Paint Your Own Rims

Did you ever think you could paint your own rims at home? It is unbelievable that something only professionals could do, can now be easily done at home.

Though to paint your own rims is not a new concept, there are always a number of questions regarding how to do it. So now that i have painted my Integra rims at home, i thought of sharing my experience and clearing all doubts. I have read several examples but i tried it the first time when i refinished the winter rims. The outcome was quite good too.

First of all, you need paint to paint your own rims! You can opt for wheel paint from Duplicolor. There are colors to suit your style from white to bronze, the classic silver and gunmetal too. I choose the classic silver to paint mine and left the lip with the stock polished look. Here are some options if you want to paint your own rims too:

You are almost ready to paint your own rims when you have made the color choice and bought the paint. Now you need to sand down the rims so that the surface gets a rough texture for the paint to easily stick to it. Depending on the kind of rims, you may or may not have to sand down the paint entirely from the rims before repainting. I used a sandpaper with 300 grit in order to sand it down equally. This makes it rough enough for the paint to adhere and should be good as long as the rim is not damaged.

Once you have sanded the rims and the paint is ready; you are ready to paint your own rims. Make sure you have cleared all the sanding dust and have a completely clean surface to work on. If not, the paint will flake off with the first drive itself! So now your rims should be washed and dry before you begin to paint your own rims.

Mask off the rims with paper and masking tape unless you want to color the tires the same color as the rims. I certainly do not want classic silver tires! Be careful and mask off the lip as well if you’d like to leave the natural polish like i did. There is a little point where you can pump in air from, you may want to mask that off too or it will change color as well. Now that everything is ready, you can begin to paint your own rims.

Let us check again before touching the paint – the rims have dried out and all the surface that does not need to be painted is masked off – you are ready to paint your own rims now. Open up some old newspapers on the ground placing your rims on it. You can keep your floor clean from the paint this way. Once the first coat of paint is dry, you can allow it to dry overnight.

Check your good work the next morning; usually it will not require any recoating. Isn’t it fun to paint your own rims?