First Time Painting Rims Options

[dstock22]

I have a set of 16" OZ Racing F1's that I bought from a friend that have a few flaws on them. They are chipped in a couple places and I just want to re-paint them either gun-metal or black for my new white '90 GSX. I was just wondering how excatly do you go about painting rims? I assume you wet-sand the hell out of them but then what kind of paint do you use? Do you primer/clear coat them? Also, how excatly do you do a polished lip? Another thing, what color do you guys think would look best on a white car that was smoked out rear and front lights and will have 5% rear tint and 15% front tint, gun-metal or black?

Lot of questions there, hope somebody can make sense of it and lend me a hand here.

Thanks,
Dylan

[The Iron Goat]

Duplicolor makes some specialty paint available at O'riely's. I would recommend you getting them powder coated, though. Much more durable and a wider variety of effects.

[eclipgst]

I just did mine recently and it takes a little while but it will save you lots. I payed 14 dollars for everything i needed and my rims look like they have been powder coated. You need to get lacquer thinner and some sand paper. Scuff the rims with the sand paper and then get a clean rag and wet it with the lacquer then wipe the rims so they are real clean. After that just start spraying thin coats about 3 or 4 times per rim and they will look perfect.

[turbohcar]

In my experience the spray can wears off faster than I'd like. If I were you I'd just spend the extra money and get them powdercoated. Powdercoatings Unlimited does good work. They did my intercooler pipes in high gloss black and the work is awesome. They even baked off the old powdercoating as well. Complete upper pipe and half the lower pipe, old stuff baked off, pipes cleaned and rust ground off, new stuff put on, all for $40.

Powdercoatings Unlimited
136 Greenwood Avenue
Bloomington, IL 61704
309-820-1444