Oh look who woke up at 1 pm! haha

Yeah I gotta wait until my boy gets his car in November since I'm doing it on his OEM rims and taking those myself (he's getting new aftermarket ones).

unless I do both sets of rims....we'll see what the temperature looks like next weekend.

 

if you decide to powdercoat, there is a place in orange county that will help you out. This place was recommended to me when I was trying to find a local powder shop (by a fellow NAMer who had his wheels done there).

http://eastsidecustomchoppers.com/content/

 

Hey thanks alot. Do you have any pics of the work they did? How much did they charge you? Thanks.

 

I actually didn't end up using them, I picked up some privat netz in black. I have seen the rims in person though, and they look really good... contact ministupidfun for more info. There are some pics at his website, www.tshared.com.

 

When are you going to do it....it might be worth another trip down there! I'm debating doing it next Saturday at my in laws but at the moment it is supposed to rain....

plus I have to have my wheels rebalanced first to get rid of the stupid weight that's on the outside rim.....gonna do that on the 26th.

already got 4 jackstands and my boy's floor jack ready to go!....while I'm in there I'm gonna paint the calipers red and swap the turn signals (http://www.motorbulbs.com/product_in...roducts_id/140) and try to spray tint the wheel arches with Nite Shades

that might be too much for 1 day but we'll see...

 

well i want to do it but next weekend deffinatly wont work. the 26th is my 21st birthday so the whole weekend is gonna be full of getting nice and drunk. the weekends after that im free though =D. my current project is building a sub box. its going interestingly, and i think ive decided to spray paint the box instead of carpet it. well see how it goes.

i have a 2-ton jack and its so nice. i HATE the stock jacks that come with cars....either way jack stands are on my list of things to get, and then will come the calipers and the rims. only thing is you cant drive the car for 24 hours when you do the calipers, and i dont have any other mode of transportation....well see what happens.

 

Yeah I'm all lined up...got the primer, flat black and clear coats (Duplicolor Wheel Paints) all ready to go.... I originally bought 4 lug bolts at mini to put in the rims when I spray them but then went to home depot and measured the outside of the 14mm lug bolt to be between 7/8" and 15/16" with the caliper tool at home depot that I opened up - so then I walked around home depot (with the caliper tool) and measured the outsde of washers to find the proper size...I ended up buyin 16 of the 12mm washers (zinc plated).



I wrapped masking tape over them to cover the holes so I am going to drop them in the lug holes before spraying and tape up the backside as well. I plan on putting index cards between the outer edge of the rim and tire.....

So I also bought duplicolor wipes and 3m 320 grit sandpaper to get all of the grease off and scuff them up a little...there isn't much grease as I only have 3000 miles on the rims anyway.

Now I just need a sunny day and my brother in-law's garage.

I plan on doing the calipers the same day and spraying the wheel arches reflectors with VHT Nite Shades after taking them out.....

We'll see

 

Now I just gotta see if I need to tape up the valve stems and caps or if I can paint over them....I'm reluctant to paint over the cap b/c the TPMS pushed air out of it to determine if there is a flat tire....

ATM it looks like I'll be taping them up unfortunately

 

Take the valve caps off and just wrap the stem with masking tape (takes 10 seconds).

 

I think I might just paint both of them with them just like they are right now w/o taping either off.

 

any progress? i think i might attempt these either today or tomorrow.

 

Did it yesterday - took over 14 hours total to do the wheels, calipers, and spray tint the reflectors.

Car is at in-laws w/ camera - will throw up pics later tonight or tomorrow for sure!

 

nice i cant wait to see - i was going to do them yesterday but didnt hhave time and today its raining. guess ill have to save it for another weekend..

was it difficult? how long did it take for just the wheels? and also do you know if painting the stockers voids any sort of warranty?

 

Star Coatings in Mamaroneck, NY does powdercoating. I've had them do a couple things for me and they always come out great.

I personally painted my rims and as long as do all of the necessary prep work they come out great. It took me appoximately ten hours from start to finish and the paint has held up for a year now and they still look good. Good luck with which ever route you choose to go.

 

Ok so I started at 9:30 and finished at midnight. I took off the wheels and cleaned them real good using dishwashing soap to get rid of any wax on the wheels. Then I used 320 grit sandpaper and scuffed them pretty good and rinsed. Once they dried I used Duplicolor's Pre Spray Wipe and each tire to get any grease/wax/residue off. I waited for the wheels to dry and started taping - it took a long time. I used index cards on the front to prevent overspray onto the tires and on the back I used mostly masking tape and some clear packing tape. I had to tape the back of the rim up real nice and I left the lug bolts in there and taped them from the bottom so they wouldn't fall out when turning the rim over to spray the inside. Primed the inside then outside and painted the inside then outside. I let each coat of primer sit for ~10 mins and waited 30 before turning them over. Painted the inside of the rim first and then waited an hour to turn it over and start the fronts. I did probably 4-6 coats on the front plus a little touch up (after the wheel was on the car carefully).

I did NOT use any clear coat since I didn't want it be glossy and someone on NAM tried it and messed up his wheels. I wanted Satin!

While the wheels were drying (2.5 hours or so) I did the calipers too. I used Evapo-Kleen instead of the stuff they give in the G2 Box b/c it is safe on plastic etc and safe on really anything. The G2 caliper cleaner said not to use on plastic/rubber and there are a few little pieces behind the caliper that I didn't want to mess with. I did tape them anyway and realized if you paint slowly you don't really have to worry about taping it too well. (I'm ****). Put the wheels back ~4 hours on after the calipers dried and didn't drive it for 23 hours.

Also while waiting for the wheels to dry and once the calipers were done I spray tinted the wheel arch reflectors with VHT Nite Shades - it was such a pain in the as$ b/c the reflectors don't sit level and it runs - I ended up using a cardboard box and cut holes in the top of it for the rear reflectors to sit level and found that sticking the front (yellow) reflectors in the top of a roll of paper towels worked real well to keep them level. I must've sprayed each reflector ~5-6 times before I got it working well. If you mess up a little rubbing alcohol takes it right off - then windex to clean it. It was also getting cold so I did it in the back of the garage to prevent the stuff from frosting after first doing it outside - looked like crap. Anyway here are the pics - I am very happy I did this and hopefully the wheels will withstand the winter. If not it's very easy to respray now since I can do it right on top. I know I know - there's alot of pics - it was hard to take one of every single step since there was so much going on at once but here's what I got.

 

I'd say for just the wheels - An hour to clean and sand - 30 min to dry - 2 hrs to tape (my brother in law put in 14 hours w/ me - I owe him big time)...then again his Mini gets here in 3 weeks so I know I'll get him back.

An hour to prime both sides - 30 min to wait in between - 30 min to paint the backs - hour to wait - 45 mins to paint the fronts - (takes a little while to shake the cans too) - wait 2-3 hours to dry completely.

So I'd say it can be done in ~6- hours before letting them dry depending on how fast you move - the longest thing was taping the index cards - you can probably get away with just using masking tape in the edges on both sides instead of what I did by just doing that method on the back - On retrospect if I was doing it again I'd skip the index cards and use masking tape near the edge of the rims b/c it is easier to use and did a good job as well.

There's no warranty on my rims that I know of. I'm sure my calipers are not in warranty anymore but my brakes/rotors should be since I haven't touched either one bit.

 

Awesome it came out great and that is a really good satin black on those.

Did you hold ur car up by the engine?? Is that ok to do?

 

THAT LOOKS FANTASTIC!!!

So what was the cost of this little endeavor?

 

Thanks!

I'd say it was under $100 for the tires. Figure
two cans primer - $13
3 cans black paint (didn't use the clear coat for gloss) - $21
3 prep wipes - $6
G2 caliper paint from ebay - $37
2 packages of sandpaper - $6
2 shower curtains - $6
automative masking tape - $6
Nite Shades (not needed for tires but for wheel arch reflectors) - $12
4 bulbs for blinkers - $41 shipped from U.K. - http://www.motorbulbs.com/product_in...roducts_id/140
Evapo-Kleen - not sure how much - got from a friend
Terry Cloths/Paper towels/Black Gloves - $couple of dollars
14 hours of time - $priceless


$150 total give or take $20

But the tires alone would have been ~ $75

 

No I didn't use the engine but it looks like it! There's actually solid steel bars running under there which the grips on the jackstands held in perfectly. IIRC for the rears it was just above the lower control arms but for the fronts I don't remember.

 

toolazyforalogin:

The wheels look great. Maybe I'll see you on the road.

 

good job. came out great. One thing to remember is when your wheels are black your tires look brown. So don't forget the TIRE SHINE !!!

 

yeah i spoke to the SA at the dealer down here and he said it wouldnt void any warranty to paint the rims. you did a fantastic job! the car looks great. get some center cap overlays from lyle and your set! hahaha

i should have time to do this next weekend (tomorrow im giving my baby her birthday present (a little early, i know) but shes getting a nicelong bath and then some compound on the nasty scratches, polish and a nice wax).

 

Thanks man - it was easier than I anticipated....so you have any pics of these center cap overlays?

 

You know George? He did my rims on my Zo6, He does Great work!!