Wheel painting advice

[cwilliamsws6]

My CR-V has the steel wheels with the weird 5-triangles design on them and all of them are missing most of the paint and look awful. I cannot afford new wheels but I seen at Lowe's the other day they have cans of silver wheel paint and I was wondering would I be good just washing and spraying over my wheels or do I need to strip the remaining paint first? Thanks!

 

[FlyNavyP3]

Originally Posted by cwilliamsws6
My CR-V has the steel wheels with the weird 5-triangles design on them and all of them are missing most of the paint and look awful. I cannot afford new wheels but I seen at Lowe's the other day they have cans of silver wheel paint and I was wondering would I be good just washing and spraying over my wheels or do I need to strip the remaining paint first? Thanks!


No need to strip them, scuff with a scotch brite pad or 220 paper and paint. Playing cards shoved between the wheel and tire make a great tire "mask" to prevent painting the tires.

 

[Nick1994]

If you prep them really good and take your time, they'll probably turn out pretty good.

Patience is key.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

If your car is white, paint the wheels white

 

[philipp10]

Originally Posted by cwilliamsws6
My CR-V has the steel wheels with the weird 5-triangles design on them and all of them are missing most of the paint and look awful. I cannot afford new wheels but I seen at Lowe's the other day they have cans of silver wheel paint and I was wondering would I be good just washing and spraying over my wheels or do I need to strip the remaining paint first? Thanks!

my RAV4 had the same problem. Something in the wheel painting world changed in the last 20 years. I had a 2000 Camry with steel wheels, not a bit of rust. My 2008 RAV4 began rusting immediately.

What I did was just clean the wheels then primed with gray then used Rustoleum "hammered silver". The "hammered" hides the imperfections from the rust. They look great, usually repaint every 4 years. Use playing cards shoved between the rim and the tire to mask. Will take less than 1/2 a day.

 

[Kira]

As stated above...patience and thoroughness are necessary.
Remove a wheel and work at a comfortable height etc.
Bring elbow grease, a wire brush or two, a wire wheel, a degreasing agent like lacquer thinner, possibly a "rust converter", primer, paint.
The more you toil, the better they'll look and the longer they'll last.

I was given a set of steel wheels which had seen Winter service. I felt the rust converter (Rustoleum brand-dries to a black primer) was more a necessity than a luxury.
As always with that kind of stuff, remove as much rust as you can first.

 

[1JZ_E46]

Originally Posted by philipp10

my RAV4 had the same problem. Something in the wheel painting world changed in the last 20 years. I had a 2000 Camry with steel wheels, not a bit of rust. My 2008 RAV4 began rusting immediately.


Probably a switch to more environmentally friendly paints (water based).

 

[cwilliamsws6]

Sounds easy, thanks everyone! When Ohio's weather makes up it's mind I'll get a deck of playing cards and scotch brite pads at the dollar tree and give it a go.

 

[GaryMX5]

Helped my son do this last summer. I gave him a set of wheels for a GTI I no longer owned for use on his new GTI. He didn't like the silver paint and decided to paint them satin black (his car was white). He washed them really well (inside and out) with a citrus degeaser and then simply sanded them with scotch pads, primed them with VHT engine primer, followed by two coats of VHT satin wheel paint then two coats of VHT satin clear coat. They came out beautiful. VHT is an automotive paint available at many auto parts stores. Many people claim it's more durable than Duplicolor's wheel paints.

 

[meep]

huge props to "Duplicolor Rim and Wheel Paint." They come in four colors: Light silver, grey metallic, black and clear. I've used this stuff on everything and it dries to a very hard finish, far better than every rattle can enamel I've used. The metal flake is pronounced and must be lightly sanded before clear. The clear is thick and hardy. NOTE: you respray inside an hour or after 7 days. Yes, 7 days. It has a 7 day cure time to harden. You can drive in a couple of hours, and it will be fine, but the chemistry really does use all that time to fully harden. I've used it for wheels, doors, fenders, skid plates, oil pans, transmission pans and body armor and if I have any excuse for a metallic grey or silver it is my go-to.

 

[DejaVue]

Originally Posted by cwilliamsws6
I was wondering would I be good just washing and spraying over my wheels or do I need to strip the remaining paint first? Thanks!

They'll look as good as the amount of prep work you do on them before the actual painting.

With just a quick sanding/scuffing and painting, they'd still probably pass the 10-foot test. Passing the 5-foot and shorter tests takes more effort.

What color is the CRV?

What happened with the power steering leak on the CRV?