taped off and scuffed to the left.



Prepped and ready for paint:



I decided to keep the Dodge logo in the center chromed:



After the black, but before the clear:


And after the clear:



A pick of them on the car:



And another:



Oh, what the heck. One more:



I think they look pretty cool.
 
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#3 ·
Wrong answer. Read the rest of his post and his pics.
 
#6 · (Edited)
THOSE LOOK BOMB!!! props man!!! did you sand down the rims before you painted them? or did you just tape em off and spray em? also, are those tires lower profile than the stock? the look like it...maybe its just me lol
 
#7 ·
Those look great ! :rep: for the good job and the pics. The last two are really cool :smileup:
 
#9 · (Edited)
They're the stock 17-inchers, but I think the black treatment gives them a lower profile look somehow. They even seem to fill out the wheel openings better.
They don't need to be sanded, just scuffed with the red scratchy pads they sell right by the paint. It was a piece of cake.
The antenna is for the CB I installed for the road trip I'm currently on. I'll post up about how I did that, since there aren't any CB antenna mounts that will work with the Caliber out of the box. If you look closely, you can see that I also blacked out the stock radio antenna - that looks sweet, too, I think.
And I modded the stock exhaust so it'll take a chrome tip - I'll post up on that as soon as I get it how I want it (I think it's too long right now).
I'm also gonna' post up some details about the trip - especially since I'm pulling a trailer (if you notice, I blacked out the trailer rims, too!).

Thanks for the comments!
 
#11 ·
I gotta admit, that looks great. :rep:
 
#13 ·
cool! also, did you do 2 coats of black and then clear or just one coat? how long did they take to dry?
 
#15 ·
cool! also, did you do 2 coats of black and then clear or just one coat? how long did they take to dry?
Hey, DaUsed - I had heard tell that it could be done with two coats of color and one of clear ... I don't know. I ended up doing four coats of the black and two coats of the clear to get it how I wanted it. Plan on two or three cans of color and at least one can of clear.
You pretty much need to keep spraying. About ten minutes or so between coats. If you go too long between coats, it'll wrinkle unless you wait a week (at least that's what it said on the can, and I didn't push my luck). It was dry to the touch within an hour after I was done for sure. I also sprayed my radio antenna with the black color, and it was dry to the touch within minutes (like five or so).
I did find that you don't want to use the last bits from the rattle can - you'll get a little "texture" if you try to empty them all the way out.
Also, I'd paint the back sides of the rims first.

-Slo
 
#16 ·
ok... i apologize if im bugging by asking all these questions, but i really like the look of your rims and i want to paint mine too! lol. so can i ask a couple more questions? first, what kind of "red scratchy pads" did you use? and how much did you scratch off the rims? also, a quick rundown of your procedure would be:

paint coat 1
wait ten minutes
paint coat 2
ten minutes
paint coat 3
ten minutes
paint coat 4
ten minutes
clear coat 1
ten minutes
clear coat 2
dry for an hour or so

does that sound about right? sorry again, but i just wanna make sure im going about it the right way before i start lol. thank you so much SloNEZ!!!
 
#17 · (Edited)
That's about it!
The red scratchy pads are like Scotch-Brite pads ... almost like you'd use for dishes or something. They'll know exactly what you're talking about when you go to get the paint. I got all my supplies at NAPA.
When I did this, I went to Dupli-Color's website, and they actually have an on-line tutorial that I watched. I'll Google that up in a just a mo' and post it up here as an edit.
Good luck!

ETA:
Here are the instructions from the site ... I think the directions on the cans are a little different.
If you poke around their site, you'll find a video, too.
http://www.duplicolor.com/projects/howto_wheel.html

Useful video:
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-refinish-wheels-dupli-color-wheel-paint-166347/
 
#20 ·
I like the painted rims. Did you take your time and do one rim at a time or just go for all at one time? And is it as easy as you make it look and sound? Thinking about doing this to my srt........
 
#21 ·
I scuffed and taped 'em one at a time, but I set them up to spray all together.
By the time I got each coat done on the fourth, I just had time for a short break before I started over with number one again.
It went pretty fast once everything was prepped ... not much over an hour from the first coat to the last. The whole project basically took about four hours working straight through.

It was pretty easy.
Of course, I started with rims that were almost new - there was only one paint chip that I had to feather out. There would be more prep time with wheels that had "been around the block" a time or two, I think. For mine, I just popped off the original hammered-on weights and went to town.

I kind of figured I had nothing to lose ... I think the total materials investment was thirty bucks or something like that. If it hadn't worked out, I'd have gotten them powder coated black or had 'em chromed, and I wouldn't have been out much but some time. Since they turned out so well, I feel like I came out ahead!
 
#24 ·
u had to take off the wheel weights? why? u just put them back on afterwards?
 
#25 ·
The car came stock with those hammered-on weights - they had to come off for painting. Otherwise, there would be unpainted spots on the rims that would've been there forever ... even after those tires wore out and needed to be replaced and rebalanced.
That would look stoopid!
I did not put them back on - after painting, I had the wheels rebalanced with the stick-on weights that go on the inside of the wheel and aren't visible. I would've taken them off eventually anyway. I don't like the look of weights on the outside of the wheel.
 
#27 ·
did u paint the inside of the rim as well? or is there no need? also, its bad to drive without weights right? like if i painted it and then drove to get new weights put on, is that a bad idea?
 
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