I am about to give it a go at painting my alloys, anybody have any good tips for me? Know where I can find a good DIY on this?

 

just sand them down well with some really fine paper... possibly wet sand them... clean them very well before applying primer... then primer, a couple coats... paint, a few coats, then clear coat them.

 

This is how I did mine. If directions are a little hard to understand; tell me cause its been a real long day and I'm tired.

1. Clean Wheels really well w/ a degreaser and sponge. Use a brush to scrub harder if necessary.
2. Get dish soap like Dawn. Put some in a bucket (just a little) and fill the bucket w/ water.
3. Wet your rim down nice w/ some water and then take your sandpaper (600-1000 wet/dry grit) and stick it in the bucket and start sanding it.
4. When done doing that, use 1500 wet/dry grit if ya want to. I did. Prepping is always the major key to getting a job done well.
5. Dry the wheel and then let the wheel air-dry for a while. Put some Rubbing Alcohol on a towel and rub it into the rim. It takes out all the oils on it. By now, your rim should be looking real funky due to all the sanding/and stuff.
6. Mask your tire w/ index cards. I made like a little shield with them by putting them in between the tire and rim. They stuck in nicely. I put some paper down behind the cards on the tiresjust in case though.
7. Shake the can for a good 3-5 minutes. Spray around 4-5 light coats and let 15-30 minutes of drying in between coats. If any paint drips out of the can and onto the rim, this is what I did. It helped a lot and made the little drip mark not noticable at all. You take a cup and spray some paint in it. Take a paint brush and stick one corner of the bristles in the paint. Rub it on the mark on the rim and then take the other DRY side of the paintbrush to blend it. Hope when you do your next coat that it doesnt happen again and try to clean the nozzle and shake the can a lot just after spraying even 1/4 of 1 full coat to get the paint going. Let the rim dry for 1-3 hours.
8. Spray 4-5 coats of clear coat on each rim waiting 15-30 minutes in between coats. After, let it dry again for a good 2 hours or longer and vuala! Nice rims. Mine in sig (graphite color)

P.S. - I used 2 cans of paint, 1 of clear. Good luck and hope these directions help.

 

Thanks you guys. I got the first leg of my project started tonight, here's what and how I did it:
1.) Using a 3M scuff pad(kinda like the scrubber on the backside of a sponge) I scrubbed the whole rim to remove all the caked on brake dust, dirt, mud and other crap that was on the rims(especially the inside ) This was done w/water only.

2.) After rinsing the rims off to reveal the beautiful shine of the clear coat, I wet-sanded the front side of the rims down using 3M 320 grit sandpaper.

3.) After sanding down all the rims, I then washed them w/dish detergent to remove any leftover grease/oil/or any other stuff that would affect the finish or inhibit the primer from sticking nicely.

I stopped here for tonight. Tomorrow I plan on primering the front and back side of the rims using Plasti-Kote black primer. I will let them sit overnight and then inspect them the next day for any flaws in the primer(like spots where it isn't smooth, any nicks or dings I didn't get out when sanding, stuff like that.) If all is fine, I will apply another coat of primer, let dry overnight, then wet-sand them again, this time using 600 grit wet sandpaper to ensure a good, uniform color coat and adhesion. I will wetsand when necessary(drips,dust particles, spotty adhesion) but if not needed, I will just apply 4-5 light coats of paint(Import Color "Graphite Grey") to the face of the rims, leaving the back primered black. After that is done I will apply a good 3-5 coats of clear and let sit until the weekend when I will hopefully be able to install my springs and my freshly painted EX alloys.

 

time to start painting:naughty:

 

post some pics when you get 'em done.

 

are you a member over at hondasociety. You should have done a search there cause its been discussed 100's of times

 

I wish I could, I don't have a digicam, nor do any of my broke :booty:friends. I would have liked to taken pics as I go, but oh well. I might be able to use my friends dad's digicam when I go over his house this weekend to drop my ride, I'll take pics of my ride before the drop and after w/freshly painted alloys:naughty:

 

Well, I was basically just bored when I started this thread. This project isn't any different than the model cars I build and paint, just bigger. I have it all figured out, but thanks though.

 

Well, I did my rims a little different than most have explained how they did theirs. I just bought these rims from someone about 3 weeks ago and the backside of the rims had some nasty stuff caked on them so I scrubbed all that crap off and painted the backside black primer so. Only the front side of the rims is getting the graphite treatment but I think the backside being black is a cool touch. I sprayed only 1 rim tonight, I am working on my balcony so space is limited. On that rim, 2 coats of primer, 3 coats of Plasti-Kote Import Color Honda Graphite Grey metallic was sprayed and it looks sweet. I'm gonna have to sand the center down a little bit(the recessed area where the lug holes are) because the paint isn't smooth, looks like a too much of the metallic material came out. If that had came out fine, I would have sprayed the clear on it but oh well, sh*t happens. Hopefully I can knock out 2 wheels tomorrow then do the last one on friday so I can put them on my car saturday when I lower it w/my neuspeeds.